Malt traffic to/from maltings late 70s

[rob D2]

Hi,

I am considering building a 'maltings' on my layout similar to the one that existed at wallingford and had rail traffic to 1981.

 

Question is what came in/went out.I would guess:

 

1/coal in in 16Ts

2/grain in in 35T grain wagons as per Bachmann

3/product out in vans , I think I recall seeing a rake of VVVs in a photo from wallingford,

 

 

Anybody confirm or deny these conclusions ?

 

Cheers,

Rob

[hmrspaul]

Hi,

I am considering building a 'maltings' on my layout similar to the one that existed at wallingford and had rail traffic to 1981.

 

Question is what came in/went out.I would guess:

 

1/coal in in 16Ts

2/grain in in 35T grain wagons as per Bachmann

3/product out in vans , I think I recall seeing a rake of VVVs in a photo from wallingford,

 

 

Anybody confirm or deny these conclusions ?

 

Cheers,

Rob

 

 

Dear Rob

This is at Wallingford http://gallery6801.fotopic.net/p14592873.html, with a VVV - ply doors and plank side in the background.

 

Paul

York

[rob D2]

Thanks Paul,

that's a start, I wonder if the VVVs were bringing in grain or outgoing produce ?

[The Stationmaster]

I can't recall any outwards traffic when I went down there on the freight trip c.1967 or when I was in the Divisional freight office at Reading in the late '60s. There was definitely inwards grain and, at one time, coal and there used to be a lot of outwards road traffic.

[Guest stuartp]

What about malted barley out, but in 35t hoppers rather than vans ? There was a fair bit of traffic from East Anglia to Scotland for the distilling industry in 'whiskey logo' hoppers, or have I got the wrong end of the stick ?

[owentherail]

Ill post my pic of train going to Wallingford when i get home tonight, The grain wagons wont be like Bachmann ones but like Dapol ones, those and VVV like vans only ones i saw there, never coal wagons. Oh and a guards van, think that on pic!! post it later, owen

[RANGERS]

These views of Louth show plenty of VVV vans but curiously no hoppers which were common for outgoing traffic right up to 1980.

 

http://www.davesrailpics.bravehost.com/louth/mr.htm

[owentherail]

Dates on as shown, All at Cholsey, fteight coming from Wallingford, think ive a couple more, finding them mite not be easy, owen

[rob D2]

Good stuff guys,

I guess the vans and hoppers are grain going in then

owen those hoppers look like they have sheets over them I can't see if they are Bachmann style or earlier

 

I ordered some Bachmann vvvs today so that fits in

 

thanks so far

[owentherail]

The ABM grain wagons are like the Dapol ones rather than Bachmann ones,

[rob D2]

Nice photos owen,

 

I can definately see some 16 tonners at the back of that 31 hauled train - I wonder if they were for some place else ?

 

Interesting the mix of grain wagons and vans - i would have thought it would be easier to come in in the hoppers rather than vans where presumably it was bagged.

[AberdeenBill]

Another classic view from Owen of the Hymek on the branch... Does anybody know what destination the headcode designation of 8O06 refers to?

(Assuming the code is valid, it's obviously the Southern Region, but where...).

 

Thanks,

Bill

[davefreight]

Rob you may be interested in this train consist of 8E42, the 18.32 Reading to Acton and Temple Mills freight, which ran on March 7th, 1980.

