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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 The DC1 brake gear was made using parts from the  Bill Bedford etch (recently withdrawn).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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  • RMweb Gold

Lovely stuff Mikkel - Beautifully detailed :good:

 

Am guessing the load just escapes gradually where not wrapped same as when you follow a tractor with straw/hay :D

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Thanks Pete. Yes, I suppose the lost value would have been very negligible.  And there was a time-honoured tradition of high loads of hay!

 

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Source: Getty Images, embedding permitted. Caption: 12th July 1946: A farmer brings in the hay on a farm at Hassocks in Sussex.

 

Edited by Mikkel
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30 minutes ago, Mikkel said:

Thanks Pete. Yes, I suppose the lost value would have been very negligible.  And there was a time-honoured tradition of high loads of hay!

 

gettyimages-3291328-2048x2048.jpg.408043ded0ba6fe4e9861786723e2490.jpg

 

Source: Getty Images, embedding permitted. Caption: 12th July 1946: A farmer brings in the hay on a farm at Hassocks in Sussex.

 


Great image! Hassocks is about 5 minutes away from where I grew up...maybe I was stuck behind this vehicle once :laugh: 

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On 13/11/2020 at 15:57, MikeOxon said:

I built my own Provender Wagon many years ago when CooperCraft kits were the latest thing in realism.  I simply made mine to the instructions, knowing nothing about offset V-hangers and such like.  I've always said that my modelling is 'impressionist' rather than accurate. 

 

Your version is far more skilfully executed and I like the way you have added a load and sheeting.

 

In my own case, North Leigh is not far from Didcot, so I consider it reasonable for one of these rarities to turn up occasionally.  I did feature a photo of one being horse-shunted, while the usual crowd of workers with nothing better to do stood by, watching.

 

If you speak nicely to your wife, you will discover that cotton thread comes in many different colours, so I'm sure you will find something to suit your 'roping'.

I found that thread used for upholstery, in a local shop, works very well. The reel I used while rigging my S&DJR coasters was Gutermann CA 02779 - a milk chocolate shade. It is very tough and yet it is flexible, far more so than the button thread I initially tried. So far the rigging has shown no signs of sagging, although the ships are stored in an unheated garage, which can create a slightly damp atmosphere.

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Thanks very much Phil. I'd like something better than what I have used, and a search for Guterman upholstery thread does bring up some good looking candidates, e.g. this:

 

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4 minutes ago, Mikkel said:

Thanks very much Phil. I'd like something better than what I have used, and a search for Guterman upholstery thread does bring up some good looking candidates, e.g. this:

 

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That's the thing about RMweb and similar sites, which we didn't have when I started railway modelling, 50+ years ago, the ability to pass on hints and useful information and techniques. If you weren't in a club, there were just the magazines, RM, MRN & MRC and books by Edward Beal and the like. I have two provender wagon kits which I bought cheap, really not knowing what they were. How I can explain their presence on Highbridge wharf in the 1920s I don't know. 

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On 26/11/2020 at 22:15, Mikkel said:

Many thanks Mike. Plenty of plumber's hemp left for a lifetime of wagons! :)

 

BTW, I found this photo from one of the GWR sheet shops. Not sure about the caption, though. "Hoisting?"

 

https://www.gettyimages.dk/detail/news-photo/men-hoisting-tarpaulin-sheets-at-the-great-western-railway-news-photo/646323254

 

 

On 26/11/2020 at 22:21, Compound2632 said:

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.

 

Following on from this @kitpw sent the interesting description below of a sheet-shop. Thanks again, Kit! The source is Maclean, J. L “The British railway system: a description of the work performed in the principal departments” London, McCorquodale & Co., Ltd. 1883.

 

“Still less is it conducive to the enjoyment of dinner to look through the sheet-shop and watch the process of coating the waggon covers, yet half an hour there will repay the inconvenient experience of nausea.

 

We found huge bales of canvas being cut into lengths and sewed together firmly and rapidly at several leviathan sewing machines, propelled by steam, and should judge it was hot work. Boys were busy sewing in the brass and iron rings at the edges through which the fastening cord is passed when the covers are in use. In another part of the building an extensive floorage was occupied by men charged with mending used sheets. These parts of the building resembled a large sail loft.

 

We were more interested in a new process for coating the sheets. It would serve no object to describe the machinery for the process is one controlled and carried on by steam power—even if we were capable of or entitled to do so; suffice it to say that the machinery is simple. One engine supplies power to the coating apparatus, the preparation of the coating oil, and the sewing machines. When a cover is made it is sent to be coated. We follow it and find that the coating process consists of its being carried to a long table, alongside of which there is a long tank containing the coating material. One edge of the cover is passed under a rod lying on the surface of the tank. That edge is then fastened to a movable rod suspended horizontally over the table. The machinery is set agoing, and the cover is drawn tightly and strongly through the tank, and in descending is folded lengthways as it falls on the revolving table. It goes into the tank of a fair giraffe colour — it is folded lamp or coal black. The process does not occupy over two minutes, and it secures much more than the old system of hand painting a thorough saturation of the canvas.

