Graham Farish - 373-811B - Open Hopper, HKA - National Power - 300643

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 – with their use subsequently expanded to aggregate traffic too. 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: National Power was formed following the privatisation of the UK electricity market in 1990. In England and Wales the Central Electricity Generating Board, which was responsible for the generation and transmission of electricity, was split into four companies. Its generation (or upstream) activities were transferred to three generating companies – 'PowerGen', 'National Power', and 'Nuclear Electric' (later 'British Energy', eventually 'EDF Energy') – and its transmission (or downstream) activities to the 'National Grid Company'.

National Power was the largest of these new companies having around 52 percent of the generating market. It later diversified into the supply market in November 1998 by purchasing the supply business of the regional electricity company Midlands Electricity and created the Npower supply brand.

On 2 October 2000 following investor pressure the company demerged into two separate companies Innogy, which was responsible for the UK based operations, and International Power, which took over the international operations. Innogy is now known as 'RWE npower' owned by the German utility company RWE; and International Power is fully owned by the French company GDF Suez.From Wikipedia

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.