Hornby announce the SR Cattle wagon

[Wickham Green]

Bulls then?

They'd probably be missing too ....................... from the appropriate animals.

[farren]

The Swanage Railway recently rebuilt a LMS Goods Van as a Maunsell Cattle wagon. Whilst the brakegear don't represent the prototypes, it's nice to see a preserved railway representing a traffic that is now long gone.

In general Cattle wagons were always placed next to the train so to prevent any stress to the livestock whilst the train was moving.

So that me get this right. If a model manufacturer doesn't get the detail right it's the end of the world. However if a railway society dose its ok? ;-) Edited November 10, 2016 by farren

[Wickham Green]

So that me get this right. If a model manufacturer doesn't get the detail right it's the end of the world. However if a railway society dose its ok? ;-)

A model manufacturer working from a blank canvas has no excuse for making silly mistakes when the information is readily available and we amateurs can easily spot their errors .................. no, it's not the end of the world if they do - responsibilty for that impending catastrophy will be moving into the White House shortly.

[57xx]

So that me get this right. If a model manufacturer doesn't get the detail right it's the end of the world. However if a railway society dose its ok? ;-)

 

It's fine until a manufacturer scans it for a model and thinks it's authentic...

[farren]

But it would be authentic.

[phil_sutters]

Talk of cattle trains reminds me that something like 50% of cattle trains would be loaded with cattle ............. would some kind manufacturer please produce a range of 4mm scale ( not 3.5mm scale ) bovines in a material SIGNIFICANTLY lighter than whitemetal  -  thanks !

What scale are the Woodland Scenics cows? Noch claims to have 1/72nd versions - are they really just that old 00/HO compromise, that usually meant HO - a continental manufacturer trying it on. My favorite cattle for painting are Belted Galloways - black at both ends with a broad band of white in the middle. There's a herd beside the Redhill to Guildford line - so they are not just north of Hadrian's Wall.

[Bernard Lamb]

What scale are the Woodland Scenics cows? Noch claims to have 1/72nd versions - are they really just that old 00/HO compromise, that usually meant HO - a continental manufacturer trying it on. My favorite cattle for painting are Belted Galloways - black at both ends with a broad band of white in the middle. There's a herd beside the Redhill to Guildford line - so they are not just north of Hadrian's Wall.

Can of worms time.

There are Belted Galloways beside the line WCML at Boxmoor. However they are only there in some months of the year and only in recent times. They certainly would be wrong for steam days and probably only go back as far back as the NWSE period. However back around 1960 there was a herd of Highland cattle a couple of miles nearer to Berkhamsted.

I know a local farmer who bred Aberdeen Angus cattle and he once told me about the history of the breed and how the shape and size of the beasts had changed over the last 100 years.

It is not just about getting the breed right for the location and date but getting the correct characteristics right as well as appropriate for the period.

The Dart Castings version look fairly good as Dairy Cattle to my eyes, but a wagon full would cost a bit.

Bernard

[Jenny Emily]

What scale are the Woodland Scenics cows? Noch claims to have 1/72nd versions - are they really just that old 00/HO compromise, that usually meant HO - a continental manufacturer trying it on. My favorite cattle for painting are Belted Galloways - black at both ends with a broad band of white in the middle. There's a herd beside the Redhill to Guildford line - so they are not just north of Hadrian's Wall.

Funny, as I always understood that cows start out small when they are born, then get bigger. Don't some get a little bigger than others? They aren't all rigidly the same size.

[Dunsignalling]

Funny, as I always understood that cows start out small when they are born, then get bigger. Don't some get a little bigger than others? They aren't all rigidly the same size.

Some get a LOT bigger than others nowadays 

 

However, as others have intimated, in days gone by, train travellers could get a pretty good idea of where they were in this country by identifying the breed of cattle in the fields adjoining the railway.

 

The keeping of regional (and foreign) breeds outside their native areas is a relatively modern phenomenon which really got underway with the spread of the Fresian breed through the dairy industry during the latter decades of steam. 

 

John

Edited November 12, 2016 by Dunsignalling

[No Decorum]

Funny, as I always understood that cows start out small when they are born, then get bigger. Don't some get a little bigger than others? They aren't all rigidly the same size.

Sounds reasonable. I have connections to some small people engaged in getting bigger very noisily. There is only one I’d dream of letting near my trains.

[57xx]

But it would be authentic.

Yes it would, authentic rubbish.

[Wickham Green]

The Dart Castings version look fairly good as Dairy Cattle to my eyes, but a wagon full would cost a bit.

Bernard

...... and a train load would weigh ........ well, I dread to think !

 

Actually a train-load ( unless its a farm relocation ) would be beef cattle .......... but the exact shape is more than a little difficult to see inside a cattle wagon - all we need is something about the right size to poke their noses through the bars.

[trevor7598]

How about a siding full of cattle empties, that's how I remember rakes of these wagons

at Guildford and Biggleswade. We will soon have four types to choose from in RTR

( If you include the old Mainline one that's still doing the rounds ), so mix 'em up, make a lovely train !.

When the Hornby offering arrives I will have 15 cattle wagons of varying types.

[Dunsignalling]

But it would be authentic.

Authentic for an up-to-date model of the Swanage EDIT: Mid-Hants Railway (see posts 142/3), but nothing more.

 

I understand that the "prototype" consists of all-new bodywork based on a LMS van underframe and, unless that has been substantially modified, the wheelbase and overall length will be "out" in addition to the brake gear.

  

It is thus a semi-freelance model in 12-inches-to-the-foot scale with the general appearance of a Maunsell cattle wagon, not a full replica.

