Bachmann Toad Brake Van
Like so much on the Great Western Railway, the 20 ton 'Toad' brake van changed little in appearance down the years. Second to the BR standard brake van, it is the most familiar, having been a popular subject with model manufacturers. They had a verandah at one end only and no side duckets. Later versions, which tend to be the subject of models, had a 16' wheelbase. They had mostly restricted use ('RU' painted on their sides) and generally carried the name of the yard to which they 'belonged'.
The model was introduced to the Mainline Railways catalogue in 1978 and later it was joined by the Airfix version when Palitoy took over the Airfix range. They parted company in 1985 when Dapol acquired the Airfix tooling but the Mainline tools stayed in China, to later be used for the Bachmann Branchline models as illustrated here. 33-306B is in BR grey, numbered W68476 and allocated to Roath Basin Jcn.
In GWR days the brake vans were painted dark grey and usually had white roofs. A lighter grey (including roofs) was applied in BR days but, following the fitting of vacuum brakes and up grading to XP rating, they were painted in BR bauxite brown. 33-301F represents one of these and is numbered W17444.