“ANF” Total and Elf Uahs tank wagon REE

Brand - Reference

REE WB-318 and WB-405

Type

82 m³ “ANF” Uahs tank wagon

UIC number	Revision date
21 87 007 7 297-5 P	29.10.74
21 87 007 0 330-7 P	24.6.73

Weight

81 g (NEM: 69 to 90 g).

Comments

Very fine engraving. Photo-etched platforms and steps. Spring buffers but the buffer beams tend to fall down. Y25 bogies.

Ref. 318 : the fairings of bogie sleepers are delivered unassembled, which facilitates the access to the screws of pivots. The self-checking digit is wrong, it should be 1.

See the Loco-Revue Forum.

History

14.96 m (?) long tank wagons, built in the 1960s by the Ateliers du Nord de la France (ANF).

Note: the tank wagons received the series letter Z after the modification of the UIC numbering in 1980. But, previously, they entered in the “catch-all” series U. To distinguish under this letter of the very varied types (liquid or gas tanks, cereals hoppers, cement silos, etc.), a subscript letter was used, namely h for tanks, which gave Uh for a 2-axle tank and Uah for a bogie tank.

The creation of the Elf brand in 1967 was the subject of an incredible advertising campaign, which I still remembered — vaguely! So, I went and see on the Internet to refresh my memory. The announcement was a mysterious “the red circles are coming” on the billboards and on the radio. The Elf brand itself had been computer-searched, and the logo was the stylized representation of a boring bit, with the three colours of the French flag. See the Wikipedia article Elf-Aquitaine, and the Total website, which absorbed Elf in 2000. As the beginning of this brand had a certain panache, the end was lamentable, with the famous political and financial scandal of l’affaire Elf.