• Darstaed (Trains de Luxe)
• Web: www.darstaed.com
• Email: tradegrabowsky@darstaed.com
• Price: £69 plus postage

Introduced in a choice of 22 different liveries, these models represent pre and post war (1939-45) vehicles. I’m not quite sure of the prototype as plans and pictures in R Tourret’s Petroleum Rail Tank Wagons of Britain, in various respects, no such wagon. There may, of course be some I’ve not yet traced. Pratt’s became part of the ‘Esso’, Anglo American Oil Co. Ltd.

This model tanker is a scale 30ft 7in long, excluding buffers and drawgear, but OL 58ft 5in is clearly printed on the solebars. On page 68 of the Tourret book is a prototype designed to carry 35 tons of fuel that corresponds fairly well to the Darstaed version. Tourret’s plan shows a 41ft 6in length.

The model has two filler caps with a platform and ladders on both sides of the tank. It looks similar to U.S. built tankers used in the U.K to supply aircraft fuel to airfields in East Anglia. These ran as bulk trains and were not brightly coloured like this Darstaed model, however the tankers are available in wartime grey and black versions.

The printing and colour registration on the model is very good. The bogies have 5ft 6in wheelbase as opposed to the 6 feet versions fitted to the prototype mentioned above. Tiny working springs are to be found in the bogies and the buffers are sprung too. My model has chemically blackened, two rail wheels with a 28mm back to back measurement (standard scale) and large couplings.

The tankers are also available with Slaters finescale wheels and three link couplings.

Prototype to model discrepancies aside, one or more tankers look good in a train. You could weather them, but this might lessen their value. The wagon comes in a strong cardboard box. I purchased mine from Ellis Clark Trains at Guildex. Darstaed are currently developing a standard scale Gresley A4 pacific.