Longmoor Military Railway.

[Blandford1969]

Does anyone know if WD 12 which as an 0-6-0 saddle tank ever ran at Longmoor?

[coline33]

Interesting point with WD 12 as its home depot being Bramley which would have been an easy transfer to Longmoor via Borden if major attention or need was required.   Roger Hateley's "Locomotives of the Ministry of Defence" shows "Bramley No.1" (WD 74553) has new to Bramley and seen there in 4/52 and 6/52.   Next seen at Long Marston on 3/55 and 1958 but was disposed off in 1959.   I can find no reference to WD 12 (WD 74553) being at Longmoor in "LMR - Part 3".   As David R said to me after Part 3 was published he and Mike C could not guarantee that every piece of army rolling stock based at Longmoor was included.   Have any books been published that refer to operations at Bramley?

 

 

Edited April 28, 2021 by coline33

[coline33]

Of which Longmoor brake, van wagon prototypes are there reasonable RTR models?   Bachmann/Invicta's 37-537X provide the LMR 'standard' brake van.   Strangely van ARMY 47555 was chosen by Bachmann for 37-806.   That may have been chosen deliberately as no record can be found of the prototype's allocations!!!   So why not make it a Longmoor van.   Dapol do have moulds for some diagrams of vans which the army purchased.   Large amongst these were batches of BR diagram 1/208 for general allocation with Longmoor receiving a batch.   Maybe a future candidate for Wessex Wagons.   When it comes to wagons, Wessex model No.345 is a 'dead ringer' for LMR's 24t. hopper AD 82692.   Nice if this could be repeated but as AD 82691.   Their models Nos. 246, 314/5 show a very good decoration for WD 46276 and 46299 can only be affixed to Dapol's 4-plank 'merchandice' body as there are no 'dropside' ones available for true accuracy.

 

With so many model RTR Longmoor locos, it is a pity that there are so few vans and wagons to add to the brake van to make a reasonably Longmoor freight train.   So what more can be done?   There are not even transfers available to easy renumber undecorated bodies.   Geddi had a good try with the artwork he produced but a technical hitch in preparation bought that to an end.

[Blandford1969]

2 hours ago, coline33 said:

Interesting point with WD 12 as its home depot being Bramley which would have been an easy transfer to Longmoor via Borden if major attention or need was required.   Roger Hateley's "Locomotives of the Ministry of Defence" shows "Bramley No.1" (WD 74553) has new to Bramley and seen there in 4/52 and 6/52.   Next seen at Long Marston on 3/55 and 1958 but was disposed off in 1959.   I can find no reference to WD 12 (WD 74553) being at Longmoor in "LMR - Part 3".   As David R said to me after Part 3 was published he and Mike C could not guarantee that every piece of army rolling stock based at Longmoor was included.   Have any books been published that refer to operations at Bramley?

 

 

Thanks for the information, really appreciated.

[PhilJ W]

2 hours ago, coline33 said:

Of which Longmoor brake, van wagon prototypes are there reasonable RTR models?   

IIRC they had some LSWR road vans which will soon be available from Kernow models.

[coline33]

12 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

IIRC they had some LSWR road vans which will soon be available from Kernow models.

Unfortunately, KMRC are not doing an army version.   I pre-ordered mine when first announced but cannot recall in which century!   I was either going to use it on my Wenford Mineral or repaint for Longmoor.   Times change and I got fed up waiting so cancelled.   Now if an army version was to be released then I will again be amongst the first to place an order now that I am purely RTR.

[coline33]

I have checked the numbers of the 4 wheeled brakes, vans and wagons between "LMR  Part 3" and my 'Bicester records' and set out those further vehicles that have been allocated to Longmoor.

 

AD 46054        10t. 5-plank open ex-LBSCR 

ARMY 46182   10t. open ex-LBSCR diag.1369

47027               ramp wagon (there seems to be a number problem here}

ARMY 47872   10t. non-vent. van ex-MR diag. D360

49013               ex-SR diag.1579 finally allocated to FIBUA Longmoor

49024               This appears to have been the allocated number for listed 13139 in the 1956 renumbering but the                                  1956 Palmers Ball  accident wrote it off beforehand.

Edited April 29, 2021 by coline33

[Ian Morgan]

I used to attend the model railway club at RAF Brüggen in the mid-1980's (I was a civvie working in the Big House at Rheindahlen). The club had an old german railway carriage, which was parked by a warehouse at the far end of the tracks. Sometimes it was shunted away from where we could plug in to the mains, so we had to give up on those evenings. Rheindahlen had a model railway club based in an old SSVC building, with a large OO scale layout, but I was more into N.

