Bauxite vac-fitted RCH wooden open wagons

[Captain Kernow]

Does anyone know if any of the above type wagons were ever painted bauxite by BR and thus ran as fitted wagons, please?

 

There's a photo in 'Somerset & Dorset Sunset' by Michael Welch, which seems to feature one such liveried wagon immediately behind the loco (a 7F) nearing Binegar....

 

Thanks.

[Adam]

I know dad has a copy of the book, an think I know the shot you mean, but can't recall the details. I assume you mean an RCH mineral, in which case almost* certainly not unless a relict PO livery. If a 5 plank or similar, are you sure it isn't simply a company owned and built wagon Tim? The LNER had a design of wooden underframed wagon - derived from a GNR original - which was frequently vacuum fitted. Like this one.

 

Adam

 

* I'm hedging here: just because I've never heard of it and can't think of a reason for a PO to want to get coal around fast enough to warrant the additional expense and maintenance overhead of vac' brake doesn't mean it never happened. It'd be very rare in any event.

[asmay2002]

Does anyone know if any of the above type wagons were ever painted bauxite by BR and thus ran as fitted wagons, please?

 

There's a photo in 'Somerset & Dorset Sunset' by Michael Welch, which seems to feature one such liveried wagon immediately behind the loco (a 7F) nearing Binegar....

 

It would much more likely be a wagon still carrying the remnants of its last PO repaint. During WW2 these repaints often had very small letters indicating the owners.

 

ASM

[craigwelsh]

Did the RCH ever do any work on standardised vac braked stock?

 

The LNER opens are all 6-plank and some did have moreton brakes that weren't fitted but usually the LNER standard vacuum underframe on the fitted ones as Adam linked to.

 

MoT livery was bauxite and so was pre-war LMS so its possible one of these if not a PO livery. The MoT though were only building steel wagons really so I can't imagine them repainting it.

 

Is it a 5-planks or the 7/8 plank variety?

[Captain Kernow]

It looks like an 8 planker, with Morton brake gear. The photo is on page 39. Some of the planks seem to have been more recently repainted and are definitely bauxite. Some of the other planks are a more dirty brown colour, and could be much older....

[Fat Controller]

It looks like an 8 planker, with Morton brake gear. The photo is on page 39. Some of the planks seem to have been more recently repainted and are definitely bauxite. Some of the other planks are a more dirty brown colour, and could be much older....

Is there a chance that it might be one of the ex-SR 8-plank merchandise/coal wagons, of the type fitted with side-hinged doors instead of the more usual 'London Merchants'' doors? Here's a photo of a Cambrian model:-

http://www.cambrianmodels.co.uk/srwagons.html

These were built with both 9' and 10' wheelbase, with some of the latter built fitted and others converted by BR.

[craigwelsh]

I'd been thinking of wooden solebars when answering before but is this a metal underframe wagon. I didn't find the book at the club tonight to have a look .