Rapido unveils 'Conflat P' project for 'N'

New 'Conflat P' wagons and 'BD' and 'A' type containers are to be manufactured by Rapido Trains UK for N gauge.

The new wagons are the perfect accompaniment to Rapido’s forthcoming ‘N’ gauge Metro-Vick Type 2. Six Co-Bos were allocated to Cricklewood to work the overnight London-Glasgow container service. Together with the ‘Conflat Ps’, the Class 28s were immortalised in Terence Cuneo’s 1959 painting ‘Night Freight’.

Rapido Trains UK Sales and Marketing Manager Richard Foster said, “The Class 28 is most famously associated with ‘Condor’ and it makes so much sense to produce the ‘Conflat P’ to run behind the ‘28’. This has been a hugely challenging project thanks to a dearth of research material. There are literally only a handful of published ‘Conflat P’ photographs and drawings are just as scant. We’ve combined official drawings of the ‘Plate’ wagon with Paul Bartlett’s and Trevor Mann’s research to make as best a guess on the internal structure as possible. Unlike, say, a ‘Conflat A’, the ‘Conflat P’ has no floor. All the chassis beams are visible, so there are few places to attach things like brake pipes."

Despite the design challenges, Rapido Trains says that it is "pleased with how well they have turned out. They’ve really got that ‘open frame’ look".

To complement the new ‘Conflat Ps’, Rapido has also developed all-new 1:148 scale Dia. 3/050 Type BD and Dia. 3/001 Type A containers. These will initially be only available with the ‘Conflat P’ but will be released as separate accessories at a later date.

The ‘Conflat P’ and new containers – along with the MetroVick Type 2 – are in tooling and Rapido hopes to show samples in the near future. The specification of the 'Conflat P' model promises injection-moulded construction, a high level of detail, metal bearings for smooth running, NEM coupler pockets and removeable containers.

BR created 60 Diagram 1/60 ‘Conflat Ps’ for the introduction of the Anglo-Scottish ‘Condor’ service in 1959. They were rebuilt from Dia. 1/431 and 1/432 ‘Plate’ wagons. The sides and floors were removed, they were fitted with roller bearings and new suspension and a new central girder allowed them to carry one Type BD container as well as a Type A.

The ‘Conflat Ps’ served ‘Condor’ until 1964 when they were replaced with a batch of Ashford-built bogie wagons. ‘Condor’ was withdrawn in 1965, superseded by the new nationwide Freightliner container service. All the redundant ‘Conflat Ps’ were rebuilt as timber carriers – dubbed ‘Timber Ps’ - and were a common in Scotland until they were withdrawn in 1981.

For further details, and pricing, visit the Rapido Trains website.

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