Goods Vehicle Ratios in the 1950s

[Aire Head]

Rehashing a question undoubtably asked and answered many a time however my skills with the search function and google are failing me.

 

My current focus is modelling the 1950s and for my chosen location goods is the major portion of traffic to be depicted.

 

Most photos I can find are from the 1960s by which time the majority of "general" goods stock is fitted however for my chosen period of the  mid 1950s I am aware that there should be a much higher proportion of unfitted stock.

 

So my question is roughly how much unfitted "general" goods stock should i have in proportion to fitted goods stock to give a reasonable representation?

 

Please note I'm not interested in minerals or specialised stock just the "general" goods vans and opens.

 

Thank you in advance.

[Cusbaby]

You don't mention which region that you are modeling. Tbh unless someone else can & no doubt will correct me. Just do a mix & match. I've been going through various books eg the books of black 5's etc looking at freight formations, so that I could model a reasonably acurate freight formation. Usual limitations, eg can't make certain vehicles or you can't see the full formation. The loco lamp code will also give you a reasonable idea of what it is train is. Eg fitted, partial fitted, local pick up etc etc. Sorry i can't help any more than that

[Steamport Southport]

The data is out there. I think it's in the Don Rowland - BR Wagons book.

 

If we are discounting minerals and the like, then I would hazard a guess that by the mid 1950s it would be something like 30% fitted and 70% unfitted. By the next decade it would be the opposite. By 1970 it would be virtually all of them with air braked wagons starting to appear en masse.

 

They had a massive cull of old wooden framed chassis and pre grouping wagons in the early 1950s.

 

 

 

Jason

[Cusbaby]

From what i can make out from all the various pictures i've seen.  Various freights have consisted of various sized plank opens, bogie bolsters, vans of differing types, well wagons, tanks of various sizes, the dreaded 16 t mineral, 13 t high sided steel open etc etc. It's your model, if it's look right, it is right. If all else all fails. Rule 1 applies. It's your model. As an thought, there is a current topic about brake vans, they may be well be out of your time line, but perhaps maybe give you some guidence

Edited May 7, 2020 by Cusbaby
Added extra to the reply

[DCB]

It depends entirely on where the layout is set.  A dead end branch will have an increasing proportion of fitted wagons depending on the era. Most will usually be unfitted as incoming coal traffic predominated on most branches and around 99% of coal wagons were unfitted, they were still building these in the 1950s as Vacuum brake coal wagons could not be emptied by tipplers etc.

A lot depends on traffic. the longer the journey the more likely that a vacuum fitted wagon would be used, so not many unfitted vans or merchandise wagons doing long journeys but some unfitted stock still on short hauls, but as the 50s went on more and more 16ton minerals and BR standard vans and low fits, less and less wooden bodies unfitted opens and vans.

Lines like the MSWJR were dominated by vacuum braked goods for most of its history with just a one way pick up unfitted for coal  which went back another route, others obviously were dominated by unfitted coal or minerals. 

[Aire Head]

The layout is set on the Aire Valley Line in West Yorkshire just south of Skipton if that provides any assistance.

 

I am aware mineral stock will be unfitted and most other specialised vehicles such as bolsters/cattle etc speak for themselves.

 

Thank you for your replies so far.

 

[SM42]

According to the Larkin books, the fitting of vacuum brakes to previously big four unfitted stock commenced in 1955 as apart of the modernisation program.

 

Wagons that were part of orders that the new BR inherited were turned out in whatever livery the orignal order specified.

 

On that basis if you are pre 1955, then grey or whatever would  dominate the pre BR stock. BR built (ordered) would be in the main conforming to the grey / no paint  / bauxite rule.

 

Post 1955, I suspect the fleet would be turning brown in increasing numbers as the level of unfitted general wagons reduced.

 

You say you are basing your layout mid fifties and so I would be looking at any inherited stock being grey mainly with a few conversions, the BR standard stuff bauxite

 

 

Andy

[Aire Head]

2 hours ago, SM42 said:

According to the Larkin books, the fitting of vacuum brakes to previously big four unfitted stock commenced in 1955 as apart of the modernisation program.

 

Wagons that were part of orders that the new BR inherited were turned out in whatever livery the orignal order specified.

 

On that basis if you are pre 1955, then grey or whatever would  dominate the pre BR stock. BR built (ordered) would be in the main conforming to the grey / no paint  / bauxite rule.

