I know that the new announcements came out quite a while ago at this point, but I have been wanting to give my thoughts on the HO scale 12 Ton vans, especially because I feel they were a bit overshadowed by some of the other products Bachmann announced. Understandably, most people were more excited by new characters over some basic rolling stock, but as someone who is really interested in the different types of rolling stock seen throughout the show, these wagons being made in HO is a dream come true.
This was the part where I was going to go into great detail about the history of these wagons on the show, but I realized that unless you are obsessed with minor rolling stock details like me, it probably wasn't very engaging. So instead I will give a very brief overview.
Some people may not even realize this, but the new 12 Ton Vans are going to be new tooling when compared to the existing vent vans. The HO vent vans are based on 12 Ton GWR vent vans, and while this vans did exist on the show, they were not as common as some other wagons. However, this new vans will be based on LNER 12 ton vans, just like the G and N Scale models.
The 12 Ton LNER vans first appeared in the Series 2, four of them were made for the show using Tenmille kits. In Series 7, many more were made, this time they were scratch built resin models. These new models would become the de facto vent van seen until the end of the HiT era. When the show went to CGI, the LNER vans would also be the only vent van model to survive the switchover, making them the sole vent van representation until the end of the series.
I have always wanted these wagons in HO, especially after they came to the G and N scale ranges. They were much more prevalent in the show when compared to the GWR 12 ton vent van model the HO scale had. However, I figured Bachmann would never go out of their way to introduce a new tooling when they could continue simply repainting what they already had, and I am very glad to have been proven wrong on that.
All this being said, there is a reason I find the Bachmann iteration of these vans to be so interesting, and that is the fact they are based on their model series counterparts, despite these vans being so prominent in CGI. This can easily be recognized by their vent sizes. Both the G and N scale models have small raised vents, a feature that was only seen on the Series 7 models. When Nitrogen modeled these wagons in CGI, they actually used an original Tenmille model as reference, meaning that it has a larger vent on each end. Even the colors of the original three vent vans introduced in G scale were based on the three colors the Series 7 vans were painted(Grey, Green, and Brown).
I find it very interesting that Bachmann is still able to use model series reference sheets when it comes to rolling stock. Although a CGI image was used for the promo in the announcement, Doug Blaine said that these wagons will be the exact same wagons seen in G and N scale ranges, just scaled to HO. This makes me hopeful that the same references are being used.
I personally really want the smaller vent variant to be made, because I feel I would give Bachmann the perfect opportunity to make a new Troublesome Truck in the future. Although crew members on the show have never outright stated it, many believe the Series 7 vans were given the modified vents in order to fit the large scale troublesome truck faces, which could not fit on the original models. Unfortunately, this never got to happen on screen due to the HiT Entertainment takeover. Some of those faces are iconic, and would make for a great troublesome truck. To me, this wagon would be the best way to make use of one of those faces.
Here are some recent photos of the props, showing what a troublesome 12 Ton Van could look like, and some other potential faces. Although, it is worth noting that the specific reference sheet I posted does not contain every large scale van face on it.
I would love to hear what other people think about these new wagons. I enjoy getting an excuse to talk about stuff like this, so hopefully some of you found my discussion of rolling stock interesting.
Also, I would like to shout out @LewRaccoon on Twitter for most of the photos.
This was the part where I was going to go into great detail about the history of these wagons on the show, but I realized that unless you are obsessed with minor rolling stock details like me, it probably wasn't very engaging. So instead I will give a very brief overview.
Some people may not even realize this, but the new 12 Ton Vans are going to be new tooling when compared to the existing vent vans. The HO vent vans are based on 12 Ton GWR vent vans, and while this vans did exist on the show, they were not as common as some other wagons. However, this new vans will be based on LNER 12 ton vans, just like the G and N Scale models.
The 12 Ton LNER vans first appeared in the Series 2, four of them were made for the show using Tenmille kits. In Series 7, many more were made, this time they were scratch built resin models. These new models would become the de facto vent van seen until the end of the HiT era. When the show went to CGI, the LNER vans would also be the only vent van model to survive the switchover, making them the sole vent van representation until the end of the series.
I have always wanted these wagons in HO, especially after they came to the G and N scale ranges. They were much more prevalent in the show when compared to the GWR 12 ton vent van model the HO scale had. However, I figured Bachmann would never go out of their way to introduce a new tooling when they could continue simply repainting what they already had, and I am very glad to have been proven wrong on that.
All this being said, there is a reason I find the Bachmann iteration of these vans to be so interesting, and that is the fact they are based on their model series counterparts, despite these vans being so prominent in CGI. This can easily be recognized by their vent sizes. Both the G and N scale models have small raised vents, a feature that was only seen on the Series 7 models. When Nitrogen modeled these wagons in CGI, they actually used an original Tenmille model as reference, meaning that it has a larger vent on each end. Even the colors of the original three vent vans introduced in G scale were based on the three colors the Series 7 vans were painted(Grey, Green, and Brown).
I find it very interesting that Bachmann is still able to use model series reference sheets when it comes to rolling stock. Although a CGI image was used for the promo in the announcement, Doug Blaine said that these wagons will be the exact same wagons seen in G and N scale ranges, just scaled to HO. This makes me hopeful that the same references are being used.
I personally really want the smaller vent variant to be made, because I feel I would give Bachmann the perfect opportunity to make a new Troublesome Truck in the future. Although crew members on the show have never outright stated it, many believe the Series 7 vans were given the modified vents in order to fit the large scale troublesome truck faces, which could not fit on the original models. Unfortunately, this never got to happen on screen due to the HiT Entertainment takeover. Some of those faces are iconic, and would make for a great troublesome truck. To me, this wagon would be the best way to make use of one of those faces.
Here are some recent photos of the props, showing what a troublesome 12 Ton Van could look like, and some other potential faces. Although, it is worth noting that the specific reference sheet I posted does not contain every large scale van face on it.
I would love to hear what other people think about these new wagons. I enjoy getting an excuse to talk about stuff like this, so hopefully some of you found my discussion of rolling stock interesting.
Also, I would like to shout out @LewRaccoon on Twitter for most of the photos.