 

Locomotive 31 241

 

20 wagons as follows

 

B 420147 HTV domestic coal Onllwyn to Broxbourne

BPO 65694 TTA discharged kerosene Hartwell Oils, Newbury to Shellhaven ref

B 784196 VWV government supplies MoD, Thatcham to MoD, Burscough Jnc

B 952929 CAO Didcot to Acton

80 0298 210-4 IPB empty Reading to Harwich TFT

83 2148 180-4 ILB empty Reading to Dover TFT

B 783794/783303 VWV's empty Reading to Crewe BH yard

B 885265/885094 CGO malt ABM, Wallingford to Guinness, Park Royal

B283026/282117 MEO empty Didcot West yard to Nottingham yard

B410088/420753 HTO domestic coal Onllywn to Cambridge Brooklands Ave

B 955045 CAP Reading to Temple Mills

BPO 87575 TEB empty RCS, Gloucester to BP, Grain ref

SUKO 60119 TTF discharged aviation kerosene RCS, Gloucester to Shellhaven ref

ADB 733281 ZDV empty Coopers Metals, Swindon to BREL, Ashford

ADS 63045 ZRP empty Coppers Metals, Swindon to M&EE, Brighton TMD

M 732435 CAO empty BR, Reading to Temple Mills

 

In 1975 a pool of eight unfitted BR grain vans was assigned to Cholsey for the Wallingford to Park Royal malt traffic, while from missing wagon reports the following five grain vans are known to have been allocated to Cholsey in 1973 ( B 885042/452/56/73/672).

 

There was also malt traffic in bulk grain vans from Wallingford to Dumbarton but that flow ended in 1978.

 

ABM at Wallingford also loaded Vanfits with bagged malt, one of the main destinations for this being Liverpool from where it was shipped to Ireland, again for Guinness.

 

Finally, adding a splash of colour the BRTE bulk grain vans initially leased by ABM are also known to have visited Wallingford to be loaded with malt for export through Lowestoft. However, they do not appear to have worked from there with any regularity.

 

David R

[owentherail]

Good info dave, cheers

[rob D2]

Nice one dave,

An interesting overview of freight in the area as well.What colour were the BRTE hoppers ?Is that the ones as pictured in Owen's photos, the unfitted original BR ones ?

 

I like the idea of the malt to guiness - one of my favourite brews ! Question now for my layout is whther to keep the walthers cement silos as cement or to convert to maltings as per the one at wallingford.

 

I guess the grain was bought in by road then ? It was grown in the area I think as in my discussion on the banbury area freight on the old RMweb there was mention of a class 46 and grain train from banbury to hull

[davefreight]

Yes, as far as I know there was no grain traffic to Wallingford, certainly by the mid 1970's, the maltings being supplied by road. Inbound traffic to the maltings would have been coal plus the odd van or open of equipment.

 

The BRTE bulk grain vans were privately owned and numbered in the TOPS period BRT 7500 to 7799 (original numbers were 5810-5924/6025-6154/6185-6239). The great majority were initially leased by Scottish Malt Distillers and worked from East Anglia to Scotland. These were painted blue and many carried large advertisement boards for various brands of whisky, although most if not all the boards had been removed by the late 1970's. In railfreight parlance they became know as "The Blues". Trix made a model back in the 60's and someone has brought out a rtr model more recently but I forget who.

 

However, thirty of these vehicles, 6025-6054 (later BRT 7615-7644), were built for hire by the Maltsters Association of Great Britain and it is these that are known to have worked from Wallingford on at least one occasion. Instead of being blue they were painted yellow and were also originally fitted with large advertisement boards, although in their case the boards read either "Grant's STANDFAST Scotch Whisky" or "THE MALTSTERS ASSOCIATION OF GREAT BRITAIN". Each wagon is thought to have been fitted with a Grants board on one side and a Maltsters board on the other.

 

A picture of one of the 'Blues' is in my recent book on Private Owner Wagons, whilst a detailed article of mine entitled 'Whisky on the Wagon' appeared in MRT vol3, No.6. Paul Bartlett has some fine photos of the type here http://gallery6801.fotopic.net/c85932.html including shots of BRT 7616 and 7622 still in yellow as well as 7617 and 7624 after they had been repainted brown. By the 1980's they were no longer in ABM traffic and whilst a few remained in Anglo-Scottish service many were leased by BR as replacements for their own grain vans on workings from East Anglia to the flour mills in Birkenhead, hence the location of Paul's photos at Stanlow.

