Lowfits - the uses of

[spikey]

Thanks to that thread about BD containers and Conflats, I now know better than to plonk containers on my Lowfits.  However, when I explained this to Mrs Spikey, who'd asked why the Lowfits are running round empty nowadays, she of course said "So what should be on them then?", to which I could only waffle on about probably machinery, big castings and suchlike.

 

But I really can't remember what I used to see on them, so today's question is - what sort of thing would have been a common load for a Lowfit in early BR days (say up to 1960)?

[Steamport Southport]

It might be a bit of a cliche but how about new tractors on them?

 

https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/paulbartlettsrailwaywagonphotographs/h1af40176#h1af40176

 

 

 

Jason

[Clive Mortimore]

A hay baler, a muck spreader or other farm machinery. Small motor cars.

 

Check out the Springside and Langley ranges for farm implements.

[Yardman]

Mainly vehicles or light machinery or farm equipment. Remember lowfits are only 12ton capacity, so heavy machinery, steel plate etc could exceed the wagon capacity. Steel plate tended to be carried in plate wagons, not only for the weight, but the load was less likely to try and break out the ends of the wagon with a steel bodied wagon.

[Steamport Southport]

I would also say those Invacar things. But I don't know anyone who makes models of them.

 

https://www.google.co.uk/search?biw=1366&bih=651&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=N7EfXMbjLpSV1fAPxNisuA0&q=invacar+on+lowfit&oq=invacar+on+lowfit&gs_l=img.12...172042.176537..178136...0.0..0.91.767.11......0....1..gws-wiz-img.piMbIBvfjic#imgrc=_

 

I linked to Google Images as I couldn't link to Twitter for some reason.

 

 

Jason

Edited December 23, 2018 by Steamport Southport

[AberdeenBill]

Light army vehicles such as Land Rovers.    There's a nice photo somewhere of a 'novelty' advertising van shaped like a beer bottle on a Lowfit at Brockenhurst for delivery to the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu. 

 

Bill

[eastwestdivide]

Transfer them to the engineers? Hoo Junction 1985

[Dunsignalling]

I would also say those Invacar things. But I don't know anyone who makes models of them.

 

https://www.google.co.uk/search?biw=1366&bih=651&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=N7EfXMbjLpSV1fAPxNisuA0&q=invacar+on+lowfit&oq=invacar+on+lowfit&gs_l=img.12...172042.176537..178136...0.0..0.91.767.11......0....1..gws-wiz-img.piMbIBvfjic#imgrc=_

 

I linked to Google Images as I couldn't link to Twitter for some reason.

 

 

Jason

I've never come across models of them, either. One for the Oxford Diecast wish list methinks.

 

They came out of various locations by rail, two to a Lowfit (I don't think there were enough lashing rings for more) and sometimes several wagons worth at once.

 

Some were made by AC, a bit of a contrast to a Cobra, though one AC enthusiast I met reckoned it's what you were likely to end up in if you overdid things in a 428.

 

John

Edited December 23, 2018 by Dunsignalling

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

As above they majored on vehicles various that could be rolled on from an end loading dock using the drop end ramps. What we might loosely call contractor's equipment was a favourite of mine: portable generators, cement mixers, arc welding sets, gas bottle trolleys, air compressors, scissor lifts, portable lighting sets, heavyweight event PA kit; all of which were commonly two or four wheel trailer mounted in the 50s and 60s.

[mike hughes]

I have see the odd picture of ‘H’ containers on them

 

Michael

[griffgriff]

Transfer them to the engineers? Hoo Junction 1985

85-4-32 ADB 450186.jpg

Interesting bogie.

 

Griff

[giz]

Interesting bogie.

 

Griff

It looks like the single bolster emu version of the BR1 bogie.

[eastwestdivide]

It looks like the single bolster emu version of the BR1 bogie.

Wouldn't be surprised - there was a whole train of assorted wagons carrying bogies, probably at Hoo Junction en route to/from Slade Green. Unless they were recovered from the odd 4-SUB that was scrapped at Hoo Jn around that time.

Think I posted a lot of these elsewhere on rmweb... but I can't locate them with google

 

Much later edit... found them on the archive at http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=21423#p329758

Edited December 24, 2018 by eastwestdivide

[The Johnster]

I would also say those Invacar things. But I don't know anyone who makes models of them.

