Model railway company Dapol has announced it will produce two N gauge gunpowder van models in November.

Dapol has released images of decorated samples of the models, but points out that these are for illustration purposes only and are subject to change where necessary.

The models will have a highly detailed body, and rib and chassis detail will be finely moulded.

The models will also have accurate livery, with the company planning to use four different types:

• 2F-013-106 will be a Gunpowder Van NE 71415 Weathered
• 2F-013-101 will be a Gunpowder Van LMS 299037
• 2F-013-102 will be a Gunpowder Van LMS 299037 Weathered
• 2F-013-105 will be a Gunpowder Van NE 71415.

The Gunpowder Van models with pristine livery will retail at £11.88 each, while those with weathered livery will be priced at £13.22 each.

Dapol has received the decorated samples and has begun the process of reviewing them for the models planned for this production run. Model railway enthusiasts can now pre-order the models from any Dapol stockist.

Gunpowder vans (or wagons) were specially designed to be suitable for the safe transportation of high explosives such as gunpowder, dynamite and cordite, were built with metal bodies and were spark-proof and of low height.

They carried their dangerous cargo to quarries, mines, and military sites. The models will be particularly suitable for layouts that include such sites.

Gunpowder vans were used on Britain’s railways from the mid-1880s until the early 1980s. The first was built by the Great Western Railway (GWR) in 1885, and over the next thirty years, various pre-grouping railway companies introduced them.

After Grouping in 1923, the ‘big four’ companies – LMS, LNER, GWR and Southern Railway – operated their own versions. After nationalisation, British Railways (BR) continued to build and run the vans into the 1960s, with a few examples continuing to work in industrial or pit service until the early 1980s.

Dapol has previously produced models of gunpowder vans, through the sale of which it raised money for railway preservation societies. Last month, the company announced it is upgrading its range of OO Gauge LMS Stanier Corridor coaches.