Graham Farish - 373-813B - Open Hopper, HKA - DB Schenker - 300649

Specific Item Information: The HKA Bogie Hopper Wagons originated from JMA Coal Hoppers which were ordered by National Power in the mid-1990s. After being acquired by EWS, many of the JMA fleet were fitted with new bogies and the resulting wagons received the TOPS code HKA. DB Schenker subsequently created more HKAs from redundant donor wagons to meet demand for aggregate traffic, and these would be outshopped in the company’s vibrant red livery.

It is these wagons that form the prototype for this Graham Farish model and the two variants – inner or outer wagons – can be modelled to suit individual needs. In normal operation HKAs run in fixed rakes with only buffers and conventional couplings fitted to the outer ends of the rake. Wagon-to-wagon coupling is by means of a buckeye, negating the need for buffers. The Graham Farish model can be configured as either; for an outer wagon the rectangular buffers, drawbar hook and screw-link coupling are fitted into the relevant bufferbeam receptacles, while for an inner variant the buckeye coupling and buckeye coupling lever is added.

Road Name History: DB Schenker is a division of the German rail operator Deutsche Bahn AG that focuses on logistics. The company, created by reorganisation and rebranding of Deutsche Bahn subsidiaries, comprises a logistics division encompassing air, land, and sea freight, and a rail division made up from European rail freight companies.

Since December 2007 DB Schenker has been the freight logistics subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn. DB Schenker combines all transport and logistic activities of Deutsche Bahn (DB Schenker rail and DB Schenker logistics) employing over 94,600 staff spread across about 2,000 locations in about 140 countries.

DB Schenker bought out the British rail haulage firm English Welsh & Scottish Railway (EWS) in 2007, and from 1 January 2009 the logistics operations of the companies DB-Schenker, Railion, EWS, and Transfesa were all combined under the DB Schenker brand name.

Brand/Importer Information: Graham Farish is a British brand of N gauge model trains, that belongs to Bachmann Europe.
The company entered the model train business in the early 1950s, focusing on British OO gauge rolling stock, track and accessories.
In the 1970s, it started to produce N gauge models under the GRAFAR label. After the withdrawal of Lima and Minitrix from the UK market in the late 1980s, Graham Farish was the only major supplier of British outline models in N gauge, soon withdrawing from the OO scale market.
In 2001, Graham Farish was purchased by Kader Industries of Hong Kong, and absorbed by its subsidiary Bachmann Industries. Bachmann immediately closed the British manufacturing facility and moved production to China.
Bachmann have since increased the size of the Farish range, by duplicating models introduced to the Bachmann OO range; often, an OO scale Bachmann Branchline model is followed between 6 months to a year later by an N gauge Graham Farish model.

Manufacturer Information: Bachmann, a US company founded in 1835, was purchased by Kader Industries in 1987. Kader formed Bachmann Industries Europe in 1989 with their main UK headquarters in Moat Way, Barwell, Leicestershire, UK (former Palitoy location) and the following year launched the Bachmann Branchline range for the British market with the moulds that had previously been used for the Palitoy Mainline and Replica Railways model railway products. From this starting point Bachmann has developed the range further and now produce a large range of models.
In 2001 Bachmann Branchline bought Graham Farish, an N gauge manufacturer, and since then many of their models have been made available in both gauges.
Bachmann Europe portfolio also comprises other model trains brands such as Liliput.