Those red wagons and some general thoughts on goods traffic
Entry posted by JDaniels
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Red wagons.
Well I've now painted my first red GWR wagon. Having looked at those in Mikkel's excellent blog and taking advice from MikeOxon I've mixed red oxide and vermillion (well actually the closest Humbrol equivalents) which has produced a colour that fits the "light red" description given in contemporary sources. The only currently available kit that could justify the red livery is Ratio's iron mink, other available kits all postdate the change to dark grey. Incidentally it seems to be well documented that brake vans were painted grey well before the livery spread to other wagons. Lettering was a right b****r, I lost count of how many times I had to scrape off the end numbers until I got them passably straight. Unlike a planked wooden van, there are no reference lines on an iron mink.
You will see from the photos that I've painted the underframe red, a contentious point perhaps but it's well known that the GWR was unique in painting the underframe and body dark grey and I feel it more likely that this was a continuation of the practice adopted with the red. Also the photos I have seen of newly painted wagons appear to show the same shade for underframe and body. I accept this is a tenuous argument given the limitation of photography in those days. The fact is that we just don't know for sure. You will also see that the wagon is in "ex-works" condition but I will dirty it up and the underframe then will appear closer to black, or rather an oily grime colour.
Goods train operation at Blagdon.
The scenario depicted in the photos shows Blagdon soon after opening with 1384 drawing the wagons off the rear of the 12.03pm mixed from Congresbury (which arrived at 12.40pm). The loco would depart Blagdon at 1.00pm, engine and van only but with local traffic if required. This cavalcade went as far as Wrington, the first station on the branch, shunting at each point as required. The reason for this was to avoid delaying the mixed train with shunting movements, the only operation permitted was to simply drop the wagons off at each station. The engine and van returned at 1.40pm from Wrington, arriving Blagdon 2.08pm ready to work the 2.35pm passenger to Yatton. The two PO coal wagons would be taken on the 1.00pm and dropped off at the Bristol Waterworks siding where the boilers for the pumps required a couple of wagon loads a day. The siding was only a few hundred yards from the terminus and the service timetable allowed wagons to be propelled back into Blagdon providing the guard was on the leading wagon. Health and Safety would have kittens today!
I've seen a few service timetables and it is quite unusual for a separate service to be run to deal with shunting along the branch. How much shunting, indeed how much traffic would there be though?
Goods traffic on branch lines.
There are very few photos of branch goods trains in their heyday. Given how expensive film, or glass plates were, photographers would rather go to Rattery or Dainton banks. There are however some very evocative photos that I have seen, there is one in the Wild Swan book of the Abbotsbury branch and another in the Tanat Valley Light Railway book by the same author. Those of us modelling the GWR do though have one good source of information, in 1925 the GWR reviewed goods traffic on all their branch lines with a view to effecting economies. This summarised how much traffic there was on every branch and in the case of Blagdon, and I am sure many other lines, it is surprising just how little goods traffic there was.The main reference book on the Wrington Vale Light Railway published by Oakwod Press gives these figures and in approximate terms, for the busiest year for each class, 1 wagon load of minerals was forwarded from Blagdon every six months. General merchandise forwarded from Blagdon was the equivalent of one wagon every week (although it doesn't work out that way). Going the other way, traffic received by Blagdon was 2 wagons per day of coal, (for the waterworks), other minerals (stone?) was 1.5 wagons per week whilst general merchandise was equivalent to two wagons per week. Livestock was separately counted and was one wagon every two weeks. Remember that all these figures relate to the busiest year for each class, other years would have seen much lower figures. The general merchandise would have been on the daily station truck, the van to and from Bristol Canon's Marsh depot that was attached to either the mixed or goods train and called at each station, often being unloaded at the platform. Therefore the typical Wrington Vale branch goods would be two PO coal wagons, the station truck and a goods brake.
I would think that in general the amount of goods traffic on branches would be more limited that we might think, in the case of Blagdon the waterworks provided most of the inwards traffic. Larger settlements might have wagons of domestic coal whilst market day in a market town would generate a lot of cattle traffic. Indeed the service timetables often show cattle specials on market day and I understand that at Ashburton the passenger service terminated at Buckfastleigh as the station was so congested. Realistically therefore our branch goods would consist of PO coal wagons, vans and cattle wagons. A six wheel siphon might be seen but this would be attached to the passenger service. Bogie bolsters might be seen if there was a lot of timber traffic but I bet Blagdon never saw one. Tank wagons would be unknown unless there was an unloading facility. What I suppose I'm saying is that unless there was industry that required more esoteric rolling stock, the average branch goods was quite limited in its' variety.
For more information on this subject I would recommend the three part Wild Swan series about GWR Goods Services. They contain a fabulous selection of early photographs of goods depots and they show that they were far from being neat and tidy. I think we've been conditioned to seeing offical photos taken at opening but the series of books show the depots as they were and it is a real eye opener. My own thought is that whilst the railway companies did make efforts to keep stations, the public area, clean and tidy the goods depot was very much a working environment. It is a wonder that goods found their way on to the right wagon but this was a time when the railway worker might be low paid but knew their job inside out.
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