QUOTE (Robert Stokes @ 30 Sep 2007, 13:56)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>I have just seen some of these wagons advertised on ebay. From the pictures it does not look as if the sides slope in any way. Is this just an optical illusion and they really do slope or is there some other reason for the word 'slope' in their title?
..The wagons look very similar to ordinary 16T mineral wagons. Would they be suitable for a 1950's layout?
Short answer is that they are suitable for a 1950's layout.
The designs that the Bachmann 'slope-sided' models represent are wagons of all steel construction introduced by the Charles Roberts concern in the 1930's. The sides slope outwards slightly from the solebar, thus the name. There were versions with side, end and bottom doors, intended for coal traffic, and a doorless version for use as a tippler wagon in ore traffic. This latter type was used for UK quarried iron ore traffic to Corby.