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GWR Rotank drawings


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On 04/07/2020 at 13:46, 88D said:

The Rotank at Didcot has a circular cross-section, not oval, iirc?

 

Rotanks were indeed  round.    These aren't intended to be Rotanks.

 

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Im getting closer with mine, Had a tracking issue with the longer 3 axle wagon but thats fine now. Just trying to sort the ladder and walkway out atm. Ideal for an etch but thats beyond me. 

Anyone interested in doing some etches for me, either UK or elsewhere.

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51 minutes ago, amandalee said:

Im getting closer with mine, Had a tracking issue with the longer 3 axle wagon but thats fine now. Just trying to sort the ladder and walkway out atm. Ideal for an etch but thats beyond me. 

Anyone interested in doing some etches for me, either UK or elsewhere.

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 This looks like fantastic progress to me - I'll certainly be keen to order any GWR rotank designs you are able to bring to market.

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7 hours ago, amandalee said:

Im getting closer with mine, Had a tracking issue with the longer 3 axle wagon but thats fine now. Just trying to sort the ladder and walkway out atm. Ideal for an etch but thats beyond me. 

Anyone interested in doing some etches for me, either UK or elsewhere.

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In terms of etches, Justin Newitt might be a possibility? He does a lot of milk tank add-ons. I have no connection with him, so I am not speaking on his behalf: it would just seem to be a marriage made in Heaven!

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Hi.....Ive made some progress, strangely my day work has gone off the scale down here. I expected covid to kill the building industry I draft for, our gov put in place a new home stimulus package to counter that  and its gone crazy.

I have setup a website though so I can get away from Ebay too which has helped.

www.bygone-wagons.com

The tanks are done though im leaving some work to be done on them as I think it is easier for follow on painting etc.

Love to get some etched ladders but thats ongoing.

Happy for comments and also have tidied up some Rectanks I had started too. 

Edited by amandalee
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36 minutes ago, Michael Hodgson said:

These wagons were evidently classified as Non-Passenger Coaching Stock and ran under the class C headlamp code.  

Does this mean their low sides would have been painted brown, like the Siphons, rather than the more usual grey for goods wagons?  The colour isn't obvious from B/W photos in the books.

They were definitely NPCCS vehicles.  A BR era photo of an LM vehicle shows the low side in a different shade from the undetframe but being a b&w picture it's impossible to say what the colour was.

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Interesting question. Usually, chassis on most GWR NPCCS (horse boxes, siphons etc) were black, and milk tankers in the O series were no different. However, as I understand it, Rotanks were built under the DD series, which are not NPCCS. Moreover they were built under BR, and not GWR, so would fall under a different painting regime. I think black is the most likely colour for the chassis.
 

 

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I guess you're referring to the slim rail along the edge of the wheel-way, as the rest of the chassis would undoubtedly be black. From the pictures I took at Didcot in 2008 the vehicle is so rusty it's difficult to tell. One shot looks like there might be the remains of brown paint, the other looks like the remains of silver/grey. As the wheel ways were likely to have been silver-painted, maybe the outside rails were, too. (CJL)

Didcot 3-2008 058.jpg

Didcot 3-2008 068.jpg

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I thought maybe I'll just take the easy way out and go for post nationalisation livery and used freight wagon grey.

 

The large "GW" letters on the earlier photos in Russells book (figs. 150 - 154) do look as though they may be the yellowy colour that was used on brown stock.  That could just be dirt/ageing, although a newish wagon would be chosen for what seem to be publicity shots (for Messrs Dyson?)  Dibber's photo looks mostly plain old rust on the sides but could be bauxite as used by BR on fitted wagons.  So much for the easy way out!  Also, the wagon in Fig. 156 doesn't have the GW visible and is dated 1935. 

 

Interesting to see the dairy didn't have to bother unloading the road tanker from its wagon and just emptied it the same as any other milk tank.   Where such wagons were used for beer traffic, I suppose it could be the other way round if the brewery was rail-served.  I imagine those needed to be emptied into barrels for distribution by drays.  A bottling plant would have been an alternative for beer too, but you wouldn't use  this type of wagon if both ends of the traffic were rail-served.  

