The Bluebell Railway Goods Division finished the restoration of Air Ministry tank wagon AM 812 (aka Esso 1921) in time for it to be displayed at our 1940s Weekend in July 2026.
In June 2025 work had started on both of the Bluebell’s oil tank wagons as part of a filming contract, which paid for grit blasting and priming and a load of new timber to replace the rotten packings at each end.
Work on this wagon has included:
- Fully recording all the livery/signwriting information,
- Contract grit blasting and priming in black as requested by the filming company,
- Almost all new packing timbers (using Opepe timber),
- New steel plates and angle upstand made and fixed to each end of the chassis,
- Full repaint into Air Ministry matt dark grey including recreated stencils that match the originals found,
- New replica cast resin Air Ministry owner’s plates made,
- Non destructive testing of drawgear and axles.
The tanks were originally built to the RCH 1927 specification as Class A tanks (for highly flammable liquids such as aviation spirit (avgas), a high quality and high octane petrol) with top discharge via a siphon tube. After the war, those which survived were sold off, mostly to Shell Mex and BP who kept them for Class A traffic. Esso also acquired some (including this one, which they numbered 1921 in their fleet) which were converted for Class B traffic with heating coils and bottom discharge.
Click on any image on this page for an enlargement.
This tank wagon was built for the Air Ministry during WW2, principally to supply fuel to the numerous air bases housing the large number of Allied (RAF/USAAF) aircraft based in Britain. It was built by Hurst Nelson & Co. of Motherwell and was numbered 812 in the Air Ministry fleet. This vehicle was registered with the LMS as No.162376 in January 1942.
The white star, 2 feet across, at the right-hand of the tank-side, together with the cast star plate on each solebar, denotes that this wagon conforms to the requirements to run in goods trains having an average speed of 35 m.p.h. and stopping at least every 40 miles. This wagon was fitted with handbrake only.
AM812 is again part of our vintage wagon fleet and can be seen in operation at special event and other days when the Goods Train is running.
You can find out more about AM 812 here. Details of the work of the Bluebell Railway Goods Division can be followed on Facebook.
