We’re delighted to unveil a true burst of colour joining the Accurascale range - the ODA wagon family!

From humble beginnings as BR ‘Pipe’ wagons carrying steel lengths, the ODA evolved into one of the most versatile and distinctive wagons of the modern railway, finding work in everything from MoD and Speedlink traffic to engineers’ trains and departmental duties. Appearing in a wide variety of striking liveries throughout their careers, these hard-working wagons offer huge appeal for modellers of the 1980s through to privatisation and beyond.

To discover the story behind this fascinating wagon family and what makes our models so special, watch our brand-new launch video below, as Accurascale Project Manager Paul Isles takes you through the range in detail.

An Ode to the 'ODA' - the history of the 12t 'Pipe'

We've modelled the ODA 'Pipe' family of wagons at all stages in their life. Paul Isles takes up the story on the humble open wagon that became one of BR's most useful wagons...

In the early 1980s, British Rail’s decision to transfer its wagonload business to the air-braked network posed some considerable logistical problems for the Ministry of Defence. With many Ordnance Factory and Depot sidings featuring severe curves, the transit of the newer long wheelbase, air-braked vans and open wagons through these networks was problematic, and a solution needed to be found.

The answer lay with a 1936 London & North Eastern Railway 12’ wheelbase design, to Diagram 127, for a 12 ton, 21’ 6”, five plank, ‘Pipe’ wagon, fitted with two drop doors either side of a removable stanchion. Following Nationalisation in 1948, British Railways had adopted this design for their own Pipe Wagons (along with a very similar ex-LMS design) and 300 wagons of this vacuum fitted, LNER clasp brake type were built at Darlington in 1949, under Lots 2046 and 2047, to Diagram 1/461.

From 1955 onwards, BR combined the ex-LNER 1/461 and ex-LMS 1/460 diagrams into a new 1/462 diagram, creating wagons which were vacuum fitted from new (the ex-LMS 1/460 being unfitted from new). Out of 830 wagons built to this diagram, 630 were built with RCH long-linked braking, however, 200 were built with BR clasp brakes at Wolverton in 1961, under Lot 3335 and it was from this batch that the solution to the MoD’s requirements was found.

Outside of their intended usage for pipe traffic, the drop sides of the Pipe wagons proved to be particularly useful for the loading of palletised loads; 50 wagons of Lot 3070 built at Wolverton were even introduced into traffic for the carrying of newsprint and as the original pipe traffic declined, more and more wagons were used for general merchandise loads.

Under the Total Operations Processing System (TOPS) in the 1970s, the Pipes in capital stock were classified as SOV, while others were transferred to the Engineers Department. Having identified the SOVs as the ideal candidates for the MOD traffic, 50 wagons from Lot 3335 were selected and sent to BR’s Shildon wagon works for air brake conversion under Lot 4030.

Conversion took place between March and May 1983 and resulted in the randomly selected wagons between B741754 and B741942 being renumbered for their new tasking. It was originally planned to renumber these as 466000 - 466049 in the Steel carrying series but to reflect the General Merchandise use intended, they left Shildon in the Open number series of 113000 to 113049, following on from the OCAs that had been numbered between 112000 and 112399.

As well as the conversion to air braking, the suspension was also modified by Shildon, with UIC double-link FAT-19 suspension being fitted and with the work completed, the converted wagons were released to traffic with the new TOPS code of ODA, the fourth iteration of BR’s new Open air-braked family after the OAA, OBA and OCA, and liveried in the full new Railfreight livery of Carnival Red and Flint Grey.

In conjunction with the VEA vans (ex-VanWides), the ODAs served their purpose with the MoD perfectly, being used to carry palletised and equipment loads in and around the depots, as well as being utilised over the wider rail network and the fleet of 50 wagons survived the gradual decline of the MoD traffic to which they had mostly been dedicated, and worked through to the end of the Speedlink wagonload period.