 

I liked the idea that the wheel-ways might be silver coloured, possibly unpainted steel.  But in Dibber's last photo the top rail seems to be grey-painted angle-iron mounted on longitudinal timbers.  That may all be a more recent replacement of course, and the rails in Russell's photos look much more substantial than angle iron.  In any case those rails must have got dirty and greasy very quickly in service.  I had originally assumed that the flat deck would have been aluminium chequerplate, but on reflection that would be far too modern a practice, it is timber in the Guinness wagon in fig 149, though it looks more like plain steel plate in Fig 151 with timber at the very ends.

 

The stop chocks were presumably removed from the end nearest the loading bay and secured with chains to scotch the tanker as well as tying it down with chains.  Although it's less laborious than humping heavy churns into Siphons, what with winching, securing the tow bars etc, loading these must still have been a moderately time consuming business on top of the time taken to fill the tanker in the first place and drive it to the station. 

 

 

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These wagons had power brake, so if painted in BR wagon colours they would have been freight stock red = bauxite. if NPCCS then the crimson as used for the mainline crimson/cream livery. Don't use Precision paints BR Crimson which is much too dark. 

 

Paul

 

 

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On 16/01/2021 at 16:03, Michael Hodgson said:

I thought maybe I'll just take the easy way out and go for post nationalisation livery and used freight wagon grey.

 

The large "GW" letters on the earlier photos in Russells book (figs. 150 - 154) do look as though they may be the yellowy colour that was used on brown stock.  That could just be dirt/ageing, although a newish wagon would be chosen for what seem to be publicity shots (for Messrs Dyson?)  Dibber's photo looks mostly plain old rust on the sides but could be bauxite as used by BR on fitted wagons.  So much for the easy way out!  Also, the wagon in Fig. 156 doesn't have the GW visible and is dated 1935. 

 

Interesting to see the dairy didn't have to bother unloading the road tanker from its wagon and just emptied it the same as any other milk tank.   Where such wagons were used for beer traffic, I suppose it could be the other way round if the brewery was rail-served.  I imagine those needed to be emptied into barrels for distribution by drays.  A bottling plant would have been an alternative for beer too, but you wouldn't use  this type of wagon if both ends of the traffic were rail-served.  

 

I liked the idea that the wheel-ways might be silver coloured, possibly unpainted steel.  But in Dibber's last photo the top rail seems to be grey-painted angle-iron mounted on longitudinal timbers.  That may all be a more recent replacement of course, and the rails in Russell's photos look much more substantial than angle iron.  In any case those rails must have got dirty and greasy very quickly in service.  I had originally assumed that the flat deck would have been aluminium chequerplate, but on reflection that would be far too modern a practice, it is timber in the Guinness wagon in fig 149, though it looks more like plain steel plate in Fig 151 with timber at the very ends.

 

The stop chocks were presumably removed from the end nearest the loading bay and secured with chains to scotch the tanker as well as tying it down with chains.  Although it's less laborious than humping heavy churns into Siphons, what with winching, securing the tow bars etc, loading these must still have been a moderately time consuming business on top of the time taken to fill the tanker in the first place and drive it to the station. 

 

 

I took lots more pictures of the Rotank at Didcot as I was planning to build a model but haven't yet got round to it. Unfortunately the vehicle is in such rotten shape that bits have fallen off and simply lie on the deck so in some instances it's difficult to see where they came from. Sadly, with preservation groups facing huge difficulties over both money and manpower even before Covid struck, it is difficult to see a future for wagon restorations. Even locos and coaches are becoming ultra-long-term projects with the result that wagons like this will likely fall to pieces before they get any attention. 

Didcot 3-2008 052.jpg

Didcot 3-2008 060.jpg

Didcot 3-2008 072.jpg

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Thanks Dibber.

 

That does clear up the colour of the guide rails, at least in BR colours - looks like all the ironwork was black, with creosoted timer decking.

Most of the bits seem to be off the wagon or anchoring equipment.  Interesting to see that the chassis of the tank trailer including its leaf springs were white!  Of course that could have been done by Didcot.  Odd that the bottom of the access ladder bends inwards at the base.

 

I note that the vehicle stop chocks shown in the books aren't there.  It was presumably decided at some point that chain the trailer down was sufficient.  The pulleys would no doubt have been covered in dirty grease.

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Amanda - your model is pretty awesome as it is, and kudos to you for being brave enough to put it into "production" for the rest of us less skilled out here.

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