Bachmann Ex-GWR 12T Shock Absorbing Van 37-900A
This is a model of a GWR double vent van with a shock absorbing chassis. Shock vans and open wagons were designed to absorb violent movement during shunting and thus protect their contents. This also helped to protect other wagons in the train as well. The GWR was the only one of the Big Four railway companies to build shock absorbing vans, the prototype having been built in 1939 and a batch of them constructed in 1940. Both vans and open wagons with shock absorbing chassis were marked with three vertical white stripes.. BR later developed their own standard 'Shocvan' design but this is an example of the GWR vans that passed into BR ownership at Nationalisation. It is in BR brown livery and numbered W139641.