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GWR provender wagons


Mikkel

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In 1884 the GWR centralized the provision of provender, so that every stable block on the system received a regular supply by rail from the provender store at Didcot, typically every 1-2 weeks. The supplies consisted of hay, chaff, straw bedding and sacks of feed. The feed included oats, beans and maize, either pre-mixed or separate.

 

The sizeable stable block at Farthing obviously needs a regular supply of feed and bedding, so two provender wagons have been made. I began with a diagram Q1, using the Coopercraft kit.

 

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The GWR only made a total of 12 dedicated provender wagons, in two slightly different lots of six. The Q1 kit represents the later batch, built in 1903 with diagonal bracing. They were very camera shy, the (cropped) image below is the only one I have seen so far.

 

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As usual, the build involved modifications. The Vee hanger on these wagons was significantly off-center, towards the right. The instructions don’t mention this. So both vees were cut off. The solebars need shortening, and the end brackets must therefore also come off. Here is the original solebar (top), and a modified one (below).

 

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Then, sides and ends. The locating pips for the floor were removed. They make the floor sit too low, and the solebars in turn end up beneath the headstocks.

 

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As provided, the brake gear does not take the off-center Vee into account, as this trial fit shows.

 

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So the brake gear was modified to suit. Looks a bit odd, but that's what the drawing and text in Atkins et al shows.

 

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 The DC1 brake gear was made using parts from the  Bill Bedford etch (recently withdrawn). The buffers are from Lanarkshire Models.

 

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The built-up wagon in GWR wagon red, as it would have been painted when built in 1903.

 

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Apart from 12 purpose-built provender wagons, most of the GWR's provender was carried in numerous standard open wagons of all sorts. Several photos show them loaded improbably high. I decided to have a go at replicating this. This close crop, from a much larger shot from Vastern Rd yard at Reading, illustrates what I was aiming for.

 

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I set to work on some plumber’s hemp, cut fine and built up in layers on a foamboard box, using diluted PVA. Not the 9 o’clock news!

 

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Then sheets (a.k.a. tarps) were made, using my usual method. Ian’s superb sheets were re-numbered and printed on regular paper, then laminated with thin foil and varnished multiple times, before weathering. The result is a shell that can be easily shaped and supports it’s own weight (see this post).

 

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I designed the load to fit my 4-plankers. My initial plan was to have the entire load and sheeting detachable, in line with my normal approach. In this shot, the tarp and load are separate, but magnets hold them together and allow easy removal.

 

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However, with a high load like this I felt that the lack of roping looked odd. So I decided to see how it would feel to have permanent loads and sheets. I  recruited one of my 4-plankers and added roping and side-cords, using painted sewing thread.

 

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Indents were made in the sheeting by pressing the edge of a ruler into the paper/foil shell, in order to emulate the ropes pulling down the sheet.

 

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This is what I ended up with. Don’t look to closely at how the cords are tied at the ends. Photos of provender trains don’t show clearly whether and how they were used in a situation like this.

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Sometimes, the GWR used two sheets laid sideways instead, as illustrated in this cropped detail of a train of hay bales.

 

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I decided to do the same on my high-sided Q1 wagon. Here is the usual foil shell, this time composed of two sheets.

 

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For the roping and cords, I loosely followed the cropped image above.  I also tried to fold the sheets at the ends as per that photo, but gave up:  Try as I might, it just looked weird in 4mm scale. Another time maybe.

 

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The wagons together. The charm of everyday solutions versus boxy functional design.

 

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Here are a few photos of the wagons in action on the (unfinished) new layout. A Buffalo class arrives with the weekly delivery of provender. Conveniently, the stable block at Farthing happens to have a siding alongside.

 

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Meanwhile, Betty is having a drink in preparation for the morning round. Proper care of railway horses was a serious matter, though hardly for ethical reasons. Horses were a company asset and an important part of operations, so obviously needed good maintenance. 

 

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The loco has left, and the wagons are sat in the sidings. The camera has exaggerated the sheen.

 

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A close-up, warts and all. The mind struggles to accept that the hay wasn't completely covered over. There is room for improvement with the roping and cords, several lessons learnt there.

