The Southern Railway / BR Southern Region had a longer wheelbase (18’7”) version of the Conflat wagons seen elsewhere on the network. These were actually built with tie-bars for strapping down wheels and were designed to carry wheeled vehicles such as cars and trucks, the SR not having any specially designed vehicles for containerised traffic. The Conflat D, originally designated Conflat C before fitting of vacuum brakes and through air-pipes and steam heat pipes, did see some use for container traffic and also carrying baggage crates on the Golden Arrow boat train services. The demand for them to be used as vehicle carriers ceased when BR introduced the longer Carflat vehicles in the late 1960s / early 1970s. As a result, many Conflat D wagons passed into departmental internal use and were deployed mainly for carrying plant in engineering workings and carrying bogies between works and depots.
Recognising an interesting gap in the 4mm wagon market, 12A Models are proud to preview their latest kit which allows the modeller to built the long wheelbase Conflat in its vacuum braked Conflat D form. They will look equally great running empty, carrying wagon bogies, small cars such as Isettas, Minis, or Invacars, or plant and equipment such as cement mixers and JCBs.
Released in two versions, the kit can be bought with or without the vehicle accessory pack which contains enough sandbags and wheel chocks for two four-wheeled vehicles. The kit contains a mixture of finely detailed 3D printed PLA and resin parts, along with weights, Bachmann wheels, brake and tie-bar rodding (nickel silver or brass) and Markits / Romford brass wheel bearings.
