Šebela: a little-known Shell tank wagon

Former Czechoslovakia had several makers of 0 gauge tinplate trains. Merkur is probably the best known, while Karel Šebela is much less familiar.

Šebela began making electric 0 gauge trains in 1946. The range included a 2-4-2 locomotive with an eight-wheel tender, bogie passenger coaches in light green, dark green and maroon, and several bogie goods wagons.

Among those goods wagons were a brown open wagon, a crane wagon with a grey crane house and red roof, and this yellow Shell tank wagon. The rolling stock was hand-painted and fitted with copies of the Märklin Fix coupling.

The end of production remains uncertain. Some sources suggest the trains were made for only a few years; others give 1954 as the final year.

Do you have a Šebela train or catalogue that could help fill in the story?

Story and research by @Hans van Dissel.