 

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I'd like to experiment more with the shaping of the sheets. Here I have made slight rounded indents along the bottom to avoid a straight line. Period photos show that, although sheets were pulled as taut as possible, there were still lots of wrinkles etc. 

 

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Despite these experiments, I’m still undecided about permanent loads and sheeting. To illustrate my doubt: It's the next day and the Buffalo class is back to pick up the provender wagons. But wait, what’s this? They are still full and sheeted! More thinking needed. It never ends.

 

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Edited by Mikkel

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For Lydham Heath, try Regularity, he haS Some Strange tendencieS.

Edited by Northroader
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14 hours ago, Regularity said:

Certainly seems to have gay on top, awaiting a tarpaulin...

 

I read that as a typo for "hay", rather than suggesting anything else!

 

On 13/11/2020 at 20:50, Mikkel said:

Incidentally, one might say that hay and straw is all very well, but what about the sacks of feed? I had a close look at a 1906 photo of the provender store at Didcot. Below is a crop. It suggests to me that sacks were loaded at the bottom of wagons, then covered with hay and straw. So the wagons we see in photos may well be full of unseen sacks! 

 

IMG_20200527_071344481_HDR.jpg.a5181ba860c29cc15400a5d7d149c7f8.jpg

 

2 hours ago, Mikkel said:

Meanwhile back at the ranch, I got out the looking glass and read some instructions from the GWR Horse Dept that are reproduced in Tony Atkins' GWR Goods Cartage Vol. 1 (p76).  Unfortunately there is no date.

 

"All requisitions for Provender must be made (through book no. 605) to the Horse Superintendent. They will be due at his office on each alternate Thursday [...] A supply for fourteen days ending on a Monday must be ordered each time, except for those Stations specially instructed to order weekly [...] The provender must be weighed on its receipt, and should a deficiency of any of the component parts be discovered, the circumstances must be at once reported. Great care must be taken to prevent waste and misappropriation."

 

So this suggests bi-weekly delivery as the norm, rather than weekly as stated elsewhere. The weighing is also interesting. How would that be done I wonder. Perhaps there would be scales at the stables. 

 

My underlining. This all suggests that the fortnightly delivery could be a single wagon loaded with the appropriate combination of ingredients - the heavy sacks of oats at the bottom, with the hay piled up loose on top. 

 

2 hours ago, Mikkel said:

Horse Superintendent.

 

This gentleman really needs to give over shouting at his staff, for the sake of his own larynx if no other reason.

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Twelve bespoke provender wagons, each maybe achieving six round trips in a fortnight, that's 72 stables supplied. Of course that doesn't take into account the variation in sizes of stables. Did someone do a calculation that a wagon this big was needed to convey the fodder for a "standard" sized horse establishment, or was it just a case of askinging "What's the volume of 10 tons of provender?"?

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I think that they found that it was easier to just use one of the normal range of open wagons than to have to search for the rare and probably elusive dedicated provender wagons. I bet those  were rarely emptied immediately. Where were the provender supplies shipped from.? I don't envy the desk clerk trying to balance his/her books, regarding  (loose) hay and straw quantities.  

Doesn't Mikkel lead us into uncharted territories !!! Fascinating stuff.. Thanks Mikkel .

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2 minutes ago, DonB said:

provender wagons. I bet those  were rarely emptied immediately. Where were the provender supplies shipped from.? I don't envy the desk clerk trying to balance his/her books, regarding  (loose) hay and straw quantities.  

 

"The provender must be weighed on its receipt, and should a deficiency of any of the component parts be discovered, the circumstances must be at once reported. Great care must be taken to prevent waste and misappropriation."

 

That reads to me as an injunction to unload the wagon promptly.

 

There was some discussion of how provender got to Didcot in @Mikkel's earlier posts on his stable block, I think. 

Edited by Compound2632
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The Provender wagons are a bit of an anomaly, few in number, so they could not have been regarded as much of a success, otherwise a lot more of them would have been made. The vast majority of hay was transported in normal opens.

 

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2 hours ago, Simond said:

Lydham Heath?  Not me, guv!

