In their century-long steam-powered heyday the railways of Britain carried every sort of goods imaginable,
and they used an astonishing variety of vehicles to carry them in. As well as the ubiquitous wooden open
wagons for coal & mineral traffic, they had parcels vans, tankers and covered wagons for every
conceivable load they might be asked to carry from A to B. In fact, given their legal status as the Common
Carrier and the obligations which came with it, there were very few loads which they could actually have turned
down. Lime was a common load of the era, carried in low wooden-bodied pitched-roof wagons which kept their
payload safe from the elements. Most of these wagons would have been either owned or leased by the limeworks,
and be painted up in smart colours with the company name lettered large for all to see. Steel-bodied vans were
another type of specialist vehicle, originally used for carrying hazardous loads like gunpowder, but later to
come in to more general use as they proved more durable and less high-maintenance than the traditional wooden
vans which they replaced. The infinite variety of the steam-age goods trains has long gone now, sadly, with the
brightly-coloured old wagons & vans replaced by big tin boxes on container flats, but you can bring back
the good old days on your layout with our Northern Set.
Please note that these wagons are boxed individually.
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