 

The cover thus blackened is then hung up to a lofty ceiling, the building being warm, and in a day or two is dry and ready for a second plunge in the "black broth" to be folded and then hung up till dry enough to admit of stencilling the company's name and marks, and its consecutive number, upon it.

 

In this sheet-shop there are upwards of 4,000 waggon, lorry, and cart covers made annually, requiring about 150,000 yards of canvas. The work is not silent as we have said, and it is not clean: the workmen's hands and arms are plunged continually in a bath consisting of oil, lamp-black, and other such ingredients, which, if cooling in hot weather, as probably it is, requires hot water and soap, with a little persistent friction, to remove its traces”.

 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/The_British_railway_system-_a_description_of_the_work_performed_in_the_principal_departments_(IA_britishrailwaysy00maclrich).pdf

 

Edited by Mikkel
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A detail crop from a photo of Lambourn station in 1898. This was before the GWR take-over.  At this point the LVR's wagons were LVR owned second-hand GWR GER and Metropolitan stock. Four sheeted hay/fodder wagons, though I can't make out what it says on them. Perhaps destined for the GWR provender store at Didcot, as per the discussion above. The GWR sheet used on the heavily loaded cart is a bit puzzling, as I doubt the GWR would have a cart here at this time. But what the GWR don't know doesn't hurt them, I suppose :)

 

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One thing to ask is whether they are coming in or going out? Lambourn is a small place, but with a heavy concentration of racing stables, which would need plenty of hay.

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11 hours ago, Northroader said:

One thing to ask is whether they are coming in or going out? Lambourn is a small place, but with a heavy concentration of racing stables, which would need plenty of hay.

 

Kevin Robertson (who else) and Roger Simmonds can help us here, with the following quote in their superb The Lambourn Branch (Wild Swan 1984 p. 108, not to be confused with later publications by Robertson on the same branch):

 

"Being in a prime agricultural area, a considerable amount of general farm produce was also sent from the station, hay and straw accounting for a large proportion of this. Some was destined for the GWR's own provender store at Didcot, although most went for sale at market. There was also some inward traffic of this nature, some of the local trainers purchasing fodder from elsewhere. Some barley was also despatched for malting, but in comparison with the other cereal traffic, this was small."

 

So if your station is not too far from Didcot, you could have wagons loaded with hay etc departing for the Didcot provender store (Farthing is on the Berks & Hants extension line, so that could work). This of course raises further questions:  Would a place like Lambourn really send off provender to Didcot, only to have it returned later? There was processing taking place at Didcot, but still!

 

10 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

Were LVR wagons allowed out? Off the LVR I mean? 

 

Can't find any direct mention of this in the two books I have on the branch. The description of outgoing goods does not distinguish between LVR and GWR days. But I would have thought so. Incidentally, at some point goods included pit props for South Wales, which is interesting as I had considered such a load for one of my wagons, but initially discarded the idea as I did not think timber for the mines would come from Wiltshire.

 

The LVR had 18 wagons. My mention of these yesterday was based on the very pleasing Lambourn Valley Railway website,  but there seem to be a few typos when compared with the appendices in Robertson & Simmonds. According to the latter, 12 of the wagons were purchased from the Metropolitan Carriage & Wagon Co. in Feb. 1898 at a cost of £189, while another 6 came from the GER (not GWR) purchased for £91 10s, all including delivery and painting. The quaint LVR locos and coaches were sold in 1904 before the GWR took over, but on the wagons Robertson and Simmonds have only this to say:

 

"No information regarding the disposal of the goods stock formerly owned by the LVR has been discovered."

 

 Oooh, intriguing!

 

8 hours ago, Simond said:

Maybe the sheeted cart contained hay already purchased by the GW.

 

atb

Simon

 

That could be, but as the 1898 photo is from pre-GWR days it would mean that the GWR supplied farmers with sheets for their carts, which seems a bit unlikely? On the other hand it's known that a local farmer was appointed by the GWR as cartage agent at Lambourn in 1904 when it took over the line.

 

Edited by Mikkel
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24 minutes ago, Mikkel said:

The LVR had 18 wagons. My mention of these yesterday was based on the very pleasing Lambourn Valley Railway website,  but there seem to be a few typos when compared with the appendices in Robertson & Simmonds. According to the latter, 12 of the wagons were purchased from the Metropolitan Carriage & Wagon Co. in Feb. 1898 at a cost of £189, while another 6 came from the GER (not GWR) purchased for £91 10s, all including delivery and painting. The quaint LVR locos and coaches were sold in 1904 before the GWR took over, but on the wagons Robertson and Simmonds have only this to say:

 

"No information regarding the disposal of the goods stock formerly owned by the LVR has been discovered."