 

https://www.google.co.uk/search?biw=1366&bih=651&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=N7EfXMbjLpSV1fAPxNisuA0&q=invacar+on+lowfit&oq=invacar+on+lowfit&gs_l=img.12...172042.176537..178136...0.0..0.91.767.11......0....1..gws-wiz-img.piMbIBvfjic#imgrc=_

 

I linked to Google Images as I couldn't link to Twitter for some reason.

 

 

Jason

 

I can confirm this.  To my city's eternal shame, these dreadful things were made in Cardiff in a factory on Dumballs Road, and despite it being rail connected the Invacars were taken on flatbed lorries to the Newtown Goods Depot where they were loaded on to lowfits at an end loading dock.  

[Steamport Southport]

I can confirm this.  To my city's eternal shame, these dreadful things were made in Cardiff in a factory on Dumballs Road, and despite it being rail connected the Invacars were taken on flatbed lorries to the Newtown Goods Depot where they were loaded on to lowfits at an end loading dock.  

 

 

 

 

There was always one by mine when I was a kid in the 1970s. I don't think it ever moved. I assume it belonged to someone who lived in the nearby pensioners flats.

 

I didn't even know what it was at the time, we just thought it was a funny little car.

 

 

 

Jason

[jwealleans]

Do tractors.  If you're exhibiting, they're easy to do and the kids love seeing them.

 

[Yardman]

As one “enthusiast" told me on seeing my train load of tractors at an exhibition , “I think you'll find the Fordson Power Major was only made in blue”. To which I replied “If the only thing you can find wrong with my layout is the colour of one Tractor I think I've won”.

[jwealleans]

I was told that new tractors were supplied without the exhaust fitted.  These are therefore second hand and going to auction.

[Ian Morgan]

I remember seeing trainloads of those light blue invalid carriages in the sidings at Hove station. I was too young to confirm that they were lowfits, but I had always assumed so in later life.

[The Stationmaster]

Ministry of Health invalid cars and adapted cars were sent by rail for longer distance journeys under a special agreed flat rate which included distribution when new from the factory (Invacars were made by AC at Thames Ditton at one time, the other part of their factory was turning out AC Cobras!) and distribution from depots where presumably stocks were held.  They are thus a good load in the post-war period up until their disappearance and adapted cars are also a good load because they are more readily available as models - Morris Minors seem to have been popular for official adaptation.  They were therefore be more likely to be seen at just about any station capable of loading/unloading them than agricultural machines which went from factories to agricultural areas.

 

At one goods depot we here I worked in the '60s we never saw agricultural machinery but we did have occasional Ministry of Health traffic in the form of either Invacars and adapted vehicles.  However 10 years later the plac e where I was working had frequent traffic in the form of agricultural vehicles but we never saw anything like adapted cars.

[Gordon A]

I was told that new tractors were supplied without the exhaust fitted.  These are therefore second hand and going to auction.

 

I suggest your scenario is highly unlikely.

Second hand tractors are usually sold locally as the cost of transporting eats too much into any profit.

 

Gordon A 

[jwealleans]

I refer m'learned colleague to Exhibit A (which was what I used to rope them on) and invoke Rule 1.

[Steamport Southport]

I used to like tractors, but I don't anymore.

 

Does this mean I'm an ex-tractor fan? 

 

 

 

Jason

[Flying Pig]

Further discussion of the BR Lowfit wagons themselves on this thread:

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/100419-lowfit/

 

As mentioned there and illustrated in eastwestdivide's post above, the Mainline/Replica/Bachmann model should be on an LMS-style clasp-braked underframe. The former Red Panda kit is still listed in the Parkside range and would make a fairly easy upgrade project, though I notice you have to arrange your own headstock and buffers, which complicates things a little.

 

https://peco-uk.com/collections/wagon-van-and-underframe-kits/products/br-10-foot-chassis-kit-vacuum-fitted-with-clasp-brake-shoes

[Broadway Clive]

I was told that new tractors were supplied without the exhaust fitted.  These are therefore second hand and going to auction.

 

I refer m'learned colleague to Exhibit A (which was what I used to rope them on) and invoke Rule 1.

Your Exhibit A  shows a trainload of brand new Fordson E27N tractors at Temple Mills, east London that will have come from the factory at Dagenham, and all fitted with exhausts on the opposite side to yours. Blue was indeed the standard factory colour for Ford's postwar British made tractors so I suggest Oxford's other colours are maybe rather fanciful. Grey was always associated with Ferguson tractors which became affectionately known as 'little grey Fergies', so are yours in fact of that make rather than Fordson?     

Edited December 24, 2018 by Broadway Clive