 

Post 1955, I suspect the fleet would be turning brown in increasing numbers as the level of unfitted general wagons reduced.

 

You say you are basing your layout mid fifties and so I would be looking at any inherited stock being grey mainly with a few conversions, the BR standard stuff bauxite

 

 

Andy

 

That's great thank you. Looks like I need to buy some more grey paint and focus on unfitted wagons for a while!

[jim.snowdon]

2 hours ago, SM42 said:

Wagons that were part of orders that the new BR inherited were turned out in whatever livery the orignal order specified.

Not quite. Many wagons that were in build, or overhaul, in the earliest days of BR were turned out in the previous companies colour scheme simply because the new BR colours had not yet been decided and the change put into place at the works. The need to apply prefixes seems to have got round quite quickly for railway company wagons, but lettering could still be in the old style for a period. Through orders carried over into BR, wagons to pre-BR designs were being built but turned out with BR B prefix numbers.

 

That is only new and overhauled wagons. The overhaul period for wagons is the better part of a decade and it would have been common to see wagons bearing pre-BR liveries, albeit increasingly weatherbeaten and tired, well into the 1950s.

 

Although BR undertook a campaign of upgrading relatively modern stock to vacuum brakes, the Big Four railways had been progressively increasing the proportion of vacuum braked stock, as well as vans, in their fleets through the 1930s in response to competition from road haulage. Achieving faster, more predictable, delivery of goods was a necessity for survival.

 

Jim

 

[kevinlms]

17 hours ago, Cusbaby said:

You don't mention which region that you are modeling. Tbh unless someone else can & no doubt will correct me. Just do a mix & match. I've been going through various books eg the books of black 5's etc looking at freight formations, so that I could model a reasonably acurate freight formation. Usual limitations, eg can't make certain vehicles or you can't see the full formation. The loco lamp code will also give you a reasonable idea of what it is train is. Eg fitted, partial fitted, local pick up etc etc. Sorry i can't help any more than that

If you're looking at 'photos of Black 5s etc', then perhaps that is giving you false impression? Why, because these types of loco tended to run faster services, with a higher percentage of fitted wagons in bauxite livery. 

 

A 'typical 0-6-0' would probably run a slower service with a higher number of unfitted wagons. This could include fitted wagons, running as unfitted. 

Edited May 8, 2020 by kevinlms

[SM42]

5 hours ago, jim.snowdon said:

Although BR undertook a campaign of upgrading relatively modern stock to vacuum brakes, the Big Four railways had been progressively increasing the proportion of vacuum braked stock, as well as vans, in their fleets through the 1930s in response to competition from road haulage. Achieving faster, more predictable, delivery of goods was a necessity for survival.

 

Jim

 

 

Indeed. There would undoubtedly be a proportion of pre BR stock that was vacuum fitted.

 

Would it be fair to say that 10ft wheelbase wagons were and anything shorter not.?

 

Grey stock would be reasonably prevalent but I suspect in the minority in the van fleet and perhaps more in the open fleet.  AIUI BR were still turning out some unfitted opens .

 

Agian reference to Larkin (Wagons of the Early British Railways Era ) and taking a quick read through indicates that there was about a 50/50 split  fitted / unfitted in the open fleet of the big 4, and about 10% of the BR orders were unfitted.

 

As to vans, GWR, LMS and SR vans appeared to have unfitted versions but there were also significant numbers fitted and of course those later converted. LNER vans appear to be fitted

 

It's a hard one to call, but on balance, if it were me,  I would go unfitted for around 10% pre BR vans and certainly anything with a 9ft wheelbase, 30 - 40% pre BR wooden opens and 10% BR built wooden opens. Steel opens of all origins fitted

 

If it doesn't look right to you later, you can always get more wagons. Can't have too many wagons

 

Andy

[jim.snowdon]

4 minutes ago, SM42 said:

Would it be fair to say that 10ft wheelbase wagons were and anything shorter not.?

It wouldn't. The Big Four were quite up to building 9' wheelbase stock with vacuum brakes for the faster freight services, but none were able to qualify as XP rated. Without doing a bit of digging, I am not certain when the XP classification was created, but it set the bar at 10' minimum wheelbase (which makes it strange that one of the Fox Transfers sheets that I have been using lately has a WB 9' 0" transfer on a sheet devoted entirely to XP markings). The railways were moving generally away from 9' wheelbase vehicles by the 30s, 10' becoming the standard, even on non-braked stock. The costs were marginal, as the only thing that changed were the brake push rods, which required slightly more material. The rest of the wagon cost the same to build, as it used no more material and the labour costs would have been the same.

