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Breakdown train/crane


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Hi, can anyone tell me or better still show me the correct formation/s for a breakdown, re railing, train. ideally i want it to be based around a Br blue class 40 and a modified and detailed Hornby breakdown crane. I notice hornbys new model is red and the previous was yellow, is this dependent on region? if so what colour is for the eastern region? many thanks for your time and anticipated advice, Rich :no:

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Never seen a fixed formation of a breakdown train - all I know is the crane jib was "supposed" to trail in the direction of travel

 

tend to have

Crane and Runner

Mess Van

Tool Van (depending on train could be an old coach or parcels van personally never seen a 4 wheel one but )

Re Railing van

some had a water tanker for the Steam Crane too

 

 

As for Colour then it relates to the period

 

up-to the mid 50's (I think) they were Black

then they were Red

in the Mid 70's (again not sure of date) they were painted Yellow

 

Now you can see cranes in all colours of livery as they are used for Construction work although there are a small number of breakdown cranes stabled around the country which I believe are still Yellow (Notwork Rail livery)

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I don't know if these photos help.

Pilmoor is on the ECML, Hotchley Hill is on the Great Central at Ruschcliffe Halt.

 

post-5613-0-47184400-1336396567.png

 

post-5613-0-32757400-1336396573.png

 

post-5613-0-46213900-1336396581.png

Dvaid

What type of coach is the one in the centre?
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The Cowans Sheldon 75 ton cranes were built as steam powered and painted red. They were converted from steam to diesel, uprated to 76 tonnes and came out of works painted yellow. The trains consisted of a living van, a tool and packing van and a jacking van. On the Eastern Region, the red vans could well have been Gresleys, and were replaced with Mk1s after the cranes were converted, so you could have a red steam crane with red Gresley coaches, a yellow diesel hydraulic crane with yellow Gresleys or yellow Mk 1s.

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The Cowans Sheldon 75 ton cranes were built as steam powered and painted red. They were converted from steam to diesel, uprated to 76 tonnes and came out of works painted yellow. The trains consisted of a living van, a tool and packing van and a jacking van. On the Eastern Region, the red vans could well have been Gresleys, and were replaced with Mk1s after the cranes were converted, so you could have a red steam crane with red Gresley coaches, a yellow diesel hydraulic crane with yellow Gresleys or yellow Mk 1s.

So if i go with red ill need a water tanker and if yellow i wont? Think i like the red option best, though at the moment im tempted to do both! looks like my air brush is gunna be busy, would there be a brake van used at all?
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Thornaby had an old Gresley coach painted yellow with striped ends.I'll post a pic when I get a chance. Longsight, in the 1970/80's had an ex LMS coach as part of the train. There was usually a class 40 parked on the same road just in case.

 

Mike Wiltshire

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(Notwork Rail livery)

 

Some of us are very happy working for Network Rail, and don't appreciate slurs like you make here. Please be more respectful.

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Hi, can anyone tell me or better still show me the correct formation/s for a breakdown, re railing, train. ideally i want it to be based around a Br blue class 40 and a modified and detailed Hornby breakdown crane. I notice hornbys new model is red and the previous was yellow, is this dependent on region? if so what colour is for the eastern region? many thanks for your time and anticipated advice, Rich :no:

Regions may vary but there used to be a LMR edict that cranes above a certain weight (which included BDCs should be marshalled next to the loco for transit purposes. Obviously the crane needed to be leading into the work site which meant running round at least. The crane would also be trailing off site (as in the pics running wrong road on the ECML) but would be remarshalled for the run back home.

The Cowans Sheldon 75 ton cranes were built as steam powered and painted red. They were converted from steam to diesel, uprated to 76 tonnes and came out of works painted yellow. The trains consisted of a living van, a tool and packing van and a jacking van. On the Eastern Region, the red vans could well have been Gresleys, and were replaced with Mk1s after the cranes were converted, so you could have a red steam crane with red Gresley coaches, a yellow diesel hydraulic crane with yellow Gresleys or yellow Mk 1s.

Pedant point, The cranes were not uprated to 76 tonnes, they were metricated (pedant mode off).

What colour would the water tank be?

The tank would match the rest of the train i.e. if the crane and vans were red, the tank would be also.

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Regions may vary but there used to be a LMR edict that cranes above a certain weight (which included BDCs should be marshalled next to the loco for transit purposes. Obviously the crane needed to be leading into the work site which meant running round at least. The crane would also be trailing off site (as in the pics running wrong road on the ECML) but would be remarshalled for the run back home.

 

 

Actually I think this is still in force as on those days when I do see a crane in the Doncaster -Toton 6X0x run through Chesterfield it's always at the front of the train - - though not seen a BDC for a good few years on the Main line

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Hello, me again sorry, thanks for all the help so far gents, very much appriciated and i cant wait to get started. Anyone any ideas of running numbers for stock? Gunna get the new red Hornby crane and titivate it a bit, but the three coaches ( including the gresley ) and tanker will be an airbrush jobby so ill need authentic running numbers. Will use fox transfers as normal but how can i find actual numbers out as i wasnt born till 1977 and by the time i could go out on my own said prototype had gone :scratchhead: On a slightly more extreme note, the class 40 im gunna use is a dcc sound model, is there any way of sound chipping the crane? Rich

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The tank wagon might well be an ex-milk tank, which simply would have had a horizontal black stripe on the original dirty-silver livery with 'not to be used for milk traffic' painted on; I believe there might even be such a beast in either the Hornby or Dapol list.

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Just a small note about the location of the crane in the train. If I remember rightly, there wasn't room for train brake equipment under the crane or relieving bogies, so because they were only through piped, they couldn't be at or near the back. I'm sure I've sat on Stratford's living van between the loco and the crane with the two tool vans bringing up the rear.

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