How many 16 ton mineral wagons are left?

[sidmouth]

 

A short video from the 30742 charters day at Pontypool & Blaenavon with the Welsh "Windcutter" set 

 

The two Snibston ones I'm told are still there . don't hold me to it though

[Richard E]

Snibston Mining museum closed in 2015. It seems that, according to Google Maps images, the wagons are still on site. Planning permission has been granted for the former museum site to be redeveloped as housing albeit with some of the colliery buildings subject to listing and have to be retained.

[Pandora]

The post is about 16T wagons which are presumed to be  steel-framed,  Some of  the heritage railways had wood-framed  wagons  which became unsafe and were scrapped , the frames had weakened and the wagons were at risk of self-destruction in a train,  the frames had lost their fundamental ability of withstanding drawbar loads. Such a pity!

Edited April 3, 2020 by Pandora

[Reorte]

I find it odd to think that there are quite a lot more 16T wagons around now than HAA wagons, considering how common the latter were until not that long ago at all (although I believe the frames of a lot of HAAs are still around, rebuilt into something else).

[dibber25]

The Windcutter Project at the GCR was launched (actually re-launched, I think) just after I joined the railway titles at EMAP in 1992. It had been realised that, as coal was the raison d'être for the railway system, a coal train ought to be preserved. By then, the surviving 16ton minerals were in an appalling state. The combination of coal dust and rainwater is lethal to steel and of the remaining wagons on BR or in scrapyards very few were worth saving. Many of those which the GCR acquired had been in internal use by British Leyland at the Austin works in Longbridge where they had been used to carry metal swarf. This swarf, from machining, had been liberally coated in machine oil and this in turn helped to preserve the wagons. Even so, over the years, I believe the GCR has engaged in a constant programme of repairing and rebuilding these wagons.  (CJL)

[deltic17]

I think these wagons are a fantastic sight on preserved railways and if possible, more should be done to use them as much as possible to get the most out of them. 

I have been on such a photo charter on the GCR a couple of years ago and I admire the work of the Quorn Wagon Group (see this month's Steam Railway for a great article on them).

Of course each railway is different in terms of operating capability but I do applaud railways that run goods trains with people being allowed to travel in the brake van/s (if you put one at each end). The Spa Valley railway often attach their Queen Mary brake van to coaching stock/locos and it is a fantastic experience in which to travel.

Maybe when preserved railways do their driver experience days they should more regularly pull some wagons and a brake van (instead of coaches) and they could charge potential passengers a few pounds (it all adds up) to travel in such and experience at close hand what it was like to be a railway guard etc.

Obviously 'bums on seats' in carriages are very important, especially with recovering hopefully from Covid19, but it is fantastic to see freight trains running and it makes me want to attend events more if freight trains are running.

 

 

[Dava]

It's not just the sight of the Windcutters, it's the sound too, like nothing else, clanking and echoing like a ghost fleet. The empty wagons sound quite different from the deadened sound when loaded, but that's gone now. Must edit one of my videos.

 

Dava