BR 12 Ton End Door Covered Goods Wagon Diagram 214

[Fat Controller]

In the last-but-one version of RMWeb, there was some discussion of the peculiar end-door-only BR-built vans used for traffic from Metal Box at Carlisle to a couple of locations in the North-West of England and South-West Scotland. I have a recollection that someone had actually turned up some information regarding the terminal arrangements at one of the plants involved. Unfortunately, I don't seem to be able to access the old Forum, and aren't too sure what thread this was mentioned in. Can anyone help?

Thanks in advance.

[eastwestdivide]

Is that the batch of vans B773251-B773350, 1957, described as 12T End-Door Vanfit ?

 

Found one old thread mentioning what you said above, but not much detail.

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=45781&p=693624&hilit=+metal+box+#p693624

[Fat Controller]

Is that the batch of vans B773251-B773350, 1957, described as 12T End-Door Vanfit ?

 

Found one old thread mentioning what you said above, but not much detail.

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=45781&p=693624&hilit=+metal+box+#p693624

That's not the thread I was thinking of, alas. Thanks anyway.

[Guest stuartp]

'Twas I, and I can't find the post either.

 

References:

 

David Larkin "Wagons of the Early/Middle/Late British Railways Era" (I forget which, sorry) has a photo of a van at Milnthorpe (I think).

Don Rowland - "BR Wagons - The First Half Million" - same photo.

Derek Cross - "Steam In Scotland Volume 1" - photo of 46450 at Dumfries with a rake of these, allegedly returning from 'the Metal Box factory' on the outskirts of town (but see later).

Derek Cross - "The Last Decade of Scottish Steam" - photo of a Caley 300 Class going the other way with more of said vans.

 

"Railways of Scotland Vol 12 - The South West" - hidden in the best 7 minutes of railway cinefilm ever made (Stranraer to Dumfries, backwards, at about 600 mph), is a brief glimpse of the Carnation Milk factory at Dumfries, which I think is what Cross was referring to. Certainly I couldn't find any reference to Metal Box having any presence in the town but this was based on Google rather than proper research. The factory was built in the 30s (think cream-painted Superquick dairy but bigger) and had a trailing connection off the up Port Road facing Dumfries, with three or four parallel sidings and a head shunt.

 

Watching the DVD one frame at a time shows a side loading dock alongside which the vans are standing. A tractor with buffing plates stands nearby, the end doors on the end van are open, and the method of unloading appears to be - bloke in van moving boxes to door, bloke in 4 ft lifting them onto dock, bloke on dock trolleying them away. It's all a bit grainy though.

 

I presume (and it is only a presumption) that the vans were loaded with empty cans at Metal Box in Carlisle, and then filled with condensed milk or somesuch at Dumfries and Milnthorpe. I've read a reference to McNeil and Bibby's somewhere but can't remember where. I presume the door arrangements were to suit an end loading dock at Metal Box but that's just a guess.

[AberdeenBill]

Sorry to be late coming to this thread... Somewhere (maybe in Transport Age?) there's a photo of one of these vans parked aginst the end-loading dock at the Metal Box factory. Brand new and shiny tins cans are coming off a conveyor and they are being individually stacked by hand(!) into the van. This seems incredibly inefficient even for the 1950s, so perhaps it's just a posed publicity shot.

 

Bill

[davefreight]

In the last-but-one version of RMWeb, there was some discussion of the peculiar end-door-only BR-built vans used for traffic from Metal Box at Carlisle to a couple of locations in the North-West of England and South-West Scotland. I have a recollection that someone had actually turned up some information regarding the terminal arrangements at one of the plants involved. Unfortunately, I don't seem to be able to access the old Forum, and aren't too sure what thread this was mentioned in. Can anyone help?

Thanks in advance.

 

Brian, these vans also worked from Carlisle to a vegetable canners in Boston. In correspondence some years ago with Don Rowland he could not recall anything of note as regards the unloading facilities at Milnthorpe, the location of the pic mentioned. In the early 1960's tin cans blanks were also railed, in containers, from the Metal Box factory at Sutton-in-Ashfield to Batchelors at Wadesley Bridge and photographs show these were also loaded and unloaded by hand via the end doors.

 

David R

[Fat Controller]

Brian, these vans also worked from Carlisle to a vegetable canners in Boston. In correspondence some years ago with Don Rowland he could not recall anything of note as regards the unloading facilities at Milnthorpe, the location of the pic mentioned. In the early 1960's tin cans blanks were also railed, in containers, from the Metal Box factory at Sutton-in-Ashfield to Batchelors at Wadesley Bridge and photographs show these were also loaded and unloaded by hand via the end doors.

 

David R

Thanks, David- it really sounds like the sort of job that Neil from Manpower Hanley used to send me on ! Why on earth weren't they using any form of 'outer' to bundle them together?