Lowmac

[IAN1955]

Help please, just got hold of a couple of Hornby Lowmac wagons, unfortunately they did not have their loads (crates), I have looked on the internet but cannot find any replacement loads, does anyone know where I can get them.

Thanks in advance
Ian

[stuartp]

Do the loads need to be crates ? The 'mac' part of the name comes from 'machinery', you could have excavators, road rollers, army lorries, anything like that on them.

[glencairn]

And also tarpaulin covered loads. Anything that you have that is broken and going to dispose of, cover it with dark paper to represent tarpaulin. Simple, easy and cheap.

Glencairn

[Alexander Court]

Is this what you are after?
https://www.hattons.co.uk/188002/hornby ... etail.aspx

If so, there are not many available online right now (probably would be tonnes at exhibitions/swapmeets), except for some I did find, but they are maybe a bit too far away?
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HORNBY-PACKI ... SwbSJd8a0V

Sorry I can't be of more help.

Alex

[Bufferstop]

The Hornby crates look just like what they are "plastic boxes". If you want wooden crates try making some from balsa wood. As others have said why stop at crates, Vehicles of various kinds, mysterious things covered in tarpaulin. In fact the only machinery you are likely to see not covered by a tarpaulin will be scrap. One of mine carries a Decauvile two foot gauge loco, most of the time but around Christmas time it gets swapped for Santa's sleigh.

[Dad-1]

Do I remember correctly ? - I do have one in the collection.
Has the Hornby one got the metal upstand onto which the box fits ?
If that's your problem - just saw it off, yes get brutal remove.
Then repaint the deck, fix another more interesting load and away
you go !!

It's a shame that Lowmacs are not generally available other than the
Dapol kit. I do Have a Wrenn, Airfix RTR, Hornby, and 3 Dapol from
the kit.

Geoff T.

[Bigmet]

The Airfix GMR lowmac, later production by Hornby is the pick of the RTR. Based on a GCR design, it can be back dated very readily to a pre-group vehicle. The H-D lowmac, later production by Wrenn, is of the same vehicle, just not so well executed. This design was steadily upgraded by the LNER, and was further developed by BR as their standard vehicle of the type.

The Airfix kit, now with Dapol, is of the GER's standard lowmac. The GER in a largely agricultural area was much used to move bulky farm equipment like traction and ploughing engines and threshing machines, and also the output of traction engine and road roller manufacturers, much of which went for export through London Docks.

Rather strange that the easily available models are both LNER group, but there it is.

The loads for lowmacs fall into four categories, in two groups:

Taller than would fit within loading gauge if put on a wagon of standard floor height, that's specifically using the 'low' (floor) element of the wagon.
So bulky a load that it fouls the moving load gauge (can be more than height that's a problem) and when loaded has to travel under a movement order on a defined route with an accompanying team to ensure it clears lineside fixtures - usually on a Sunday when traffic was light and could be diverted as required.
Lowmacs were in the 'specially constructed vehicle' (SCV) pool to ensure proper controi of use for such purposes.

The second group might be termed 'other traffics the railway found them useful for'.

A very heavy single piece load in a dense material such as an ingot or large castings; lowmacs were built up to 25T capacity, and placing a high mass load low down is always a good idea, and could simplify handling the load on and off the wagon.
Wheeled loads which could easily be end loaded from a temporary ramp or a platform end and moved along a train of lowmacs. Here's an example:
https://www.lner.info/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=13748


As already mentioned, tarpaulin coverings are your friend! Don't forget baulks of timber to chock wheels and rope or chain lashings to restrain the load.

[Mike Parkes]

An easy load to replicate - bottom right photo at https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/lowmac245

[IAN1955]

Hi Alex, great that is exactly what I was looking for, will keep an eye open when they come back into stock.

For the rest of you good folk thanks for info, very much appreciated.

[Mountain]

In latter years they were used without loads in pairs either side of a formation of bogie flat bolster wagons carrying track. I often saw these lowmacs used on the real railways in this way in the 1970's through the 1980's and into the early '90's. I don't recall (If they are still used) when I last saw them used in this way. Many modellers would take off the crates from the Airfix examples to model such train formations. I did this and those boxes were so well glued on, and part of the plastic body came away with the box on one lowmac! I used filler of some kind to fill the gap in the body.

