Following my stock review , I realised that, although I have quite a good selection of early broad-gauge carriages, there are relatively few examples of early goods wagons.

 

While thinking about the possibilities, I looked at the contemporary pen and wash sketch by J.C.Bourne, which shows three types of early broad-gauge wagons, including one with wheels outside the body sides and a tilt cover.

 

 

For more information and drawings, I turned to the invaluable set of Data Sheets that were produced by the late Eddie Brown for the Broad Gauge Society (BGS).  Although these are extremely informative, they are written largely in note-form using typescript, which can be a little difficult to follow at times. With the help of these Data Sheets, however, I could identify those in the above sketch as two types of early ‘Box Wagon’ and an early ‘Horse Box’.

 

Horse Box

 

The Horse Box is one of the few early wagons that I have already modelled.  The original design of Horse Box was one of those Broad-Gauge oddities, in which the wheelbase of 6 feet was shorter than the track gauge!  It is one of the early vehicles illustrated in Whishaw’s ‘Railways of Great Britain and Ireland’, 1842.

 

My 3D-model of an early GWR Horse Box, 1838

(see my blog post for construction details)

 

Box Wagons

 

The history of the early GWR goods wagons is somewhat confusing, since thy are variously labelled as ‘Box Wagons’, ‘Luggage Wagons’, or ‘Utility Wagons’ depending on their mode of use at the times they were recorded. Eddy Brown teased out some their ‘life histories’ by comparing details such as Tare Weights from the various stock lists. It was a period when railway wagon design was developing rapidly from their farm-cart origins

 

The first wagons ordered for the GWR were a batch of 29 ‘box wagons’ built in 1838/9. According to the BGS Data Sheet 401, five of these were described as ‘small box wagons’  There are no known drawings but one of these appears in J.C Bourne’s engraving of Pangbourne station.

 

Extract from an engraving by J.C.Bourne

 

This illustration is of particular interest because it shows that these were some of the very few vehicles that conformed to Brunel’s idea of placing narrow vehicle-bodies between the wheel-sets. These wagons show their farm-cart origins in the sloping sides, supported by struts known as ‘strouters’. The floor planks ran lengthwise, like a farm-cart, and there were drop-doors at both ends as well as in the sides.

 

To create a 3D-model, I followed my usual method if tracing over the drawings in the BGS Data Sheet, which I imported as a ‘canvas’ into ‘Fusion 360’. I then extruded the panels and their details to form ‘solid bodies’. I used the ‘mirror’ option in ‘Fusion 360’ to create the opposite sides and ends, which avoided having to produce the planking details twice!

 

After extruding the various parts from the side and end elevation drawings, as appropriate, I brought them together within the software, as shown below:

 

Extruding a 3D-model from a ‘Canvas’ in ‘Fusion 360’

 

Once the modelling is complete, ‘Fusion 360’ offer the capability to ‘render’ the 3D-model in appropriate colours and under controlled lighting conditions, to give an impression of how the eventual printed design will appear.

 

The rendering option in 'Fusion 360' can be very effective and I have seen some superb examples, where other people have created complete scenes within 'Fusion 360'. So far, I have only touched the hem of the possibilities that have opened up, but it’s something I intend to pursue further.

 

My 3D model of GWR Small Box Wagon, 1838

 

 

‘Standard’ Wagons

 

The other 24 wagons in the initial order became known as ‘standard’ box wagons. BGS Data Sheet 402 states that the Traffic Committee's Stock Account for 6th.October, 1840, listed 22 wagons being allocated to London and 4 to Bristol as’ Box Wagons’, plus 3 known as ‘Luggage Wagons’, for use in Passenger trains.

 

The ‘standard’ wagons were longer and also abandoned the Brunel concept of placing the body between the wheels, which resulted in greatly increased carrying capacity.  In fact, the internal volume was doubled in these wagons, from 6.31 Cu.yards (4.82 m3) in the small wagon, to 13.55 Cu.Yd (10.36 m3).

 

In those early days, when ‘lower-class’ passengers were not encouraged, it is evident that, by September 1839, several of these wagons had been fitted with bench seating to carry ‘Goods train passengers’. After a serious accident at Sonning on 24th December 1841, it was recommended that the sides of the wagons should be raised, to reduce the likelihood of passengers being thrown out in the event of a collision!

 

I created my model by using exactly the same procedure as for the small wagon; in this case extruding from Data Sheet 402. In fact, I was able to re-use some parts, such as buffer beams and cross members, for this larger wagon. Although the body sides were placed outside the wheels, they still sloped outwards towards the top and were supported by strouters.

 

My models of the ‘small’ and ‘standard’ GWR Box Wagons

 

Placing my models together shows vividly the increased volume in the larger design. Notice that the wheels protruded into the load space and were boxed-in in the prototypes.. In fact, this was a feature of GWR wagons that persisted for several years, until the Brunel dictum of ‘large wheels’ was finally abandoned. I suspect that those wheel-boxes were frequently cursed by the people loading the wagons.

 

No doubt @Mikkel could create an amusing story about a package that got lost in the corner behind a wheel box 🙂

 

 

A Model Trio

 

As a final flourish, I decided to use my models to re-create the scene sketched by J.C. Bourne in the early 1840s. Note that there are some additions on the wagons he sketched. The small wagon has an over-all tarpaulin, supported by hoops, while the standard wagon has raised side-rails, which may have been for the carriage of animals.

 

My three models arranged as in the J.C. Bourne illustration

 

Mike