 

This wagon provides a welcome addition to the heritage flavour of the line and admirably demonstrates the abilities and effort of those who constructed it. However, AFAIK, nothing but the chassis is, in any sense of the word, "preserved" and nobody should pretend it is something it isn't.

 

J.

Edited November 14, 2016 by Dunsignalling

[Jenny Emily]

There is an actual real cattle wagon body in Yorkshire, near Pontefract. sitting in a farmyard. There is also a four wheel tanker underframe in the same yard, and when I last saw them the owner was very slowly in the process of converting the underframe to fit the body so as to be able to restore the full thing. I have no idea what its full story is - I can't imagine many cattle wagon bodies got sold on for use as sheds.

 

Unfortunately with cattle wagons in the 12":1' world, not many survived as they were got rid of before the heritage scene really got going, and unlike various vans they didn't really have much of a practical use for anything else.

[autocoach]

I have a stockyard planned on my US Southern Pacific San Ramon branch at Walnut Creek. The pen has to be scratched to fit the site but finding HO beef cattle, most likely Herefords, waiting to be shipped has been a problem. Most manufacturers are either European breeds or think of cattle as a toy type accessory.  Walthers had a set of 16 but that is out of production and they had no plans to make it again when I contacted them about a year ago. Just today I did another eBay sweep and found a Walthers set at a rather high price but plonked for them anyway. I bought 2 Life Like cattle pen sets as they each had 12 Herefords in stock yard poses. The pens are crude and will be dumped when I get round to it.  With the latest purchase I now have enough for the Walnut Creek module. Now to build the pen and loading ramp. I have 3 SP stock cars waiting to "go on line". 

 

Mandatory UK content:  I have 2 Hornby SR Bulleid Cattle wagons on order and  if Hornby stays around and follows usual practice I should be able to get 2 SR Maunsell cattle wagons next year. Cattle were unlikely traffic at Padstow. I have no idea of what breeds would be raised for beef in Cornwall in 1947 and there were cattle pens up the line at Wadebridge. Fish from Padstow was more like it. But I am fascinated with livestock movements on both the Atlantic and Pacific western coasts. I think somewhere I saw a static Cattle mooing/lowing sound generator. Will will probably work for both sides of the world.

 

I am not going to try and model the aroma of a cattle pen or the smell from the fish sheds. One can take things a little too far.

Edited November 13, 2016 by autocoach

[Wickham Green]

Authentic for an up-to-date model of the Swanage Railway, but nothing more.

 

J.

.......... except it's on the Mad-Hints Railway !

[Wickham Green]

There is an actual real cattle wagon body in Yorkshire, near Pontefract. sitting in a farmyard. There is also a four wheel tanker underframe in the same yard, and when I last saw them the owner was very slowly in the process of converting the underframe to fit the body so as to be able to restore the full thing. I have no idea what its full story is - I can't imagine many cattle wagon bodies got sold on for use as sheds.

 

Unfortunately with cattle wagons in the 12":1' world, not many survived as they were got rid of before the heritage scene really got going, and unlike various vans they didn't really have much of a practical use for anything else.

When searching for coach bodies up in Scotland back in the eighties I saw A FEW cattle wagons grounded in farm yards - including a Bulleid one as it happens ........ I don't suppose any survive now, though. ( For many years Inverurie Works had a policy of disposing of coach or wagon bodies to anybody who was interested - and lots were.)

[Dunsignalling]

.......... except it's on the Mad-Hints Railway !

I stand corrected, but in my defence, the post I was replying to attributed it to the Swanage Railway.

 

John

[Wickham Green]

I stand corrected, but in my defence, the post I was replying to attributed it to the Swanage Railway.

 

John

OK, you can sit down again ................. that error crept into the thread ages ago  -  or was it the Oxford cattle wagon thread ?

[trevor7598]

When searching for coach bodies up in Scotland back in the eighties I saw A FEW cattle wagons grounded in farm yards - including a Bulleid one as it happens ........ I don't suppose any survive now, though. ( For many years Inverurie Works had a policy of disposing of coach or wagon bodies to anybody who was interested - and lots were.)

 

My self and a friend spent a week in July 1984, based in Insch, touring the area for coach bodies.

Mind blowing, and yes, some cattle wagon bodies, and many LMS horse box bodies too.

It was two characters , Bruce and Reid, that arranged the sale and transport of bodies to farmers.

Each bogie coach body was cut into a third and two thirds, as one had a long lorry, the other a shorter one.

Fascinating stuff !.

[Wickham Green]

My self and a friend spent a week in July 1984, based in Insch, touring the area for coach bodies.

Mind blowing, and yes, some cattle wagon bodies, and many LMS horse box bodies too.

It was two characters , Bruce and Reid, that arranged the sale and transport of bodies to farmers.

Each bogie coach body was cut into a third and two thirds, as one had a long lorry, the other a shorter one.

Fascinating stuff !.

Indeed  ....... I recall those names being mentioned - and stories of how the two part of each bogie coach were moved on lorry and trailer ( steam wagon and trailer in earlier years ) and offloaded with handraulic jacks and oil drums !

[toboldlygo]

Now in stock at Hornby

[John M Upton]

The Facebook post by Hornby today only says they are on their way, to me that says they are at least just past the sitting in a container on a Chinese dockside stage but still a few weeks off yet unless a small consignment have been airlifted in for Warley.

Edited November 22, 2016 by John M Upton

[gwrrob]

Now in stock at Hornby

 

Very nice too.