‘Loriot Y’ Machinery Truck No. 41990, GWR livery (as preserved)

Rapido Trains UK launches new Great Western Railway flat wagon. GWR Dia. G39 ‘Loriot Y’.

Rapido Trains UK is to produce one of Britain’s most enigmatic railway wagons, an inadvertent film star whose history still remains a little cloudy.

The GWR allocated the code ‘Loriot’ to flat wagons designed to move earth moving and plant machinery. It built a new one in 1937 to Diagram G39 and coded ‘Loriot Y’ and a second in 1939. No. 41989 found fame when it starred in The Titfield Thunderbolt,
where it was pressed into service to carry Dan’s house. It is believed to have been scrapped not long after the filming in 1953.

Sister ‘Loriot Y’ No. 41990 fared better. It remained in revenue-earning service until at least1990 at Radyr Engineers Yard. Eventually, as DW41990 (coded ‘ZXP’ on TOPS), it moved to Bescot from where it was condemned in 1994. Saved at the 11th hour, it moved to the Severn Valley Railway where it remains to this day.

Our GWR ‘Loriot Ys’ boast an impressive spec:

• High level of detail above and below the floor line
• Disc wheels running in metal bearings
• Fitted tie-down points
• NEM coupler pockets
• Lots of separately fitted parts and fine detail