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PARROT lettering and data?


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I've avoided calling this "PARROT markings" for obvious reasons.......

 

Does anyone have details on what markings went where on the GW PARROT bogie wagons?  Lots of Ex LNER pics of them as cable drum carriers, a few pics from their LMS service, but so far none found for GW service. 

 

I have looked online, in two Russell books, and also "Atkins, Beard and Tourret"......

 

Thank you.

Edited by M.I.B
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1 hour ago, Gordon A said:

Paul Bartlett has a couple of photos of adapted Parrots registered with the GWR. The vast majority are linked to the LNER and LMS, which as a wartime wagon makes sense.

 

Gordon A

 

These were built for a specific shipment of US made Buffalo aircraft which came "CKD" from the US.  So they would have come in at a West coast port anywhere from Brizzle to Glasgow.    Not LNER turf.   GW ones and LMS ones differed - one lot were welded and the others were rivetted.

 

By the time these were built and running the Buffalo were sent out to the Far East and these wagons were redundant.  They then became the rail equivalent of the RAF's Queen Mary trailers - used for moving large repairable aircraft parts to RAF MUs.    That's when they spread out to LNER and no doubt SR turf, although none are thought to have got to run in SR or LNER colours until some were converted and ran as LNER stock. 

 

BUT as with  most things on RM Web, I stand by to be educated and corrected - you never know what people dredge up - which is what makes this a great place.

 

 

 

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Pic found online which shows an aircraft being moved somewhere,  possibly a late mk spitfire by the look. Currently trying to model for my wagon load. 1 butchered airfix kit strewn about the workbench currently!!.

Parrot Aircraft.jpg

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3 hours ago, M.I.B said:

...  So they would have come in at a West coast port anywhere from Brizzle to Glasgow.    Not LNER turf.   

 

Dear me!  Stay behind after class M.I.B and write out one hundred times: “I must learn my railway geography”.  No cutting and pasting allowed.  Which railway served Queen Street in Glasgow perchance?  Or Central in Liverpool?

 

7 hours ago, M.I.B said:

Does anyone have details on what markings went where on the GW PARROT bogie wagons? 

Putting together such information as can be found in the two references, these wagons were designed by the LNER.  Twenty five were built, five – 3000 to 3004 at Swindon using riveted construction, and the remainder – 3005 to 3024 at York “… relying heavily on welded construction …(Ref 2)”  They were however, lettered for the LMS, although during the war (!) they were actually under the control of the Air Ministry.  War’s a confusing business.

 

The official photo (the same image is used in both references) shows that they were lettered:

 

20T  30xx  LMS  PARROT

 

at the left hand end of the upper frame member.

 

The 20T appears over the upper end of the first diagonal strut, the number over the first vertical strut and LMS PARROT seems to be centred over the second vertical strut.

 

The tare weight is at the right hand end, over the right hand bogie.  According to Ref 1, the tare was 17tons 7cwt, although the image in Ref 1 suggests an actual tare of xx(t) x(cwt) x(quarters).  Unfortunately it’s not possible to discern what the numbers actually are.

 

What neither reference tells us what colour the wagons were actually painted.  By 1942 the LMS was using bauxite livery, but the GW used grey for all wagons and LNER used grey for unfitted wagons.

 

Feeling my way here, but the SR goods vans supplied to the GW and LMS were finished in their owner’s respective liveries, so I would take a punt on bauxite being the base colour.  Not that anyone’s likely to be able to prove the matter one way or the other now.

 

On a personal note I can recall seeing a couple of these wagons – through a thicket of the most immense bramble stems I have ever seen – in the yard at Chichester in the mid-1970’s.  Both vehicles were lettered M30xx, although in BR unfitted grey by then, so my view is that these vehicles only ever carried LMS or BR livery.

 

References:

  1. An Illustrated History of LMS Wagons Volume 2, Essery R, Oxford Publishing Company (Poole) 1983, pp46-47
  2. LNER Wagons Volume 4B, Tatlow P, Wild Swan Books (Bath) 2015, pp271, 274.

Regards

TMc

27/08/2021

 

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2 hours ago, amandalee said:

Pic found online which shows an aircraft being moved somewhere,  possibly a late mk spitfire by the look. Currently trying to model for my wagon load. 1 butchered airfix kit strewn about the workbench currently!!.

Parrot Aircraft.jpg

 In such a light colour and with a 5 blade prop, I'm thinking it's a PR variant and quite high up in the numbers - 14+....

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Many thanks TMc

 

A ton of relevant details.  I shall get the tiny tiny HMRS numbers and letters out..........

 

Every day is a schoolday on RMWeb 

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2 hours ago, M.I.B said:

 In such a light colour and with a 5 blade prop, I'm thinking it's a PR variant and quite high up in the numbers - 14+....

On the Science and Society website it states the image is around 1955, so definitely a late model - to say the least. Weren't there only a few PRXIX left by then?

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By the mid 50s a Mk XIX would be a rare beast in the RAF's operational inventory.  

 

That one could be on the way to somewhere to become a "gate guardian".     Anyone's guess for a very used aircraft being moved by train.  Still has it's engine in, and the third wagon could well be another PARROT with the wings on it........

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13 hours ago, M.I.B said:

By the mid 50s a Mk XIX would be a rare beast in the RAF's operational inventory.  

 

That one could be on the way to somewhere to become a "gate guardian".     Anyone's guess for a very used aircraft being moved by train.  Still has it's engine in, and the third wagon could well be another PARROT with the wings on it........

The last flight was apparently in June 1957, by an aircraft of the Temperature and Humidity Flight from RAF Woodvale.

Outside of aircraft and cable drums, 'Parrots' also carried part-assembled pylons from Painters of Hereford, I believe.

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