HMR-R60167A Hornby, Drax Biomass Wagons, (C) #83700698071-3 & 83700698009, Era-11 OO-Scale

In 2013, Drax unveiled the UK’s first purpose-built biomass rail freight wagon at the National Railway Museum in York. Developed by designers at Lloyd’s Register Rail and manufactured by WH Davis, it is the largest ever produced and pushes the boundaries of rail engineering.

This award-winning wagon transports sustainable biomass from the Ports of Tyne, Hull, and Immingham to Drax Power Station, near Selby for use in generating low carbon, cost effective, and reliable renewable electricity.

At 18.9m long with top doors stretching 18.2m and bottom doors of 3.7m, the supersize wagon has a capacity of 116 cubic metres allowing a biomass load weighing 71.6 tonnes. Its volume is almost 30 per cent bigger than any freight wagon currently used in the UK.

The Drax biomass wagon pack consists of two bright blue Drax Northern Powerhouse liveried wagons with their respective running numbers, 83700698071-3 and 83700698009-3. R60177A contains two biomass wagons with different decals as decoration on the livery compared to this pack.

A total of 128 wagons were constructed at Shildon Works in 1971. The last 28 wagons were intended to operate in the Southern Region and featured air brakes with a vacuum through pipe. Under BR TOPS, the 28 wagons were coded YGB and with the Fishkind code ‘Seacow’. Between 1981 and 1982, 251 ‘Seacow’ wagons were constructed by Shildon Works and Ashford Works. 

These last batch of wagons largely followed the original 1903 design but featured different variations also. Hopper bodies were welded instead of rivetted, each vertical rib was formed of box sections instead of U-sections and there were more modern bogies. Throughout the 2000s, several ‘Seacow’ wagons were withdrawn from service and some were purchased by heritage railway companies.

This ‘Seacow’ wagon model features box sections in the vertical ribs to reflect a later variation. The hook couplings enable easier coupling of other rolling stock and locomotives on your layout. Stanchions support the wagon in an MGR Hopper style. A handbrake wheel is also featured. This model comes in an EWS livery.