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Oxford announce the 5 Plank Wagon


Garethp8873
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 As my knowledge of PO wagons is limited, I have to go by if it looks right, then its OK for me. But what really grates with Oxford Rail wagons is how far the couplings stick out. Bachmann seem to have there's set much closer yet they can happily manage to negotiate 2nd rad curves. Hell even Mainline wagons from the days of old were much closer coupling!

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At least they are NEM mounted, and presumably easily replaced with Bachmann ones.  I can't say I'd particularly noticed this, but of course now you've pointed it out I will; not sure whether to thank you or not for that...

 

I am of course assuming that the NEM mounts are positioned to specification, otherwise there is no point in replacing the couplers with shorter ones!

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Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Let's paint a Mark 1 carriage chocolate and cream and call it Great Western.

 

I just cannot understand why wagons built to RCH 1907 standards are not available.  They would surely overlap the RCH 1923 versions, by many years in some cases, and be eminently more suitable for pre-grouping use. 

 

Instead we have these 'faux' wagons, often not in accurate liveries, which many people run because they are 'pretty'!

 

I understand that at nationalisation, there were more RCH 1907 PO wagons than 1923 ones.

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I understand that at nationalisation, there were more RCH 1907 PO wagons than 1923 ones.

 

Quite possibly, but I doubt it stayed that way for long. The youngest would be 26 years old and such wagons didn't have an easy life. BR also targeted anything that couldn't carry 12/13 tons for early replacement, so the numbers of 10-tonners would have declined rapidly.

 

AIUI, BR weeded out several thousand of the worst (mechanically) ex-PO wagons more-or-less on receipt and there were two further big clear-outs in 1950 and 1952 consequent to the arrival of steel-body 16-tonners in large quantities. The 1952 purge made inroads into 1923-pattern stock, too and older wagons would have become quite thin on the ground after that.

 

Of course, many of the wagons BR no longer wanted, still had some life left in them and many ended up as internal-user-only with the NCB.

 

John

Edited by Dunsignalling
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Quite possibly, but I doubt it stayed that way for long. 

 

Several thousand isn't that big a dent in half a million! It would be interesting to see a year-on-year plot of ex-PO wagon numbers vs. 16 tonners.

 

On the other hand, during the grouping era, which is perhaps nearly as popular among modellers as the 1950s or 1960s, RCH 1907 wagons always outnumbered RCH 1923 wagons.

 

One has to concede that, from a manufacturer's point of view, the fact that the 1907 specification still allowed for more variation in appearance of wagons from the various builders than did the 1923 specification, is a problem.

Edited by Compound2632
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Several thousand isn't that big a dent in half a million! It would be interesting to see a year-on-year plot of ex-PO wagon numbers vs. 16 tonners.

 

On the other hand, during the grouping era, which is perhaps nearly as popular among modellers as the 1950s or 1960s, RCH 1907 wagons always outnumbered RCH 1923 wagons.

 

One has to concede that, from a manufacturer's point of view, the fact that the 1907 specification still allowed for more variation in appearance of wagons from the various builders than did the 1923 specification, is a problem.

The several thousand condemned immediately by BR would have been the roughest of the rough and many would have seen little use since the end of WW2 anyway. In the severe winter of 1947/8, I imagine such a source of firewood would have been most welcome. 

 

As a general rule of thumb, every two new 16-tonners did for three timber-built wagons, and 21/24.5-tonners, two each so the rate of attrition would have become quite rapid as production ramped up by the early 1950s. Hopper wagons were also being constructed in quite large numbers.

 

There were eventually a quarter of a million 16-tonners to Diagram 108 alone, which would have accounted for around 375,000 older wagons, though that figure would include ex-company mineral wagons as well as private owners. Many old wagons in serviceable condition would have been sold for internal colliery use with the NCB rather than scrapped.

 

I have (somewhere!) a small booklet of statistics issued by BR in which, IIRC, it states that around 50% of old coal/mineral wagons had been replaced by the end of 1952.

 

John

Edited by Dunsignalling
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The several thousand condemned immediately by BR would have been the roughest of the rough and many would have seen little use since the end of WW2 anyway. In the severe winter of 1947/8, I imagine such a source of firewood would have been most welcome. 

 

As a general rule of thumb, every two new 16-tonners did for three timber-built wagons, and 21/24.5-tonners, two each so the rate of attrition would have become quite rapid as production ramped up by the early 1950s. Hopper wagons were also being constructed in quite large numbers.

 

There were eventually a quarter of a million 16-tonners to Diagram 108 alone, which would have accounted for around 375,000 older wagons, though that figure would include ex-company mineral wagons as well as private owners. Many old wagons in serviceable condition would have been sold for internal colliery use with the NCB rather than scrapped.

 

I have (somewhere!) a small booklet of statistics issued by BR in which, IIRC, it states that around 50% of old coal/mineral wagons had been replaced by the end of 1952.

 

John

Does this mean that the new Oxford 7 plank wagon in NCB liverie is postwar and as mentioned here is an example of the ones sold to NCB after the war, enyone knowes?

Edited by Cor-onGRT4
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Does this mean that the new Oxford 7 plank wagon in NCB liverie is postwar and as mentioned here is an example of the ones sold to NCB after the war, enyone knowes?

 

Evidently it must post-date the nationalisation of the coal industry in July 1946. 

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Also note different buffer guides on the Barnard wagon.

 

There's a representation of the side knees but no other internal ironwork. But that's asking a lot of a RTR wagon. 

Edited by Compound2632
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Client ordered before the Grouping  :jester:

Apparently anachronistic lettering like this was not uncommon. A quick look at one of the David Larkin albums produced 'Winnington (?) LMR, CLC' on a Soda-ash Hopvan, built in 1948, and 'Oakamoor NS Section' on a 24.5t Sand hopper. This latter was photographed in 1970, some 47 years after the Grouping, the wagon having been built in 1958.

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'NS Section' is an example of why this could. and did happen; the location was still identified on the railway and addressed in railway terms by reference to the pre grouping company's address.  

 

Many parts of the railway are still identified by their pregroping owner and likewise by original owner of sidings

 

Glagow and South Western for an entire line

 

Out of Leeds towards Stouron the Midland only acquiring the name on resignalling so as the were not two Normanton Lines on the same signal box

 

From Manchester to Liverpool via Irlam the Cheshire lines

 

Shell junction on Teesside and the refinery closed in the 1980's

 

The list could fill a book

 

Mark Saunders

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