During 1986, 100 PCO Class Container Wagons were built for Queensland Railways by Commonwealth Engineering (Comeng) at Salisbury in Brisbane. The PCO Class was one of several new and modern "skeletal" type container wagon designs which entered QR service during the 1980's and 1990's.
The PCO could carry two 20ft (6.1m) containers, one 25ft (7.6m) container, or one 40ft (12.2 m) container. One 20ft (6.1m) container weighing up to 19 tons could be carried single when located on the hand brake end of the wagon. The wagon could carry up to 48.5 tons on "S" & "A" class lines, and could be used on Express Freight trains at 80 km/h.
The 100 Comeng built PCO wagons were all fitted with QR38 bogies and had a gross mass of 63 tons. Running numbers were 45250 to 45349, and all were delivered between April and August 1986. When delivered the PCO's were fitted with auto couplers, transition links, and buffers on the wagon headstocks. From the early 1990's, buffers were progressively removed from QR rolling stock, and the PCO's would have had their buffers removed around the same time.
A further 3 contracts were later awarded to ANI Ruwolt for similar wagons, these versions featured small differences to the Comeng version.
From 1995 onwards, all 310 PCO and PCOY wagons were grouped together and as part of the North Coast Line 100 km/h upgrade in 1997 were reclassified as PCUY Class. During this period the class could be observed on trains all over the state on the main trunk routes including the North Coast Line Sea Freighter Services to Fisherman Island.
Model Features:
• Highly detailed Ready-to-Run 1/87 scale model
• Factory painted and decorated
• Injection moulded high quality plastic bodywork
• Die-cast metal center beam
• Full brake rigging and underfloor detail
• Semi scale metal wheels
• Genuine Kadee scale head whisker coupler
• 18” Minimum radius recommended