Decorated JSAs - Check Out Our Heart Steelers!
Hot on the heels of our tippler and nuclear flask wagon samples were our hooded and open JSA steel coil wagons, which we can now show you all in their full beauty!
In 1996 British Steel commissioned Marcroft Engineering of Stoke-on-Trent to rebuild 56 examples of their PTA tippler wagons to convey coils for its Strip Products division. These wagons were outshopped with three-stage telescopic hoods and were painted blue with white text, in keeping with the company’s iconic branding.
These new wagons, classified as JSA, were chiefly used on dedicated steel traffic flows emanating from Llanwern and Port Talbot, and on Enterprise diagrams serving the likes of Scunthorpe and Sheerness. Services included Margam to Dee Marsh (for Shotton), Llanwern, Ebbw Vale, Round Oak and Wolverhampton Steel Terminal, the Newport tripper (between ADJ, East Usk, Newport Docks, Llanwern, etc),
The also worked various Enterprise services in the 90s including Swansea-Newport ADJ, Newport ADJ-Warrington Arpley, Warrington Arpley-Tees Yard, Tees Yard-Middlesbrough Dawsons, Immingham-Doncaster Belmont/Margam, Sheerness-Mossend (from Arpley north) and others.
In the early 2000s, ownership of the wagons transferred to rolling stock leasing firm VTG. Around this time, the original flush-sided plate steel hoods began to be re-panelled with a rivetted aluminium skin, which bore the logo of the wagons’ new owners. Throughout this time, the wagons continued to serve the sites for which they had been built on the same services.
As you can see from the photographs above, we have catered for the original smooth sided hoods of the British Steel era, as well as the rebuilt riveted hoods of the VTG wagons to maintain prototypical accuracy across the career of these hooded wagons.
In 2018 Arlington Fleet Services began to refurbish several JSA wagons at the its Eastleigh workshops. As part of this process, the wagons have had their hoods removed and have entered traffic as open coil carriers on traffic flows from Margam to Llanwern and Corby. So far, over 50 of these wagons have been outshopped, with more currently being converted at Eastleigh.
As you can see, we have ensured the open coil wagons are also faithfully represented and are heavy laden with steel coils, as well as detail!
These distinctive wagons are available in a pack of two for £59.95, with three British Steel, three VTG hooded wagons and three open coil carrier packs on offer. Bundle deals will be available too. These wagons will also be available to order though our approved Accurascale stockists.
We can now confirm that our inspection of these pre-production decorated samples have been signed-off, with improvements communicated to the factory and production is now underway! Delivery will be in September 2020. Modellers can place their orders here.