GWR loading gauge controls

[corneliuslundie]

I am assembling a kit for a GWR loading gauge, the type with side sections which can be raised when the gauge is not being used to measure a load.

I have got to the stage of adding the wires for raising and lowering these sections. However, the kit instructions make no mention of any control mechanism on the post near the ground for use by staff, or indeed where the control wire goes after it passes around the pulley near the cross arm.

I have looked in several books without success. One photo seems to show something attached to the post at about waist height, but is not clear enough to see what.

Any suggestions please?

And a supplementary question: when did this type of loading gauge come into use, and were earlier ones fixed?

Jonathan

[Harlequin]

Have you looked at Atkins "GWR Goods Train Working" Vol 2?

On page 280 there's a drawing and on 281 a photo.

Unfortunately it's still not clear how the wire ropes that control the "arms" are shackled to the post but my best guess is a ring connected to the rope engages in hooks bolted to the post in two positions. I think I also see a wooden hand grip in the photo but maybe I'm imagining it.

 

[Il Grifone]

AFAIK the beginning of last century with an increase in traffic between the railways. The ones I remember had chain supporting the movable sections and there was a pulley on the support post to wind them up and down. I'll try and do some research* I have one to build myself, which has been sitting in a box for a long time (as in measured in decades...).

 

* The distaff side keep finding me things to do! This eats seriously into modelling time, which is starting to run out (75 next birthday - I intend to last a long time/for ever but it's not down to me.)

Edited June 23, 2021 by Il Grifone
Vagrant comma

[Il Grifone]

More info here - apparently there are two hooks to hold the arms in the up or down position:

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blogs/entry/9376-loading-gauges-from-ratio-kits/

 

I found the box containing my Ratio kit. The instructions are rather rudimentary...

The price tag shows 79p which indicates how long I've had it! It was intended for an EM nineteen  twenties GWR branch terminus which never got built.

 

Photos seem few and far between, but it would not have been considered a particularly interesting object at the time.

Edited June 23, 2021 by Il Grifone

[corneliuslundie]

Useful. Thanks.

Mine is the Smiths SF04 kit. based on a white metal post (which bends rather easily). There is an etch for the various bits attached to the crossarm and the post. And three pieces of wire (one for the cross arm and supposedly a smaller diameter piece for the supports and a thin piece for the operating wire - but in fact two pieces the same thickness! So I have to find some very fine wire)

And there are two small castings for the bits on the end of the crossarm. Not sure how to fix them yet.

The instructions talk about sticking it together, which is what I have been doing, using gel superglue, though it is very fiddly.

But the bit about the operating wire says nothing about any wire from the pulley on the post down to the level where someone could operate it. Hence my initial question.

At least I am now confident that it is OK not only for my 1930 Sarn layout (mid Wales ex Cambrian) but I can also get away with using it on my 1912 GWR/Rhymney joint layout in due course - if I can face assembling a second one.

Jonathan

[corneliuslundie]

Update. I remembered than some years ago I used to get batches of photos from the HMRS and would take them to local meetings of modellers for identification. One batch was of loading gauges photographed in Lincolnshire. Afterwards, I suggested that they might make a short item in the HMRS Journal. They appeared on page 30 of volume 16 in 1997.

They are of course not GWR but some of them have lowering mechanisms. However, even though they are close-ups it is very hard to see what is going on.

The GNR one at Old Leake has a chain which runs over a pulley at the top of the post and down the back - but the bottom is off the picture.

The GNR one at Midville actually has three gauges (different loading gauges for different companies I assume, GNR, GER, GCR?) but the control chains seem to be just in a big knot on the post.

The best is that at Newthorpe & Gresley. There seems to be an operating lever about 4 ft long pivoted on the post. That would make sense as quite a length of chain would have to be pulled in or let out. A GWR gauge would not need so much movement as it is only the end "wings" which are adjusted.

All of them seem to have chains rather than ropes.

So some thoughts but no firm answers.

Jonathan

[Harlequin]

The drawing in Atkins has the very clear label, "Wire Rope". There's no sign of any winding or lever mechanism.

 

[bécasse]

1. 21 hours ago, corneliuslundie said:

   Useful. Thanks.

   Mine is the Smiths SF04 kit. based on a white metal post (which bends rather easily). There is an etch for the various bits attached to the crossarm and the post. And three pieces of wire (one for the cross arm and supposedly a smaller diameter piece for the supports and a thin piece for the operating wire - but in fact two pieces the same thickness! So I have to find some very fine wire)

    

   Electrical flex, as used for connecting appliances rather than house wiring, contains multiple strands of fine wire. To straighten it fasten one end of a single strand (in a vice for example) and pull hard on the other end using pliers until it gives very slightly. The wire solders easily too.