 

14 minutes ago, SM42 said:

Steel opens of all origins fitted

I'm sure that some of the LNER steel opens were built as hand brake only.

 

Jim

[Steamport Southport]

I'm pretty sure the XP rating originated on the Midland. Originally with a large X. Perpetuated by the LMS and later changed to a small XP.

 

 

 

Jason

[hmrspaul]

Too much emphasis on grey I'm afraid. Unfitted BR wagons only had steel work painted in the early years, the wood was bare. Then it changed to vans being painted but the opens remained unpainted. Then the steel framed opens were to be painted but not the wood framed ones. They only got painted (if at all) officially from 1959 although there are photos of earlier opens with wood frames being painted.

 

Quoting Dave Larkin is slightly misleading. BR only issued the booklets listing which wagons were to  be converted to vacuum brake in Nov 1956 and as has been commented this was rescinded for steel mineral wagons so some of the building lots have clasp brakes from new and then later ones in the same batches unfitted. The Morton vacuum brake minerals are a later conversion.

 

And yes, any LNER steel open merchandise  which don't have a LNER clasp brake rigging were built unfitted 600 listed.

 

Paul

[hmrspaul]

Unfortunately the OP asks a very generalised question about "the 1950s". Being a period of such considerable change I am going to give just a little on stock ratio.

When I published

 

Bartlett, Paul W. (1997) From Box van to holdall - the development of covered Merchandise wagons on BR. Part 3 - The composition of the BR van fleet at nationalisation. Journal of the Historical Model Railway Society 16 ( par 3),  pp 80 - 85.

 

I tabulated some statistics.

For example a the beginning of 1953  there were 84859 power braked and 56821 unfit covered merchandise. Also at that time there was a ratio 1/3rd covered to 2/3rd open merchandise.

 

In Bartlett, Paul W. (1998e) From Box van to holdall - the development of covered Merchandise wagons on BR. Part 7 - The final vacuum braked vans and composition of BR van fleet, 1956 - 1965. Journal of the Historical Model Railway Society 16 (part 8), pp 290 - 298.

 

I tabulated the numbers, and braking of the covered merchandise wagons. At the end of each year

1956 PB 94824 : UF 51787.

1961 PB 129,815 UF10228;

1963 PB 113091  UF 2941

1966 total of 81198.

 

The ratio of open to covered also changed considerably. The total opens for the ends of each of the same years were, and the ratio of opens : covered

 

1956  300579    67 : 33

1961  228960    62 : 38

1966    92901    53  : 47

 

Paul

 

 

 

 

Edited May 8, 2020 by hmrspaul

[Aire Head]

23 hours ago, hmrspaul said:

Unfortunately the OP asks a very generalised question about "the 1950s". Being a period of such considerable change I am going to give just a little on stock ratio.

When I published

 

Bartlett, Paul W. (1997) From Box van to holdall - the development of covered Merchandise wagons on BR. Part 3 - The composition of the BR van fleet at nationalisation. Journal of the Historical Model Railway Society 16 ( par 3),  pp 80 - 85.

 

I tabulated some statistics.

For example a the beginning of 1953  there were 84859 power braked and 56821 unfit covered merchandise. Also at that time there was a ratio 1/3rd covered to 2/3rd open merchandise.

 

In Bartlett, Paul W. (1998e) From Box van to holdall - the development of covered Merchandise wagons on BR. Part 7 - The final vacuum braked vans and composition of BR van fleet, 1956 - 1965. Journal of the Historical Model Railway Society 16 (part 8), pp 290 - 298.

 

I tabulated the numbers, and braking of the covered merchandise wagons. At the end of each year

1956 PB 94824 : UF 51787.

1961 PB 129,815 UF10228;

1963 PB 113091  UF 2941

1966 total of 81198.

 

The ratio of open to covered also changed considerably. The total opens for the ends of each of the same years were, and the ratio of opens : covered

 

1956  300579    67 : 33

1961  228960    62 : 38

1966    92901    53  : 47

 

 

 

I did state mid 50s in my op, apologies if that wasnt clear enough.

