SDS HO Austrains NEO SAR Concentrate Wagon NR 5 Car Pack A - Grey

With the opening of a Standard Gauge rail link between Broken Hill and Port Pirie in 1970 the South Australian Railways required a fleet of suitable open wagons for carrying ore concentrates between these two locations.

The first 100 wagons were rebuild OMN narrow gauge ore cars and these were coded SOC 1 -100 and finished in standard SAR wagon yellow. They were available for traffic upon the opening of the line in January 1970.

In 1971 an additional 250 wagons coded SO were placed in traffic, these were numbered between SO 101 – 254. These were built new at Islington Workshops in 1971 and were also finished in SAR wagon yellow.

In 1971 the Commonwealth Railways built 20 similar designed wagons coded GQ and numbered between 2423 – 2442, they were initially used in Broad gauge traffic but by 1978 they were fitted for bogie exchange and coded GQX. They were finished in CR wagon red.

There are some detail differences with different brake equipment used between the series of wagons and this has been reproduced with the original Austrains design.