Jump to content
 

BR Steel Wagons


Recommended Posts

Hi all,

 

I am currently planning an 00 gauge  layout based around a factory in the LMR region of BR in the 1970's, and I need help with the rolling stock.

 

The factory needs large steel bars to make it's products and I'm not sure what wagons would haul them.

I would prefer R-T-R but plastic kits are always good fun to build.

 

So if anyone could supply me with a list of available wagons (Kits or R-T-R) and their suppliers that would be greatly appreciated.

 

Many thanks

 

Jordan

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

Depends how large the large steel bars are, but I'm assuming you're into bogie bolster territory.

 

The smallest would be a Bogie Bolster E (Lima body, Rumney Models underfame is generally regarded as the way to go - although kit bash based around the Cambrian Turbot is a possibility).  Next up Bogie Bolster C, here there is the Bachmann RTR, but it represents a GWR built, which would be fairly rare by the '70s; reasonably easy to change the brakes to suit the early BR builds, more time consuming to do the later ones with their higher bolsters.  Then there are the Bogie Bolster Ds, either from the Cambrian kit or by backdating a Bachmann BDA.

 

For prototype photos, have a look at Paul Bartlett's site:

http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brsteelwagon

Link to post
Share on other sites

 

 

You mentioned on your layout thread that the factory makes parts for British Leyland commercial vehicles engines and that it's called Thompson Castings.

 

What, exactly, do they make?

 

Castings suggest that it's a foundry, not a forge. Engine blocks are cast in iron, not steel, and if the products you have in mind are made from steel, they are more likely to be forged than cast and nothing on a commercial vehicle engine would need forging from 'large' steel bars.

 

It will help us determine the most likely wagons for the appropriate traffic.

Link to post
Share on other sites

If the factory dealt in forged components (crankshafts, for example), these would be made from square 4" Engineer's Bar; the steel works at the end of the street I grew up in (Duport, Llanelli) specialised in making this. The bars were about 32' long, and were delivered originally on 'Twin-Bolsters', then on Bolster Es, both of which had been designed with this sort of traffic in mind. However, individual works would, even then (1960s/ early 1970s) not use enough to justify delivery direct to the plant. Instead, it was taken to one of the numerous specialist steel terminals that BR provided around the Black Country; in this case, it was Great Bridge in Tipton, which received a train's worth every day.

Other terminals specialised in different products, as the various towns had long ago become very specialised in the products they manufactured. Some received rod coil (for nails and spring making), others sheet coil for steel pressings for things like car panels and cookers, and one (Pensnett) specialised in pig iron and coke for the foundries in the immediate vicinity.

The various terminals generally consisted of some rail sidings, served by a gantry crane, and stocking room for buffer stocks of product. The exception was Pensnett, which had a hopper discharge point to serve the large piles of coke, and a mobile crane to unload the pig-iron. Covered storage was limited; only fairly recently did Wolverhampton, one of two surviving terminals, acquire covered unloading and storage facilities to deal with cold-reduced coil. The other present-day terminal, Round Oak, was still a steel works in the period you're modelling.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...