Catch of the Day - FEA and Salmon Modules in 00/4mm

[Warbonnet]

Hot on the heels of our RHTT announcement, we can confirm that we've another variant of these popular wagons ready to swim upstream!

Welcome to the single wagon FEA family, focusing on intermodal and departmental operations. 

History

The now-ubiquitous FEA wagon design first appeared in early 2003 with the introduction of the FEA-B 60ft container flat “twins” for Freightliner’s Intermodal division. However, it would be around 18 months before the single-unit variants—primarily intended for infrastructure use—began to enter service. Like their twin-unit counterparts, all were fitted with Y33 bogies and constructed by Greenbrier Europe at Świdnica in Poland.

Early Operators

The first customers were Balfour Beatty and GB Railfreight. Balfour Beatty took delivery of six grey FEA-D wagons (640571–6) for use in its two new Harsco New Track Construction (NTC) trains. Meanwhile, GB Railfreight acquired 63 “steel blue” FEA-S wagons (640631–93). These were designed to carry 20ft Salmon track panel modules and Tench general materials modules, although many have since seen use in standard maritime container traffic and even in gypsum flows, depending on operational demand.

These were quickly followed by a batch of 66 FEA-E wagons (641001–641066) for Freightliner Heavy Haul from December 2004. Built to support infrastructure contracts with Network Rail, these wagons employed a longer 30ft Salmon module than the GBRf versions. Painted in the same British Racing Green as the twin-unit FEAs, they have also found work in regular container traffic and on various domestic waste “binliner” services.

The Yellow Era

Some of the most visually striking FEAs arrived in 2006 when GB Railfreight introduced 18 bright yellow FEA-S wagons (640905–22) for the Metronet London Underground renewals contract, following four earlier examples in blue (640901–4). These wagons were equipped with a mix of Salmon and Tench modules.

A further 22 yellow FEA-S wagons were built for Tube Lines subsidiary Transplant (640931–43). These were converted at Jarvis Fastline’s Leeman Road facility in York into Rail and Sleeper Delivery Trains (RSDTs) using the company’s distinctive “Slinger” equipment.

Technical Similarities and Later Changes

Despite the variations in TOPS code lettering, almost all single-unit FEAs left the factory in essentially the same configuration, with the exception of the Rail Head Treatment Train (RHTT) version built specifically for Network Rail.

At some stage, the GB Railfreight-owned wagons had eight of their sixteen fold-down spigots replaced with fixed ones. While this modification does not affect 20ft containers, it prevents the use of 30ft units and restricts 40ft containers to being loaded at only one end of the wagon.

As newer infrastructure-specific flat wagons were delivered to Network Rail and the Metronet partnership was dissolved, the Freightliner and GBRf FEAs migrated almost entirely into container service. The Transplant “Slinger” formation was also disbanded following Tube Lines’ absorption into Transport for London control, with the wagons placed into storage, stripped of their specialist equipment, and eventually offered for sale.

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The Models

Although well regarded when first released in 2018, the Hattons tooling has since been upgraded to better align with similar wagons elsewhere in the range. Improvements to the flat wagons include the removal of unnecessary pipe runs, the addition of missing handrails and footsteps on the GBRf versions, and a revised deck profile to accommodate fixed container spigots.

The 20ft Salmon modules now feature new textured floors and lashing rings, while previously missing extension pieces—positioned between the headstocks and the ends of the modules—have been newly tooled. Additional refinements have also been made to improve overall fit, finish, and robustness.

Our first production run will focus on the 85 GB Railfreight wagons. These will be released in three twin-packs covering the distinctive yellow and blue Metronet-branded Salmon variants, alongside two never-before-produced versions: GBRf blue with Salmon modules, and de-branded GBRf yellow wagons in container service.

These packs are priced at £79.99 each with our usual bundle discounts of 10% off when you order two-four packs, and 15% off when you order five or more! These prices are also lower per wagon than the original Hattons release when accounting for inflation, and we throw free UK postage and packaging too! 

Once again we offer realistic models at realistic prices.

Pre-order yours below, available only direct via our website, with no money down or flexible payment terms ahead of a Q2 2027 delivery date.

Pre-Order Your FEA Intermodal Flats Here!

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[popeye]

Can I ask, do the 3 x 20ft floors need to be removed to put containers on?

Can these wagons hold 45ft and 30ft containers?

And can the little lugs for holding containers be placed where needed?

 

Edited March 4 by popeye