 

I am aiming between 54/56 in particular so if I go off the numbers you have helpully provided I'd say that I would need roughly 2/1 opens to vans and for the vans a roughly 2/1 fitted to unfitted.

 

Does that sound about right? Dare i ask what the ratios of fitted to unfitted was for open merchandise?

[The Johnster]

What you are looking at with these figures is the very effective and efficient work of something that sounds highly ineffective and inefficient and exactly the sort of thing nationalised industries get horribly wrong, but wasn't in this case; the Ideal Wagons Committee.  This was set up very shortly after 1/1/48 to deal with the mostly less than  ideal wagons BR inherited.  They had, for example, 'about' half a million pooled wooden XPO minerals, nobody knew exactly, of different types, many not up to even the 1923 RCH standard, many in very poor condition, and very few of recent provenance (16ton steel).  General merchandise was in not much better state, with the huge majority being unfitted, and something like 50% pre-grouping.  There was little standardisation; the LMS and LNER had agreed on corrugated ends, and sliding doors for vans, and the huge majority had not reached that stage and were unfitted.  Very large numbers of big 4 design vans and opens were still on order, and a large proportion of these were also unfitted.

 

The IWC's response was pragmatic and sensible.  A national wagon audit was undertaken to assess the condition of the stock, scrap any that were too far gone, and improve/upgrade the rest with vacuum brakes and instanter couplings.  The wooden minerals were to retain their 3 -link couplings as they were considered to have a short life expectancy (few lasted in BR ownership after about 1963, but some managed another 25 years in industrial use).  The country was very much in the middle of an austerity economic period, and bankrupt, so make do and mend was the order of the day.  XPO minerals and unfitted opens were not to be painted, and new opens appeared in 'bare wood' livery for some years.

 

Disused sidings and sometimes whole branch lines were used to store derelict stock for disposal, and nobody recorded this goldmine of information with a camera; HMRS Paul was still in short trousers.  Wooden bodies were burned to get rid of them and the remaining metalwork sold to the scrappies.

 

The committed reported in 1948 IIRC and the board decreed that a new fleet of general mechandise wagons would be built using the best practices of the recent big 4 products, while the better existing wagons were to be improved as above.  16ton steel minerals went into volume production, or rather continued in it with the volume increased, and by 1949 the new designs were ready and in production.  Some big 4 types continued to be produced until 1954, but no new ones were ordered.  

 

So, the picture in the mid 50s is that very few pre-grouping wagons are left, and the number unfitted is falling.  The bulk of the fleet is big 4 derived but the BR standards are making significant inroads, and the same can be said for wooden mineral XPOs in that the 16ton steel minerals are probably by now about a quarter of the fleet.

 

Following this, and for at least the next 2 decades, traffic began and continued to fall.  The effect of this was to hasten the demise of the older stock and by the end of steam more or less all of the general merchandise fleet had been built by BR, including the later big 4 designs.  The total fleet was very much smaller.

 

Don't forget that all general merchandise and mineral wagons were pooled unless otherwise branded, and that all types could be found everywhere on the system very shortly after nationalisation.  Your fleet should reflect this; a preponderance of LMS followed by LNER, GW, and Southern in that order.  A good number of Southern 'Ashford' vans had been provided to the other 3 railways during the war at the behest of the Ministry of Supply, as Ashford had a large stock of timber pre-cut to build them to it's 2 thin 2 thick plank pattern, so these do not need to have S prefix numbers. 

 

My own fleet, representing the mid 50s, is too heavy on vans and light on opens, but the ratio of unfitted to fitted is not far off; for a BLT ball park is fine.  I need more opens.  This is in regard to general merchandise wagons and 'specialised' stuff like Fruit, Shock, Insulated, Conflats are not included.  My mineral fleet is about 50% steel, which is too high, and includes 21ton double door wagons and a hopper, based on photographic evidence of the area in the late 50s.

 

What a brilliant excuse to buy more opens!  And I really want a plywood Ashford, which will need to be balanced by another gen merch open...

[Aire Head]

Thank you all for your replies so far this has been really productive for me.

 

It has meant that a complete revision of my planned purchases has occurred to focus more on merchandise opens and unfitted stock.

 

Also now found out that I have built enough 16t minerals (for now ) and need to focus on XPOs.

