Hornby Coke Wagons
The Hornby coke wagons are a little crude compared with others on the market. The model dates from 1971 and shows a taper sided wagon with extension planks fitted, in this case part of the single body moulding. 22 versions of it have been made so far, many of them in sets of three with different running numbers. Since 1974, they have always been private owner wagons. Both the new examples are a red-brown colour, one being 'Coalite' No.401 (R6443) and the other, 'Bedwas Coke' No.331 (R6444).
Coalite, a smokeless fuel from which certain by-products have been removed, came from
Darton in Yorkshire where this wagon would have been based. It lies between Barnsley and
Wakefield but the wagon could also be found returned empty to Norton on the
Knottingley-Shalftholme Junction line. The fuel was taken to London over the GCR and GNR.
The body colour and lettering appear to match those of the original wagon No.401.
The Bedwas Navigation Colliery Company Ltd was at Bedwas on the Brecon & Merthyr Railway and the colliery was between Bedwas and Trethomas. It was owned by the Instones family who had a large coking plant that produced 100,000 tons of coke a year in 35 ovens. Before the Second World War, a train load of Bedwas coke went each day to the British Thompson Houston company in Rugby where the reviewer's father worked as an engineering apprentice in the 1930s.
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