Bachmann VEA van
◆ GAUGE ‘OO’ ◆ MODEL Bachmann 38-881 BR VEA ‘Vanwide’ van, Railfreight red/grey ◆ PRICE £39.95 ◆ AVAILABILITY Bachmann stockists Web www.bachmann.co.uk
Coincidentally, our sample of Bachmann’s new ‘OO’ BR VEA wagon arrived just as we sent last month’s issue to the printers, wherein we’d reviewed Dapol’s 7mm scale rendition of the same prototype. To recap on the real wagon’s history, the VEA – and the preceding ‘Vanwide’ version – came about from a need for a fleet of vans that could be loaded by forklift trucks. Existing vans featured narrow doors, which made it difficult to cope with palletised goods, so the new design featured pairs of wide sliding doors which greatly eased loading and discharging.