This is yet another rake of wagons based on the Hornby TTA. I have had two goes at these wagons. After originally making them in the late eighties, I further updated them about five years ago. Bitumen is a very thick product and before it can be unloaded it has to be heated so it becomes thinner. This is done in tubes that run through the wagon, there are also ‘chimneys’ on the top of the wagons to exhaust the fumes from the ‘Flamers’ which are on the opposite end to the ladder..

I first saw these wagons at my local station during the 70’s. The wagons were unloaded as described above and them pumped about 100 yards to  a ‘Tar Factory’ . This factory supplied tar in heated road tankers to local councils for road repairs/recoating, it was used with those lovely road chippings! If I remember rightly, the factory was operated by a company called ‘Printar’. Sadly the factory closed and the traffic ceased in the early eighties.

The wagons I built are about 90% correct and are a generic attempt, but again, something is better than nothing.  The wagon flamers and chimneys are made from Plastic Tubing and the hatches at the end of the wagons are, don’t laugh, drawing pins.