Rectangular Tank Wagons

[Martino]

There was a rectangular tank (which I think went to the GWS at Didcot) used by the Slough Trading Estate Railway.  I believe it was originally a tar wagon, but Slough Estates used it for weed killing.

https://didcotrailwaycentre.org.uk/article.php/104/no-1-tar-wagon

 

The GWS says they think it was black in its SE time. It was, I remember it well.

Edited December 27, 2023 by Martino
Added link

[Invicta]

4 hours ago, Fat Controller said:

I believe it was to reduce the strength of rum (Lemon Hart?? ) before bottling

 

...also whisky blending- the LMS built a couple of demountable Loch Katrine tankers, the twin-tank Lemon Hart one (delivered after nationalisation)  and a single-tank one before the war for Portal Dingwall & Norris- Amusingly, the tank component of this was finished in GWR chocolate and cream, allegedly at the request of W.S. Norris, a director of PD&N, who was a GWR enthusiast and IIRC owned a notable O-gauge layout of the period.

Edited December 27, 2023 by Invicta
typo

[Michael Hodgson]

1 hour ago, Invicta said:

 

...also whisky blending- the LMS built a couple of demountable Loch Katrine tankers, the twin-tank Lemon Hart one (delivered after nationalisation)  and a single-tank one before the war for Portal Dingwall & Norris- Amusingly, the tank component of this was finished in GWR chocolate and cream, allegedly at the request of W.S. Norris, a director of PD&N, who was a GWR enthusiast and IIRC owned a notable O-gauge layout of the period.

I had a feeeling it was for either beer or whisky, though I don't like either to be watered down. 

And I don't think the GWR even painted their own tank wagons chocolate and cream!

[lather]

On 27/12/2023 at 06:31, kevinlms said:

I doubt whether they'd be ever considered clean enough for drinking water, given their historical load. That is the usual reason for carrying water about a railway, about from boiling it in locomotives.

The C&HPR had to use tankers to carry water up onto the plateau where the bulk of the line ran because there were no natural sources up there able to supply it in the amounts needed. It was used for the winding engines at the top of the inclines, and for the locos that operated on the flat sections between the inclines. AFAIK, they were never used for drinking water, which would have been carried in cans or obtained from the few springs, streams and wells in the area.

[Marshall5]

Magee Marshall's brewery in Bolton had a fleet of rectangular tank wagons used for carrying water for brewing from Burton on Trent to Bolton.  The photo below, from 'Brewery Railways of Burton on Trent', shows a rake of them at the borehole.

Ray.

 

[Marshall5]

On 31/01/2010 at 09:29, Bernard Lamb said:

 

 

The storage tanks for the tar were probably built at the correct height for the tar to be loaded into the rectangular tanks. A round tank with a higher filling point would probably have been impossible to load by gravity feed. Seems as plausible a reason as any. Ther's usually a very simply answer why old habits survive well past there sell by date.

Bernard

As they say "A picture is worth a thousand words".  The photo below shows tar from Harrogate gas works being transferred from the narrow gauge to standard gauge tank wagons at Bilton siding in 1952.  Photo E. Sanderson.

Ray.

 

[65179]

3 hours ago, Marshall5 said:

As they say "A picture is worth a thousand words".  The photo below shows tar from Harrogate gas works being transferred from the narrow gauge to standard gauge tank wagons at Bilton siding in 1952.  Photo E. Sanderson.

Ray.

 

 

Thanks for sharing this. What a fascinating little railway: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrogate_Gasworks_Railway

 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://m.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3D3RBPX5UDPhs&ved=2ahUKEwjV1eL58Z6EAxVbQUEAHUmYAVkQwqsBegQIHRAG&usg=AOvVaw0flfo2aKVUz0XeJxNBBU9X

 

Regards,

Simon