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13. Southdown wool Bradford-bound : sacks (or rather, 'sheets').

C126

Entry posted by C126 in B.R. blue goods yard.

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Waiting for the garage to warm so I can do some soldering, I have been churning out six-dozen 'wool sheets', thanks to @enz and 'British Wool' (formerly the British Wool Marketing Board).  I will edit this post later to provide additional information if the latter's kind correspondent permits, but these white polypropylene sacks took over in the mid-1970's from the smaller, brown, 60lb. hessian sacks to be seen in pictures of the Tetbury wool sack races.  These will be another project.

 

Thanks to @enzfinding a document with their dimensions, I bent and soldered a piece of 6mm. nickel-silver strip to make an oblong with internal dimensions 16x22mm.

 

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This was my first attempt at a butt-joint, and I was rather pleased, even if I did use to much solder.  The two prototypes next to the lorry are before I knew the correct dimensions.

 

Then it was just a case of rolling out a lump of modelling clay 6mm. thick, pressing out oblongs with the above 'cutter', and pushing them out and smoothing the shape with wet fingers.  Took a day to dry.  Not perfect, but they will do, I think.  Now I need to ponder how to do any lettering, if at all.

 

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A pleasing wagon-load, if having to invoke 'Rule 1' to use it.  Annoyingly, they do not stack inside a OO wagon of 30mm. width, and are not 'pallet friendly'.  Of course, now I am wondering if I should have moulded them in one large 'lump' instead...

Edited by C126

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Compound2632
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Looks good, not having seen a photo of the real thing! I take it the "natural" clay is a good representation of the colour of the polypropylene?

 

Were they loaded on end as you have done? I would have thought that would lead to settling towards the bottom end of the bag but maybe the wool isn't dense enough for that to be a problem?

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C126
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@Compound2632 Thanks for your kind remarks.  Yes, the B.W. packs are white, although perhaps they could receive a satin varnish to represent the plastic's gloss, and you are quite correct in voicing concern about the 'end loading' in the Opens.  It is the only way I can get them to fill the wagon neatly.  The 'narrowest' way lying flat is to have two packs side-by-side giving a scale 'load width' of 32mm., 2 mm. too wide.  No wonder they went by lorry.  If anyone can shed light on any wagons used 'in reality' for these packs, I would be interested.  Some sort of sheeted 'Timber open'-style wagon, with bolsters?

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