 

Right, I meant the other Simon :)

 

50 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

Twelve bespoke provender wagons, each maybe achieving six round trips in a fortnight, that's 72 stables supplied. Of course that doesn't take into account the variation in sizes of stables. Did someone do a calculation that a wagon this big was needed to convey the fodder for a "standard" sized horse establishment, or was it just a case of askinging "What's the volume of 10 tons of provender?"?

 

As Miss P. says, photos of the Didcot provender store show an overwhelming number of other Opens, so the Q1s were always a small minority. Perhaps the result of an aborted attempt to improve safety, or perhaps make better use of limited siding space in some yards (one high wagon rather than two lower ones)?

 

5 minutes ago, DonB said:

I think that they found that it was easier to just use one of the normal range of open wagons than to have to search for the rare and probably elusive dedicated provender wagons. I bet those  were rarely emptied immediately. Where were the provender supplies shipped from.? I don't envy the desk clerk trying to balance his/her books, regarding  (loose) hay and straw quantities.  

Doesn't Mikkel lead us into uncharted territories !!! Fascinating stuff.. Thanks Mikkel .

 

Thanks Don!  As Compound mentions, I wrote up some detail on GWR provender from one of Tony Atkin's excellent books (recommended) in a post here: 

 

 

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On 15/11/2020 at 11:55, Miss Prism said:

The Provender wagons are a bit of an anomaly, few in number, so they could not have been regarded as much of a success, otherwise a lot more of them would have been made. The vast majority of hay was transported in normal opens.

 

 

Yes, and after pooling too. See e.g. the second photo down here: 

 

The Didcot railway Center has posted some nice photos:

 

A rare internal view here: 

 

Edited by Mikkel
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1 hour ago, Mikkel said:

The Didcot railway Center has posted some nice photos:

https://www.facebook.com/DidcotRailwayCentre/photos/pcb.2960267614000107/2960257807334421/

 

 

Illustrating pooling of wagon sheets - a double-sheeted wagon with LMS and LNER sheets (better seen in the gwr.org.uk photo).

 

And for those who like that kind of thing, an ex-Midland D299 - with oil axleboxes, either from one of the late lots or more likely, upgraded from grease. No. 57??7 ?

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I have been studying the two horse-drawn carriages in that photo, one on the left with a large load of hay and an empty one on the right. There are no GWR markings on the latter, which is a little confusing as I would not have expected the hay to arrive directly from the fields to the wagons. 

 

This connects to another point: There can't have been enough fodder around Didcot. We know from Atkins that in 1906 the GWR required  "over 9,000 acres of farmland" distributed over the system for all the different kinds of fodder needed. So this must mean that there was also provender being delivered to the provender store, including I assume in wagons.

 

It does seem a bit odd that this centralized approach was economical.

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I read that the sides of cuttings and embankments (and presumably other Railway land that couldn't be used otherwise) were harvested for hay. Can’t remember where or when, but it would be logical to use a/o store locally what would be needed, and ship the rest around the system.

 

atb

Simon

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47 minutes ago, Simond said:

I read that the sides of cuttings and embankments (and presumably other Railway land that couldn't be used otherwise) were harvested for hay. Can’t remember where or when, but it would be logical to use a/o store locally what would be needed, and ship the rest around the system.

 

atb

Simon

 

But not necessarily by the railway company - farmers of adjoining land could apply. 

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Thanks both, didn't know about the harvesting of cuttings and embankments.

 

Still exploring the various aspects of provender traffic. Further from the Horse Department instructions:

"Immediately upon receipt of a supply of empty provender, the Station Agent must shoot as much of it in the Bin accommodation will admit of, pack up the empty sacks and forward them to the Provender stores [...] Provender sacks must not be lent, or used for any other purposes."

 

I wonder how the sacks were returned. Possibly with the provender wagons, depending on whether those wagons were to be returned directly. The Q1s yes, but also the Opens?  

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Sheet-making had quite a lot in common with sail-making so it's not surprising that there might be similarities of equipment and terminology. There's a splendid LMS period photo of the Midland sheet factory at Sheet Stores Junction in the Essery article in Midland Record No. 3. This shows freshly-stencilled sheets hanging up to dry, short edge uppermost, with rows of ropes down the sides just as in your GW photo.

