Wagon Identification help ??

[port perran]

I picked up this small white tanker wagon at a toyfair a while back for all of 20p!   I think it was the only N gauge item there.

Can anyone identify it ? I've put it alongside a 4 wheel milk tanker for scale. It appears to have been hand painted and chassis detail is minimal. Any idea as to what the tanker would hold (my guess is water??) ?
Is it RTR and modified or is it hand/kit built ?

[Newportnobby]

I think you're right about it holding water (which is more than I can ), but it does look scratch built and based on a mainland European type of truck

[NeMo]

Is it something entirely freelance do you think?

Looking in "British Railways Wagons - The First Half Million" there are lots of designs for demountable tanks, used for things as varied as beer, glue (!) and sodium silicate. Four-wheelers seem to have been common, and the way the tanks were strapped onto a standard chassis varied a lot. But straps and chains seem to have been used a lot.

So even if you can't pin this model down as something specific, with appropriate transfers and some weathering it could be tweaked into all sorts of possibilities. Maybe even subsequent departmental usage? This book says that some were used for carrying water for breakdown trains, but perhaps you could use the wagon for something else, like a weedkiller train?

Cheers, NeMo

[port perran]

I think you're right about it holding water (which is more than I can ), but it does look scratch built and based on a mainland European type of truck

Thanks for that. It's an interesting little wagon and sits at the very back of Port Perran goods yard.
I know the problem of holding water. The older I get the greater the problem !!!!

[port perran]

Is it something entirely freelance do you think?

I've no idea really but for 20p it's a nice little thing.

[Vanders]

It's probably scratch built, but looks kind of like a cross between a generic oil/fuel tanker and a GWR gas tank. The only problem is the GWR gas tanks were two smaller barrels rather than one larger one...