[heda]

It looks like they may not come back into stock.

https://www.newmodellersshop.co.uk/wago ... r_pack.htm

Best bet might be to look on ebay for secondhand.
Dave

[Bufferstop]

Rather strange that the easily available models are both LNER group, but there it is.

Not strange at all - they come from the same parent. Airfix had a lowmac plastic kit very early on, its design was used as the basis of an RTR version by Airfix/GMR, Dapol bought up GMR and Airfix kits. Hornby bought Dapol's 00 range to update their own, later by some means I've never figured Dapol returned to produce 00 RTR and in the meantime had retained the Airfix plastic kits and rolled them up with the Kitmaster range which they had also bought up. One five shilling plastic kit never enjoyed so many re-incarnations!

[Dad-1]

Hi John,

Certainly not all the same. All also given running numbers from different diagrams.
I don't know if the Wrenn is the oldest as I'm not certain if Hornby Dublo may have
made one before that.

I have :-

Wrenn RTR Lowmac 25 Ton 'WBB' B904831 Diagram 246 of which 10 were built.
Airfix RTR Lowmac 25 Ton 'EU' B904662 Diagram 247 of which 13 were built.
Hornby RTR Lowmac 25 Ton 'EP' B ?????? Diagram 242 of which 38 were built although some were coded 'SC'.
Dapol Kit Lowmac 14 Ton 'EK', Mine B905021, B905050, B905062 Diagram 244 of which 52 were built.

Brake fitments responsible for some changes in diagram. Starting with 'WBB' for AVB, The 'EU' being one of
few for RIV & Westinghouse brakes. 'EP' again AVB and 'EK' unfitted.

My TOPS record doesn't have the Hornby number and I'm not going into the loft to find out.

Geoff T

[Bufferstop]

Hi Geoff, your question "did H-D have a lowmac", prompted me to get out the H-D bible and see if I could find one, well the answer is "Who knows?" There is no reference to one in the relevant sections, however there is one publicity picture for the "desperation days" starter range which shows a goods set, one of the trucks being a Lowmac carrying a traction engine. I suspect it's just an artists representation as it's a rather skinny looking wagon with a considerable amount of daylight under the floor, something I doubt would have been the case in a real model. But why would the graphic designer go to the trouble of creating an image of a model they didn't produce, especially as all the items in the range used existing tooling adapted, hence the Wrenn 08 fiasco where they discovered at the last moment that the tooling for the 0-6-0 diesel shunter body had been butchered to make the body for the starter set 0-4-0.
I would hazard a guess that amongst the tooling acquired by G&R Wrenn was a tool (maybe not quite finished) for a lowmac that was being produced when they threw in the towel and sold out to Lines Brothers. So Wrenn were able to produce a lowmac that hadn't appeared in the H-D range. Unless anyone knows better!

[Mike Parkes]

Airfix RTR Lowmac 25 Ton 'EU' B904662 Diagram 247 of which 13 were built.
Hornby RTR Lowmac 25 Ton 'EP' B ?????? Diagram 242 of which 38 were built although some were coded 'SC'.

The Airfix and Hornby RTR lowmacs are from the same tooling; its not unknown for wagons in particular to be passed off as being a different type, although the difference between them may be very limited.

Airfix provided a variety of loads with it despite all they produced having the same running number B904662
54330 a crate, 54333 a "Sea Land" Container, 54334 - NCL trailer.

The tooling first passed (1981) to Palitoy (Mainline) who did not use it, IIRC the shops were awash with the Airfix ones for many years, then to Dapol (1985) who continued to try to sell the Airfix made ones eventually adding a BR dark grey version with crate load before selling the tooling to Hornby (1996).

The vast majority of the Hornby produced ones have come with a crate but R6399 was produced with a Morris van as a load while examples have appeared with a coach body (Titfield Thunderbolt train set) and with a pallet and military tank (Codename Strike Force set).