Isle of Wight freight

[JZ]

Right, next question. From the few close-up pictures of wagons on the IoW, they all appear to be prefixed S. Were there ant PO wagons before nationalisation?

[IWCR]

There  were  a  few  Private  owner  wagons  in  earlier  years.

The  largest  batch  were  owned  by  a  concrete  manufacturer and  carried  chalk  from  Shide  Pit  to  Cement  Mills,  these  were  4  plank  opens  fitted  with end doors  for  unloading  on  a  tipper.  They  were  marked  "Vectis  Cement"  and  ran  later  in  Blue  Circle  (Portland  Cement)  livery.  These  ceased  during  WW2.

In  pre- grouping  times  a  local  timber  merchant  (Sharps)  owned  some  bolster  wagons  and  the   Anglo  American  Oil  Company  ran  two  tank  wagons  marked  "Royal  Daylight"  for  Naptha  (Paraffin).

 

Post  WW2,  None  hence  all  traffic  wagons  prefixed  S  in  BR times.

 

Pete

[Pacific231G]

Visiting Ventnor station in October 1965, I was very surprised to see a goods arrive, shunt the yard, and depart again. Travelling back to Ryde on the next passenger train, I was even more surprised to find the goods tucked away on the siding at Wroxall, where it had deposited a wagon and was now waiting to continue towards Ryde once the single line was clear. I have often wondered whether that was the final occasion that a wagon was dropped off at Wroxall, the line closing 6 months later.

Do you remember whether it was all coal or were there vans as well?

[zephyrman]

I made many models Of IOW stock for my Mill Hill station. Some wagons I made twice in different liveries twice! Or three times.

 

Cambrian LBSCR Round End wagond for the 10T opens.

 

Cambrian C96 SR 10/12 ton for the Medina Wharf wagons.

 

For the yellow Blue Circle wagons I had a run made by wessex wagons although they did not use end door wagons, so I converted mine. These wagons were the ex Vectis Cement wagons. Dapol had some ltd ed ones made by the Isle Of Wight Model Railway but they had the lettering wrong.

 

For the covered fans smallbrook studios do a resein kit of on of the rarer vans but it can be kitbashed to make the common covered vans.

 

Cattle vans again Smallbrook studios.

 

For machine and carriage trucks you have to kitbash.

 

For the bolsters again use smallbrook studios.

 

For coaching stock you have kitbash roxey and its not easy!!!

 

Hope it helps

[zephyrman]

The cement wagons were 5 and 8 planks ex Vectis cement wagons with end doors and the door was hinged from a bar atop the rear. Odd. Looking at a very old pic taken on the old quayside at Liitle London it appears these may have been updated dumb buffered wagons that had buffers added as in the pic sone of these wagons had the top hinge. These were ex IWR wagons.

[zephyrman]

The only wagons to survive into the BR era were a couple of PMV's. Two used at Newport for storage/office and one blue one, the only steam age vehicle to get BR blue. There were I think 4 ballast wagons that were rebuilt as 4 plankers from 5's and ran with The class 05 and the two ex SR brake vans that came with the 05.

[zephyrman]

For Brake Vans

 

Use smallbrook studios for LSWR Road vans.

 

Kitbash those for the double varadah versions.

 

I kit bashed two kits to make the 20 Ton brake van but I think Smallbrook does a kit of that one now.

For Brake Vans

 

Use smallbrook studios for LSWR Road vans.

 

Kitbash those for the double varadah versions.

 

I kit bashed two kits to make the 20 Ton brake van but I think Smallbrook does a kit of that one now.

[zephyrman]

For the BR pway vehicles, use the Cambrian sleeper wagon for the sleeper wagon.

 

Airfix Iron Ore wagon for the hopper wagon.

 

Airfix lowmac for the lowmac.

 

Bachmann for the SR brake vans.

 

 

For the Britannia rail lifter I kitbashed the ratio MR coach for the chassis.

 

For the two vehicles either side, I used red panda flat wagons.

 

For the tube train converter wagon use red panda again and kit bash. These were ex Waterloo and City Line and came over with the 38 stock.

 

Previous to that An ex 5 planker and a bolster had tube couplings.

 

In Steam days one 5 planker and a 10T Brighton covered van had tube couplings

 

For Dogfish wagons use cambrian or Dapol

[zephyrman]

Not all were S prefix.

 

 

Some were Es or ES Engineering

 

MP for motive power i.e. loco coal.

 

Ds or DS for departmental.

 

Most of the covered vans became DS even though they were still used in revenue service

[zephyrman]

I have not made the boiler truck yet but I have the parts for it!

[zephyrman]

Smallbrook Studios do kits of the Cattle Vans in original and modified form.

 

However for the normal van he chose an odd one with the metal formers at the end of which I think there were only 3 brought over and last was condemned by 1950, however by carefully triming the metal formers and by filing the corner plates round you can kit bash it into the more common ones.Most of the LBSCR van were in departmental use by 1960. Smallbrook also do a good road van kit although producing the double varrandah ones involves kit bashing.They also now do one similar to the 20 Ton one.

