GWR OPENs, how were loads tied down?

[GWR_Modeller]

Hi.  I am currently spending a bit time doing some modelling and one of the things I want to complete(!) is adding loads to some OPENs. 

 

Some I have done easily by placing a tarpaulin over a sheet supporter or a few pieces of plasticard.  Then I have modelled some uncovered with miscellaneous crates, casks, drums etc.  Some have heavier loads such as timber overhanging.  I also want to add some large crates or containers to a few.  OPEN Cs seem to have tie down rings on the sides at the top of the stanchions but I can not see anything similar on 16' or 17'6''.  There seem to be 2 small rings on each headstock and sole bar, eight in total, probably for tieing down sheets.  So the question is: -

 

How were larger loads tied down or secured  in OPEN wagons?

 

Regards, Paul

 

 

[Gilbert]

I've seen photos of timber loads with the securing ropes tied round buffers and anything else handy....

[GWR_Modeller]

Yes I think I have seen a similar image for an overhanging timber load and the ropes go down and across to the opposite buffer, but for a crate or containers inside the wagon any ropes or chains would have to go over the sides unless there are rings inside?

 

 

[Siberian Snooper]

I think general merchandise wagons had cleats attached to the solebars.

 

[Gilbert]

I shall consult Russell

[richbrummitt]

There are hooks just below the wagon sides bending downwards. Often lost in the shadow or the exposure but you can see them on a goof photo where the solebar is clear.

[Dave John]

These are CR rather than GWR but the arrangement of cleats at the top of the solebar is similar. I used ezline elastic for the ropes. 

 

 This blog shows how I made the cleats. 

 

 

[bécasse]

The General Appendix book of each of the four main-line railways contained detailed instructions, with diagrams, about how various types of loads were to be secured in wagons. The instructions were the same in each railway's book as they had been agreed through the Railway Clearing House.

[jonhall]

The Russel book

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Freight-Wagons-Loads-Service-GWR/dp/0860931552

 

has a large number of photos that were taken by the GWR to become training (or advertising) materials on how to properly secure loads, and what can happen when that goes wrong.

 

Jon

[Compound2632]

The various BR-era documents downloadable from the Barrowmore Model Railway Group (scroll down to near the bottom of the page) are a mine of information. In cases where I have been able to compare these with pre-Grouping instructions [e.g. in LNWR Wagons (Wild Swan)], they are pretty well identical so I think can be taken as recording standard practice in the 20th century, if not earlier. 

 

On the specific issue of timber loads, there's a very fine panoramic photo of Vastern Road yard, Reading, c. 1905, in Great Western Railway Journal No. 81 (Wild Swan, 2012) - in the second of a pair of articles by Chris Turner on Reading goods yards. This shows a couple of rows of wagons loaded with sawn timber planks, projecting over the end of the wagon in the regulation manner and in at least one of of the lines, an empty 4-plank wagon as runner, because of the overhang. All these loads are sheeted, with just the projecting ends of the planks sticking out from under the sheet. 

 

In this and a companion photo of Kings Meadow yard, the only wagons that are not sheeted are empties, wagons loaded with sand, gravel, stone, etc., or wagons evidently in the process of being unloaded. (This being the Great Western, coal is in PO wagons only.)

 

So, I wouldn't get hung up on fancy loads, just keep putting the sheets on. Don't forget the tie ropes, 16 in all:

 

Edited April 18, 2020 by Compound2632

[GWR_Modeller]

Thankyou for the assistance.  More sheets it is.  I will reserve the crates for the goods yard and shed.

 Paul

[The Johnster]

Lashing loads down using buffer shanks was certainly done, but I believe it was frowned upon and would not have been done by railway staff; the railway of course has less control over what happens in private sidings.

[The Stationmaster]

On 23/04/2020 at 01:51, The Johnster said:

Lashing loads down using buffer shanks was certainly done, but I believe it was frowned upon and would not have been done by railway staff; the railway of course has less control over what happens in private sidings.

It was shown in official Instructions so I doubt it was frowned on    Although I'd  wondered about the legality of it until I looked at the Instructions and was duly educated, a long time ago.

[The Johnster]

It’s another of the things I was taught were bad snd not to do in West Box guard’s school.  The guy teaching us was an ex guard’s inspector promoted to instructor from York, can’t recall his name now but he seemed to know his stuff!

 

I encountered sheets lashed in this way occasionally while prepping and examining trains, and usually looked for proper cleats to tie them ‘properly’; usually there weren’t any which is why they’d been tied that way in the first place. 

[Compound2632]

2 hours ago, The Johnster said:

I encountered sheets lashed in this way occasionally while prepping and examining trains, and usually looked for proper cleats to tie them ‘properly’; usually there weren’t any which is why they’d been tied that way in the first place. 

 

At least on the pre-grouping wagons for which I've looked closely at drawings and photographs, there seem usually to have been three cleats or rings on the solebars or under the side rail and three on the ends, so with sixteen sheet ties, there ought to have been enough with some doubling up.