Following the grouping of the railways in 1923, the newly formed London, Midland and Scottish Railway inherited a host of ageing and dilapidated freight stock from their pre-grouping predecessors.

To remedy this and remain competitive, the LMS undertook a massive modernisation program of its freight stock, though many of the designs were either adapted or simply copied from pre-grouping companies a swathe of brand-new prototypes started rolling off the production line in late 1923. The humble box van was no exception.

Production of the newly conceived 9ft wheelbase Dia.1663 12-Ton Vans began in 1924, and 850 wagons were produced over 2 years. Standing out amongst a sea of hinged doored and wooden-ended vans, the Dia.1663 vans featured a stylish sliding door, corrugated steel ends, and external steel cross braces at one end to facilitate the clearance of the sliding doors.

The LMS had a habit of applying new diagram numbers to almost identical prototypes that featured only minor differences, and the sliding door 12-Ton Vans of the 1920s and 30s were no different.

Much like their earlier counterparts, the Dia.1832A 12-ton vans had the same sliding door, 9ft wheelbase, corrugated steel end, and cross-brace design, however, they also featured a single ventilator bonnet at either end. Some variants were produced with roof vents for extra ventilation. The Dia.1832A were then fitted with different headstocks and buffers. With added ventilation, a greater variety of freight traffic could be transported throughout the LMS network and beyond.

This later diagram clearly refined the design as a whopping 3,450 vans were built between 1929 and 1931.

Surviving into the late years of Nationalisation, both the LMS D1832A and D1663 12-Ton Vans could be found up and down the country, some still soldiered on in departmental use way into the 1970s.

The new Rapido Trains UK OO Gauge model of the LMS D1832A and D1663 12-Ton Vans will feature the usual wealth of detail, including separately fitted parts such as grab handles, full external and underframe details, brass bearings for smooth friction-free running, NEM coupling pockets and a high-quality livery application.

This project is in tooling and samples are expected in early 2025.