 

Cambrian do the 10ton round end van kits and also the 13 ton "Medina Wharf" opens. You want the ones with the two doors above the side door.

 

For machinery trucks you can kitbash their single bollster.

 

The only wagon I have not built yet is the boiler wagon as I am busy doing the composite SECR coaches at the mo. But I will get round to it. I may have some surplus SR livered stock from my Mill Hill layout up for grabs. Youcan repaint them if the livery is not suitable. I may also have some of the Blue Circle wagons up for grabs if people are interested although they are modified from the Wessex wagons run as they were not quite correct.

 

I had wessex wagons make 4 runs in total but they made them without end doors and over rear door hinges which I had to do.

[zephyrman]

There was a kit for the brake van used in the earlier weed killing train. It was an ex MR van the IWR used if your doing SR.

 

The IWR water tanks were very unusuall in profile!!! And had several chassis over the years.

 

For the odd shaped one, please do not laugh but due to the wierd profile, the only think close was a sweetex sweetner dispenser which I cut into sections!!!!! It is slighty tapered too so I had to sort that. But by cutting ito into quarters for the top, then the bottom tapered bit was sectioned into quarters again. The chassis I used an IWR chassis from Smallbrook Studios I think. For the private owner Royal daylight wagons on the Island I modified a mainland tank wagon. I think the tank wagons and Isle of Wight cranes have taken the longest and are the hardest to build. The next hardest are the SECR composites!!!

[zephyrman]

Oh yes also in addition to the blue circle/vectis cement wagons were three Royal Daylight wagons/tank wagons. These had also been rebuilt many times over.

[Ian Morgan]

Zephyrman, do you have drawings and/or photos of all these IOW wagons you have built? It sounds like you should write a book.

 

I am just starting to build suitable stock for my 'Freshwater' layout, and would appreciate pointers to the most useful books, drawings and photos currently available.

[zephyrman]

I used the Mike King books. The series covers SR( IWR included) LBSCR, SECR, LSWR and LCDR. Mos have drawings or really good pictures. I may have some excess stock as now I model BR era. I built SR and IWR stuff for my Mill Hill layout.

[zephyrman]

The beauty of the Island is that its so well photographed. I believe Mike Reed is producing a book like the one on coaching stock. A hope he does produce it.

 

I will go though all my books to make sure I try to get both sides of a vehicle if possible photographed.

[zephyrman]

I will post some pics of IOW freight trains shortly along with some of my models. Hope it helps?

[zephyrman]

Here we go JZ.You want pics of Isle Of Wight Freight, you are gonna get your fill buddy.

 

Starting in BR and getting older

 

One PMV servived into BR Blue but that was not the only steam stock that did. 4 Wagons were rebuilt into 4 plank Ballast wagons using sides from LSWR or SECR sides from ex IWR wagons As well as a few ex LBSCR five plankers. These are behind the 05.

 

 

Tube Match wagons fitted with tube couplers.

 

 

 

 

[zephyrman]

Close up of the 4 plank Ballast wagons.

 

[zephyrman]

Close up of tube match wagon.

 

 

 

[zephyrman]

Ok you want freight pics here goes.

 

Starting off with stock that made it into the BR era, we have ExIWR five planks converted into 4 plank dropsides with mixtures of Ex LBSCR parts. And Ex LBSCR 5 planks behind the 05. One PMV received rail blue. Two PMV's were still in use at Newport well after steam as it was still in use as a BR parcels depot and the PMV's became departmental Stores. Here is a close up of a 4 plank ex IWR blallast. The next view show them behind the 05.

 

 

 

 

 

[zephyrman]

Next up wagons used as match wagons for delivery of tube stock. This included one LBSCR bolster, one ex LBSCR 5 plank and an ex LBSCR van.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[zephyrman]

Now PMV and mail vans. Post 20's ex LBSCR vans were behind the engine to carry PLA Passengers Luggage in Advance. This could be ex fish vans.......nice. Latterly these were PMV vans and some of the SECR brake thirds lost on extra compartment on top of the luggage space in the guard end. On early morning mail trains formed of SECR converted full brakes/mail coaches and sometimes PMV's, these were double headed to save another light engine movement.

[zephyrman]

 

 

SECR mail coaches/full brakes can easily be made using my method of kitbashing a Roxey SECR Brake 3rd and a Farish coach. The easiest of IOW SECR coaches to replicate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even ex LCDR full brakes were around in the late 50's in use as stores vans, tool vans or brakedown vans. This one is at Ryde in 59. Some were often spotted at St Helens or Ventnor West in the siding behind the station.

 

And mixed freight and parcels. It all went on here chaps

 

 

 

 

 

[zephyrman]

Cranes

 

1st! up The Kirkstall Forge Crane which was saved and at the factory.

 

 

 

 

The Ex MR crane preserved at the IOWSR

 

 

 

 

 

 

And lastly the IWR crane, action shots too!