 

 Oooh, intriguing!

 

Second-hand, as the website says. Very second-hand, judging by the photo of the Met C&W Co. ones (4th photo down) - though they do appear to be all of the same type so they may have been sold off from Met's hire fleet rather than simply being old wagons for which the company was acting as broker. This photo (9th photo down) gives the best view of the ex-GER wagons, two of them, from which it's clear they are this antique type, dating back to the 1860s in design, if not necessarily construction. Plus of course there's the inevitable Midland wagon - not a D299 but a 3-plank dropside, D305, of 1880s vintage (Drg. 213). Rather more surprisingly, what I first assumed was a SER or LCDR covered goods wagon (Kentish van or van of Kent) is in fact lettered H&BR!

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Continuing to drift gently off-topic, I note that the Wikipedia article on the LVR, evidently quoting the Wild Swan monograph, states that the carriages were purchased from the Lincoln Wagon & Engine Company, though further down the were bought from Brown,  Marshall & Co. I believe that the Lincoln Co. was primarily a rolling stock finance and leasing firm (vide Turton's Fifteenth) so what I think may be going on here is that the Lincoln Co. were acting as broker for Col. Archer Houblon; this suggests to me that the Lincoln Co. also procured the wagons for him - or at least the six ex-GER wagons; he might have dealt directly with Met for the later dozen. The carriages do look to have been specially constructed for the line.

 

Coming back on-topic, I'm having difficulty convincing myself that the four wagons with sheeted loads of hay are all Great Western vehicles - the second and fourth look to have wooden solebars.

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A closer look at a better version of the photo doesn't reveal anything about the lettering on the wagons, I'm afraid. 

 

I have now found a para which I initially missed in The Lambourn Branch where the authors briefly speculate that non-LVR wagons - especially GWR - were used for in-and outgoing traffic that went beyond Newbury, as transshipment at Newbury would have been too troublesome. This suggests to me that LVR wagons did not travel outside the line.

 

Edited to clarify

Edited by Mikkel
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I've noted a copy of the Wild Swan book at the sort of price I'm willing to pay to satisfy my curiosity. Does it have any more than we've already discussed on the pre-GWR period? (I'd cut out and give away any pages with photos of taper-boilered locomotives.)

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There is not much more wagonry, and most of the photos of LVR days are also on the LVR website. As the GWR took over fairly early in the line's history, it does tend to dominate. 

 

It is an excellent line history though. Lots of bucolic 850s and panniers on short auto- and goods trains (post 1920s bias). That and Robertson's work on the DN&SR are among the best line histories I know.

 

He did a follow-up book called The Lambourn Branch revisited. This is more of a miscellany of his findings since the original publication. It has certain issues with the printing, though I did enjoy some of the photos and documents/correspondence on the line.

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Pat Garland pic half way down https://www.lambournvalleyrailway.info/newbury.html with a Dean Goods on what is described as a pickup goods, but actually a hay train, in early BR days. The wagons could be en route for Didcot. (In which case, presumably marshalled into a DN&S goods at Newbury goods yard, but that it a lot of flaffing around shunting.)
 

Can't help thinking though that Lambourn to Didcot would probably have been a lot quicker by horse and cart. The economics of hay transportation must have been very iffy.

 

Edited by Miss Prism
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Oh, well spotted - thanks Miss P. If anyone were to model that, people would roll their eyes! Apart from the fire hazard, I wonder again how it stays on board.  Still, remembering hay loads from my childhood, once it was all tangled up I suppose it did have a certain mass and weight.

 

Or perhaps no one cared about the hay and it was all an elaborate money laundering scheme.

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Has anyone else noticed a captioning error?

After the Dean Goods on hay, there is a photo of a Dean Goods taking on water,

below that, the left hand photo is captioned as another Dean Goods heading an

auto-coach train, but it's clearly an ex-MSWJ 2-4-0!

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Yes, the loco also worked the DN&SR line.

 

The Lambourn bay at Newbury provided much inspiration for the bay at Farthing, including the trackplan, the platform arrangement, the clerestory "strengthener", the horse traffic and the 850. But heavily re-interpreted!

 

 

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9 hours ago, jcm@gwr said:

Has anyone else noticed a captioning error?

After the Dean Goods on hay, there is a photo of a Dean Goods taking on water,

below that, the left hand photo is captioned as another Dean Goods heading an

auto-coach train, but it's clearly an ex-MSWJ 2-4-0!

More concerned that adding a passenger rated horse box to a service passenger train leads to it being called “mixed”. Although the headlamp code would remain the same, this isn’t a “mixed” train.

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The 2-4-0 is correctly identified a little further down then passed over in silence at its third appearance.

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