The BSC PTA family
Rail Express|January 2021
Brand-new ‘OO’ gauge models of the British Steel Corporation(BSC) PTA iron ore tippler wagon (and derivatives) have caused a lot of excitement in the D&E modelling community.
The BSC PTA family

The model is based on the design equipped with BSC ‘Axle Motion’ bogies which excludes the first build of PTAs, constructed by BREL Shildon and introduced in 1972, a different design fitted with FBT10 bogies. Nos. BSSC26000-26106 are coded as PT001 and currently work between Immingham BSC Ore Terminal and Santon Foreign Ore Terminal at Scunthorpe.

Iron ore

The bulk of the BSC PTA (JTA/JUA) iron ore tippler wagons were built by Redpath Dorman Long at Middlesbrough to a different design to the PT001 PTAs. They are a distinctive design, of heavy construction with rugged external ribs, particularly on the ends and with no conventional solebar. Rotary couplings were fitted enabling rapid unloading without having to uncouple wagons.

Constructed in three batches, they have been very successful in both iron ore and aggregate traffic. The first fleet of 114 wagons arrived in 1972, numbered BSTE26450-26563, built for ore traffic between Consett and Redcar, which lasted until the closure of Consett steel works in 1981.

This story is from the January 2021 edition of Rail Express.

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This story is from the January 2021 edition of Rail Express.

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