 

The carriage had been used as a bar and disco at RAF Wildenrath (now Siemens testing ground), and when it was no longer fit for that, it was moved from the Wildenrath branch, along a stretch of the DB line to the Brüggen branch. I believe a crate of beer left in the local signal box allowed the movement of an un-braked, un-maintained vehicle to pass un-noticed.

 

The interior had been stripped for disco use, but the coal bunker underneath was still full of coal for the heater that had been removed. We were building a long thin N gauge layout in it.

A new base commander came along and did not like a tatty old carriage making his nice clean base look tidy, so it went for scrap.

 

I was told that the line into RAF Brüggen was fairly regularly lifted and relaid, as practice/training/punishment.

 

Now I live not far from Bramley (and the former military line to Burghfield that does not appear on maps). The Middleton Press book covering the Reading-Basingstoke line has some photos and a few details about Bramley.

 

[coline33]

Thanks, Ian, for the background.   Certainly I was not aware of its existence in the fifties.   I assume you used the daily Rheindahlen coach from/to Bruggen.   I used to get to/from the Rheindahlen model shop in my lunch times by hiding under the cloth covered table in Bruggen's postal van!

 

Yes, Bramley is short of detail but my records show no army brakes, vans or wagons being allocated to that depot.   Colin.

[Penrhos1920]

Does anyone know anything about this brake van please?  I believe it is ex Barry Railway but there are no records of any Barry brake vans going to LMR.  There were 61 Barry brake vans of this design; all but one of this design were taken into GWR stock and withdrawn in the 1920s.  Looking at what is in the background I think the photo is post 1945.

Edited January 9, 2022 by Penrhos1920

[Tony Cane]

Acording to the three part history of the LMR, this is an ex Taff Valley brake van one of two bought from the GWR in 1927.

[Penrhos1920]

2 hours ago, Tony Cane said:

Acording to the three part history of the LMR, this is an ex Taff Valley brake van one of two bought from the GWR in 1927.

Thanks Tony,  does it give the GWR numbers for both of them?

[Ian Smeeton]

3 hours ago, Penrhos1920 said:

Does anyone know anything about this brake van please?  I believe it is ex Barry Railway but there are no records of any Barry brake vans going to LMR.  There were 61 Barry brake vans of this design; one of this design were taken into GWR stock and withdrawn in the 1920s.  Looking at what is in the background I think the photo is post 1945.

 

I've no idea where it is from, but judging by the 'Bomb-sights' on the side, it has done 8 successful missions.

 

Regards

 

Ian

[Tony Cane]

1 hour ago, Penrhos1920 said:

Thanks Tony,  does it give the GWR numbers for both of them?

There is no other information about these vehicles in the book

[Penrhos1920]

A heads up for anyone who wants a model of the brake van a couple of posts back.  You can buy a 3d printed one from my shapeways shop.  Both the before and after 'accident' versions are available in OO, I can also do it in 7mm at a similar price to the other 7mm brake vans.

Edited January 11, 2022 by Penrhos1920

[coline33]

On 28/12/2021 at 20:53, Tony Cane said:

There is no other information about these vehicles in the book

I too just accepted David's research on these brake vans and went no further as it took a tremendous amount of time researching all the other WD/MoD vehicles in the country.   However, as I found with tabulating all the wagons for china clay to the end of steam, NRM York provided me with electronic copy of all the sheets from the GWR Register of Freight Wagons.   If, because of similarity of design, anyone wishes to confirm the two vans' histories then a request to NRM for the electronic copy of the Register in respect of the 61Barry brakes would be worthwhile.     If sale to WD is not mentioned then one could accept David's Taff Vale or ask for the sheets on those.   You may find more than you bargained for, as I did with the CC fleet!!!   Colin. 

 

[Chen Melling]

My photo-collecting friend Alon Siton (

) got this photo of an unidentified LMR Austerity 0-6-0ST from c. 1947. as part of an album he bought which belonged to Ivor Peter Gillson (https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/26954/mr-ivor-gillson-dic-1957/).

Hope this is of interest to anyone.

[PhilJ W]

FYI here is a blog on the Whitcomb locomotives.

http://www.robertsarmory.com/whitcomb.htm