 

David R

[rob D2]

Ah

I'm with you now dave : Bachmann did these some time back with the ' maltsters association of gb'. I wonder if they still had the boards in 1978 -1980 as that is the period I'm thinking about,

 

don't suppose you have any gen on coal to Abingdon or cars from there in same period

[davefreight]

Rob, having re-read my own MBT article it would seem that the BRTE grain vans worked from Wallingford after their use to Scotland had ended; that is in the late 70's/early 80's. As to whether any still had the advertisement boards I don't think we know for sure. Certainly most of the fleet (SMD wagons included) had lost them but there were at least a couple of sightings of 'Blues' still with boards so why not an ABM.

 

As to domestic coal to Abingdon this was still running up to about 1981 or 1982 - I have notes of MCO, MCV, MDO and MDV working from Aberpergwm and Wernos in South Wales and it also received coal from collieries in the Midlands. Nothing in my notes about the car traffic I'm afraid.

 

David R

[AberdeenBill]

I remember 31-hauled rakes of Cartics laden with MGs coming off the Abingdon branch ca. 1982. Possibly for export, but I don't know the final (rail) destination.

 

Bill

[rob D2]

Thanks guys

those Bachmann grain hoppers in mustard seem quite hard to come by but I'll keep looking.As to Abingdon the cars ran until 1980 I am told when the MG factory shut, from 60s photos they appeared to run on bogie flats, but at some time after that the cartics appeared as they built a two level loading ramp.

 

I only have seen one photo of a loco at Abingdon and that was the common 31 with 16T coal wagons, apparantly this train ran twice a month

 

I do recall paddling at Abingdon as a kid and I'm sure seeing something go down the branch.

 

It's amazing more photos weren't taken of the last years of these two branches

[Dagworth]

I spent two years working in a maltings back in the ealry 80s before I went to the railway. The process of making malt may be useful information with regard to what traffic would be seen going to and from a maltings.

 

Malt is barley that has been allowed to germinate and then kilned to stop the growth.

The process starts by steeping dry barley in water for about 36 hours, during this time it is alternately covered in water and then drained in roughly 8 hour blocks.

From there it is then taken to an area where it is allowed to germinate and grow. During the growing phase it has to be turned regularly otherwise it turns into a solid mass as all the shoots entangle with each other.

After about four days of growing it is then taken to a kiln where it is cooked for about 24 hours to kill it.

Removal from the kiln breaks off all the shoots, these are then known as chives, and are one of the itchiest materials I've ever come across. It was quite common to drop a handfull down someones back...

The finished malt doesn't look at first glance much different to the raw barley.

The plant I worked at shipped out malt either in bulk in containers, or in 75Kg sacks. All our transport was by road, both in and out.

 

The kilns were gas or oil fired, though two of ours used heat pumps to recover heat from the ground.

The oil fired kilns had to have sulphur added to the kilns as well to prevent contamination of the malt with oxides of Nitrogen.

 

Malt can also be made into malt extract, a thick liquid rather like marmite. This left the plant either in bulk tankers or in small tins destined for the home brew market.

 

Hope this may be useful to give a very brief idea of the process.

 

Andi

[Ravenser]

These views of Louth show plenty of VVV vans but curiously no hoppers which were common for outgoing traffic right up to 1980.

 

http://www.davesrail...om/louth/mr.htm

 

In my experience, it was 12T vans out, and I only ever saw one CGO there . !6T minerals were for the coal merchant and not the ABM malt kiln

[davefreight]

As to whether a maltings despatched traffic in bulk grain vans or bagged in Vanfits would be dependent upon how the customer was equipped, or wanted, to handle it.

 

David R

[owentherail]

A mate of mine took pic of last freight to Wallingford, ill ask him if he still has it as he has grown out of trains!!!!!! i know it was a 31 with 'the end' on the front of loco. owen.