 

It would be nice to know what the ratio of unfitted to fitted open merchandise wagons would be if someone could help?

[The Stationmaster]

The business mentioned by Johnster about using sidings and derelict branchlines to store stock for disposal is not correct.  Large numbers of wagons were put into store in such locations but they were not being held there for disposal as generally withdrawn wagons were broken up fairly quickly.  those which were srored were dect lared surplus to current use and in a number of cases that storage was seasonal trthar than anything else.  

 

The other factor was monetary limits on repair costs.  There was a monetary limit on the amount that could be spent repairing different tu ypes of wagon.  Thus wagons types where there was a surplus had very low limits while those where there was ashortage had very high limits or no limit at all.  The limits changed seasonally thus wagons stored in summer as too expensive to repair would be in demand in winter and fall within the limit for repair costs.  I know that in the very late 1960s the repair cost limit for some tyopes of wagon was 10/- (50p) thus hundreds of wagons were stored as under limits.

 

Gradually as traffic reduced the number of stored wagons was also reduced by condemnation and disposal and what was held in sidings etc was cleared quite rapidly, often only to be replaced by other wagons or types of wagons which then hung around for however long pending either traffic demand or changes to monetary limits but usually ending up with many condemned.

 

Very pertinently to your modelling period was the impact of the 1955 ASLE&F strike which lasted for 17 days.  This led to a considerable loss of merchandise traffic as road hauliers were quite happy to take it on but frequently only on a long term contract basis and this, together with the Modernisation Plan, hastened the demise of unfitted general merchandise wagons.

[62613]

On 08/05/2020 at 18:31, jim.snowdon said:

It wouldn't. The Big Four were quite up to building 9' wheelbase stock with vacuum brakes for the faster freight services, but none were able to qualify as XP rated. Without doing a bit of digging, I am not certain when the XP classification was created, but it set the bar at 10' minimum wheelbase (which makes it strange that one of the Fox Transfers sheets that I have been using lately has a WB 9' 0" transfer on a sheet devoted entirely to XP markings). The railways were moving generally away from 9' wheelbase vehicles by the 30s, 10' becoming the standard, even on non-braked stock. The costs were marginal, as the only thing that changed were the brake push rods, which required slightly more material. The rest of the wagon cost the same to build, as it used no more material and the labour costs would have been the same.

 

I'm sure that some of the LNER steel opens were built as hand brake only.

 

Jim

Larkin has a picture of one at the beginning of one of his wagon books. Just ex works, unfitted, painted grey. I think a single lot, so not that common

 

[A Murphy]

Johnster's exposition above is really interesting and informative - thank you. It may be almost a cliche that we are told that from the turn of the century onwards, one of the reasons railway companies didn't build bigger, more sensible wagons than 9ft wheelbase unfitted coal trucks, is that private mine owners refused to invest money improving facilities at their mines. Given that there is no question this country was skint in 1948, but that we now did have a nationalised coal industry, why do we think the IWC didn't propose the building of larger, fitted wagons, certainly for coal and other suitable traffic? 

 

Or did they?

 

Best wishes,

 

Alastair

 

 

[The Johnster]

They did, but the NCB wasn't having any of it for the same reasons as the previous mine owners didn't.  BR eventually designed the MGR hopper in conjunction with the NCB and CEGN.  One of the reasons that the NCB objected to fitted wagons, air or vacuum, was that the hoses would get blocked with coal dust, which they did sometimes.  The big 4 and even some of the pre-grouping companies were keen to modernise the mineral fleet with larger wagons, and the all-steel Felix Pole 21tonner is a classic example.  But the railway owned these wagons and had to charge a fee that had to be competitive with private ownership, and PO 7-plankers were very 'embedded' in general use; a cut rate had to be introduced to persuade customers to use the Felix Poles.  Late 30s and during the war the LMS design 16ton all-steel began to make an impact, but the overall dimensions and capacity were the same as the 7-planker.  

 

One reason that wooden wagons lasted so long in the coal trade is that coal is acidic, and steel wagons deteriorated more quickly than wooden ones.  Wooden wagons were easy to affect body repairs to on site, another attraction.  There was some progress aside from the steel 21tonner, and power station/steel works coal was nearly all in 21t hoppers or double door wagons by nationalisation, and the 24½tonner was not long behind, rapidly progressing to vacuum brakes and roller bearings; if I were to model Cwmdimbath at a later period I would be needing a lot of these!

