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HAA merry-go-round hopper at St Blazey


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Just flicking through one of the David Larkin albums (Wagons of the Middle British Railways Era); on page 23, I was somewhat surprised to see a photo, taken at St Blazey in June 1969, with a merry-go-round wagon in the background. What on earth was it doing there, well over a decade before the CDAs came into service?

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This was being discussed on Facebook over the weekend.  Someone posted a photo of a GSYP Brush Type 4 passing Newton Abbot south and west-bound with a full rake of MGR hoppers when relatively new.  Various hypotheses were advanced, including driver training on air braked stock, as well as testing their suitability for china clay operations.  I wonder if there was a link....

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  • 2 weeks later...

Was there any PFA - Pulverised fly ash - traffic to or from that area? MGRs were used in that traffic in the late 60s/early 70s for road formation construction.

 

Paul

Not that far west, Paul; I think the furthest west it got was the Bridgewater/ Taunton area for the M5. The only coal traffic in the area was still in 'flat-bottom' minerals, though HEAs took over one flow in the mid-1980s.

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It is two decades before the CDAs entered service if it was 1969!

Also before any much air braked traffic was seen in Cornwall - The Sittingbourne clay was the firs AB service in the Duchy ( I think) 

 

It is however about the right time that the short lived Liner Siding at Par was in what could be called service - test wagon for that in some way maybe?

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Not that far west, Paul; I think the furthest west it got was the Bridgewater/ Taunton area for the M5. The only coal traffic in the area was still in 'flat-bottom' minerals, though HEAs took over one flow in the mid-1980s.

Could it have been a crippled wagon from this flow sent for repairs

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This was being discussed on Facebook over the weekend.  Someone posted a photo of a GSYP Brush Type 4 passing Newton Abbot south and west-bound with a full rake of MGR hoppers when relatively new.  Various hypotheses were advanced, including driver training on air braked stock, as well as testing their suitability for china clay operations.  I wonder if there was a link....

 

I think your final comment is near the mark - the CDAs were developed from the HAAs and I remember at the time comments in the mags about HAAs going down to Cornwall for trials on clay traffic.  So I think it would be reasonable to associate the presence of the HAA with that trial and development process.

Edited by The Stationmaster
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