Rapido Trains UK is proud to announce a colourful new batch of OO Gauge GWR wagons, including Iron Minks, Not-Quite Minks, and Four-Plank Open Wagons.

The new range revises one of the most iconic GWR wagons, the Dia. V6 Iron Mink, featuring new liveries, further running numbers, and newly tooled detail differences.

Shortages of timber forced the GWR to investigate building vans from metal, leading to the first ‘standard Iron Mink’ in 1888 — built to Diagram V6 with a 16ft 6in underframe and 8-ton capacity. Over 4,000 were built up to 1901 before the GWR returned to wood.

These vans were long-lived, with examples lasting into British Railways days in both revenue and departmental use — found across the UK as far north as Inverness.

The Iron Mink’s metal body also made it ideal for gunpowder vans during both world wars. Its design was so versatile that other railways and builders copied it, often combining Iron Mink-style bodies with their own underframes.

The same underframe was used by the GWR for its Four-Plank Open Wagons, Diagram O21, introduced in 1886.
By 1927, over 18,700 were still in service. Despite their numbers, these wagons remained largely anonymous until the GWR 813 Preservation Fund saved examples.