Between 1991 and 1993, the ODAs were transferred into Departmental stock, becoming ZDAs under TOPS and found their place split between the Regional Railways and Intercity Infrastructure Pools, notably in the newly rebranded Satlink fleet. The introduction of air braked vehicles into this fleet meant materials could be moved swiftly around the UK by the Civil Engineers’ network on Civil Link services.

A striking red and yellow striped livery was adopted, with Signal & Telecom branding and these colourful vehicles were seen across the Western and Midland regions on various high-profile re-signalling and Automatic Train Protection projects, carrying relay cabinets, concrete troughing and other concrete fabrications, palletised bricks and aggregate bags, along with scrap cabling and ducting.

With Privatisation looming, the distinction between departmental and revenue fleets became blurred, with the ZDA fleet (now classified as ODA again) being first distributed through the passenger sectors in 1992, and then through the ‘shadow’ freight companies. In this period, the paint faded, planks rotted away and were replaced with scrap planking and any branding peeled away, or was roughly removed, and it was only when the 36 surviving vehicles of the ODA fleet passed into the private ownership of EWS and were once again put into revenue service, that any repaints were carried out, this time into the distinctive wine red and gold of EWS.

Over the next five years or so, under the ownership of EWS, the wagons were stored and operated around the railway network, in places such as Eastleigh, Peterborough, Northampton, Rugby and Toton and very few of the ODAs survived to the end of the new millennium’s first decade. Those few that did were scattered around the country; single wagons used for storage of life expired trackside equipment, scrap ballast or simply just a home to the growing forest of Buddleia, the modern railway network’s favourite plant!

But what of those 150 Pipe VBs/SOVs from Lot 3335 that were not converted to the ODAs?

Some remained in capital stock use until they became life expired, used for General Merchandise loads across the network, while others were transferred to the Engineers’ Department, variously classified as ZDVs or ZRVs under TOPS. Other vehicles were fitted with through air pipes so that they could be used in traffic with air-braked stock, and classified as ZDW, whilst a number were transferred to various Royal Navy Armament Depots; being converted into a variety of flat bed wagons for specific logistical applications.

Like the ODAs, some of the ZDVs and ZDWs found themselves transferred to the Satlink fleet from the late 1980s, on both the Midland and Western region projects. A large number of Pipe wagons had also been allocated to Project Mercury from the mid-1980s, including several Lot 3335 vehicles, as they proved particularly suited to transporting the concrete troughing required. From 1987 onwards, these wagons were repainted from their normal dreary Bauxite and Olive Green liveries into Mercury’s in-house style Light Blue livery, and many were fitted with through air-pipes and mesh canopies.

As air-braked stock became more prevalent during the 1990s, vacuum fitted stock was phased out of traffic and the Pipe wagons were either scrapped, used for siding storage, or sold on to heritage railways.

FEATURE LIST:

• Die-cast metal chassis and underframe, with ABS plastic body and separate metal/wire detailing components.
• Weight (without load) of 43g.
• Wheelbase of 48mm. Length over buffers of 99.6mm.
• 12.5mm diameter wheels, chemically blackened.
• Axles are 2mm diameter, 26mm long over pinpoints and set into brass bearings.
• Fitted brake rigging aligns with 00 gauge wheel centres. An additional set of brake rigging is supplied for fitting when using P4 finescale wheels, and additional attachment points have been provided for this purpose.
• Fully detailed die-cast underframe with all brake cylinders, axle guards, changeover equipment, handbrakes, air cylinders and suspension equipment applied separately.
• Factory fitted short tension lock fitted, set into a self-centring NEM pocket.
• Authentic livery, markings and numbering, accurate to the time periods modelled.
• Accessory bag contains adapter insert for use of longer tension locks, tie-down cleats and Instanter coupling chains.

Order yours with no deposit down, for a Q1 2027 arrival, exclusively from Accurascale. Available as individual wagons from £29.99 each and triple packs for £79.98 each.

You'll also be able to save 10% with our Accurascale Rake Bundle discounts when buying two or more packs in one go - benefit from free UK delivery for orders over £50, and collect Accurascale Reward Points that you can exchange for discounts on future orders too - more great reasons to shop with Accurascale!

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