 

The LNER, following the lead of the NER in developing 21t hoppers and the LMS came up with the big coke hoppers.  Coke wagons needed to be bigger than coal wagons to carry the same tonnage, as coke is lighter than coal.  The same cubic capacity of iron ore was much heavier, because not only was the material heavier but it was in smaller lumps, which meant that there was less air space in total between them.  

 

There were also the ports to consider.  Export coal was still a big and profitable trade in 1948, and for another 15 years or so, and the wagons were hoisted and end tipped into the ships.  This could only be done with 9' wheelbase wagons.  And minerals were not the only 9' wheelbase wagons BR produced; iron ore hoppers and tipplers, pig iron and twin bolsters come to mind and there are probably others.  

 

It was arguably a disgrace that unfitted 9' wheelbase coal wagons were still common in the 70s, but by that time, with the XPOs eliminated and 10' wb stock restricted to 45mph, it was less of a problem; the minerals could run up to 45mph in class 7 or 8 trains as long as there were still brake vans.  By the 70s these, some bogie bolsters, 35ton 35mph iron ore hoppers, and the remaining pig iron and twin bolster sets, these latter in local circuit working and restricted to class 9 work, were the only remaining unfitted stock in revenue service, but the minerals were by far the most common.  

 

5 hours ago, 62613 said:

I'm sure that some of the LNER steel opens were built as hand brake only.

Some early BR standard vans, and both steel and wooden opens, were built unfitted and upgraded later.  The wooden opens were unpainted, and the steel opens based on the LNER body design.

[jim.snowdon]

5 hours ago, The Johnster said:

There were also the ports to consider.  Export coal was still a big and profitable trade in 1948, and for another 15 years or so, and the wagons were hoisted and end tipped into the ships.  This could only be done with 9' wheelbase wagons.

That may be true of some ports, probably the smaller ones, but I am fairly certain that the South Wales ports were modernised to handle the 20(21)T wagons, otherwise it would not have been worth the Great Western investing in a considerable fleet of end doored examples.

 

6 hours ago, The Johnster said:

It was arguably a disgrace that unfitted 9' wheelbase coal wagons were still common in the 70s, but by that time, with the XPOs eliminated and 10' wb stock restricted to 45mph, it was less of a problem; the minerals could run up to 45mph in class 7 or 8 trains as long as there were still brake vans.  By the 70s these, some bogie bolsters, 35ton 35mph iron ore hoppers, and the remaining pig iron and twin bolster sets, these latter in local circuit working and restricted to class 9 work, were the only remaining unfitted stock in revenue service, but the minerals were by far the most common.  

It is all very well quoting the situation in the 1970s, but it wasn't until then that the dynamic behaviour of railway vehicles, and especially ones with relatively crude suspensions, were being properly understood. Some of the problems that led to their being restricted as to speed had been theere since day one, but only became significant when other changes happend, notably the removal of rail joints and the increase in sustained higher speed running. That longer wheelbase vehicles behaved better at higher speeds was largely based on empirical evidence in the 1940s and 50s. Very few vehicles of nominally standard length were built with significantly longer wheelbases - the LNER fish vans and their BR derivatives being a rare exception.

What was arguably a bigger disgrace was the sheer number of freight trains running with either only partial or no train braking, especially when compared to Europe where, post-war, virtually everything had air brakes as standard.

 

Jim

[The Johnster]

It did feel a bit odd to be sitting in a brake van at the end of a class 8 train as a shiny new HST shot past in the opposite direction, and there were some things that felt like anomalies.  One of my regular link jobs was a train of steel billets on bogie bolsters from Cardiff Tidal, can't recall where it went now, class 8 and thus timed for 35mph, but capable of 60mph; given the state of the brake vans I was usually glad the drivers didn't attempt it.  Radyr or Llantrisant-Pensnett coke with the big hoppers were another class 8 that could run a bit if there was time to make up, 50mph allowed.

 

Took a little while after the war to eliminate unfitted wagons in Europe.  The French still had unbraked mineral wagons and we gave them a batch of steel 16tonners with cupboard doors to replace war losses once the Normandy beachhead was established and Caen port was available.  By 1953 they'd standardised on single pipe air brake and sent them back to us; Ive got a Parkside example on Cwmdimbath.