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I wonder how they knew what ropes were connected to what sheets, can't see any numbering. 

 

Frustrating that it's a vertical photo. I understand the photographer's dilemma in this case, and that there may have been an artistic aim, but in general I have always disliked vertical photos. Even more fiercely now, where an entire generation have been brought up to capture the world through smartphones, as if we were all fitted with blinkers.

 

Rant over :)

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On 15/11/2020 at 11:10, Mikkel said:

Just catching up on this entry. It is interesting to see that the Buffalo in the first photo is fitted with a spark arresting chimney - not surprising I guess with all that hay and straw around!

Ian

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On 15/11/2020 at 11:10, Mikkel said:

 

The Didcot railway Center has posted some nice photos:
 

 

Yes, an interesting collection.  Further changes have now removed the cooling towers that form such a prominent background, following closure of the coal-fired power station.

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20 hours ago, Ian Smith said:

Just catching up on this entry. It is interesting to see that the Buffalo in the first photo is fitted with a spark arresting chimney - not surprising I guess with all that hay and straw around!

Ian

 

Yes, later engines allocated to Didcot had them too, e.g.: https://www.rail-online.co.uk/p416923824/e9831852d

 

The whole provender store would make for an interesting layout, although aesthetically I don't fancy  the style of the building.

 

Here is a Midland equivalent at Ashchurch: 

https://sites.google.com/site/gloucestershirerailwaymemories/home/ashchurch/messrs-dowty-s-private-siding-ashchurch

 

 

18 hours ago, MikeOxon said:

Yes, an interesting collection.  Further changes have now removed the cooling towers that form such a prominent background, following closure of the coal-fired power station.

 

 

I have only just realized that this is the BG shed now in the railway centre. Took a while before the penny dropped :)

 

1200px-Didcot_SR_4-4-0_geograph-2636994-

Source: Ben Brooksbank, Wikimedia Commons

 

Edited by Mikkel
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Continental wagons and a T9 at Didcot?

  

8 hours ago, Mikkel said:

Here is a Midland equivalent at Ashchurch: 

 

In this matter, the Midland wasn't quite as centralised as the Great Western. There was a provender store at Oakham as well as at Ashchurch. [Link is to catalogue thumbnail of Midland Railway Study Centre Item 88-2018-0064. Note the mix of sheeted opens and vans. The Midland had no specific provender wagon design; I'm not aware of any company other than the Great Western having such a thing.]

 

Edited by Compound2632
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T9s were regulars on the DN&S, but what 30120 is doing at that end of the station I'm not sure, unless it is turning itself around on the Didcot triangle (rather complex compared to taking a visit to the shed).

 

The continental wagons are a mystery.

 

 

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7 minutes ago, Miss Prism said:

T9s were regulars on the DN&S, but what 30120 is doing at that end of the station I'm not sure, unless it is turning itself around on the Didcot triangle (rather complex compared to taking a visit to the shed).

 

The continental wagons are a mystery.

 

 

 

Similar FS wagons to those pictured at Pembridge on another recent thread.

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14 hours ago, Miss Prism said:

T9s were regulars on the DN&S, but what 30120 is doing at that end of the station I'm not sure, unless it is turning itself around on the Didcot triangle (rather complex compared to taking a visit to the shed).

 

The continental wagons are a mystery.

 

 

 

Intriguing! On the Up relief line, it seems, heading backwards. The Wikipedia caption says it's due to work the 15.38 stopping train to Southampton. So presumably heading for the D&NSR bay in some roundabout way as you say Miss P (although some trains, including the last of the day, seemed to have departed from the through platforrms).  Would it be picking up coaches maybe?

 

Ca. 1950s plan (hmm, upload seems to reduce image quality):

 

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PS: The provender store sidings from the same map:

 

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Edited by Mikkel
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Here is a crop of a photo I came across. It's a 7-plank O2, amply loaded with hay at Shipton under Wychwood. They would of course have been good for provender, with those high sides. Perhaps they were part of the reason that no further provender wagons were built. 

 

IMG_20201209_210346027.jpg.c8c509c7aa9a4a34bf0f01658cd65e48.jpg

 

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