Lowfits - the uses of

[hmrspaul]

I remember seeing trainloads of those light blue invalid carriages in the sidings at Hove station. I was too young to confirm that they were lowfits, but I had always assumed so in later life.

Although many would have been https://PaulBartlett.zenfolio.com/brlowfit/e1d777c1b, the SR had its own car carrying design https://PaulBartlett.zenfolio.com/sropenmerch/eb80c048 used for the invacars built at Thames Ditton.

 

Paul

[The Johnster]

My solitary lowfit, Bachmann of course, is out of service at the moment as it has donated it's chassis to an all steel medfit, originally Airfix IIRC but I am not stating this to be a fact.  It may never return to service, though it is kept with the backlog of older bodies requiring new chassis as a result of my policy of eliminating chassis with moulded brake levers from the layout, which has also eliminated crud spreading plastic wheels and dodgy 1970s mushroom plastic buffers, and spread the standard NEM tension lock over the stock.  I have a half dozen or so vehicles, the lowfit, a 5 planker, a hybarshoc, and 3 vans including 2 ventilated 'FRUIT' with different numbers, one an antediluvian Mainline and one modern Baccy, an LMS sliding door repainted in BR bauxite, 

 

It used to carry a tractor, an Oxford grey and red Ferguson TEA, being delivered from a main dealer to a local farmer occasionally, but this work can be done in my LMS liveried 3 planker, which has drop sides and ends and can also be used for containers and other loads as well; the lowfit, as we have seen from this thread, is a bit of a niche thing.  It is the descendent of the Carriage Truck of Victorian times, on which the road coaches of the great and good were placed with their occupants to prevent their having to mingle with the hoi polloi in first class, but these had been long superseded by CCTs by my layout's time.  I really can't think of a use for a lowfit on my layout, and already have twice the number of general merchandise wagons I need to supply the pick up with a reasonable variety of traffic.  Further purchases will be on the basis of liveries or variations of liveries not yet represented on the layout and will at least in theory be limited to 5 plank opens, which for my early 50s timeframe should represent about half of the total gm fleet.

[Bungus the Fogeyman]

Carried all sorts of non-containered gubbinry, e.g. agricultural machinery fron Malmesbury in that lines final years, and various Army bits and pieces ( Land Rovers, small trailers etc) to name but two uses. Also used as runner wagons for bogie bolster wagons with overhanging steel loads. Some of the steel bodied versions were permanently coupled and formed into twin bolster sets for carrying steel bar from Brymbo steelworks amongst other places!

 

Disgusting of Market Harborough

[br2975]

No one has mentioned the half dozen or so BR steel sided, LNER style brake gear fitted Lowfits converted to Glass Wagons by the fitting of upright frames and screw adjusters.

.

I'd given up hope of ever finding details of these conversions, until Bob Masterman produced a photo he'd taken of one loaded, at Spike Sidings, Cardiff circa 1966.

[PenrithBeacon]

I can confirm this. To my city's eternal shame, these dreadful things were made in Cardiff in a factory on Dumballs Road, and despite it being rail connected the Invacars were taken on flatbed lorries to the Newtown Goods Depot where they were loaded on to lowfits at an end loading dock.

Those 'dreadful things' gave my Dad a lot of freedom, freedom he wouldn't have had without them.

[SM42]

My solitary lowfit, Bachmann of course, is out of service at the moment as it has donated it's chassis to an all steel medfit, originally Airfix IIRC but I am not stating this to be a fact.  It may never return to service, though it is kept with the backlog of older bodies requiring new chassis as a result of my policy of eliminating chassis with moulded brake levers from the layout, which has also eliminated crud spreading plastic wheels and dodgy 1970s mushroom plastic buffers, and spread the standard NEM tension lock over the stock.  I have a half dozen or so vehicles, the lowfit, a 5 planker, a hybarshoc, and 3 vans including 2 ventilated 'FRUIT' with different numbers, one an antediluvian Mainline and one modern Baccy, an LMS sliding door repainted in BR bauxite, 

 

 

The old Mainline wood sided version can easily be uprated with a Parkside U/F. The four locating pips that hold the body to the chassis are at the perfect spacing for the new solebars. (I'm talking 00 here) Almost like Palitoy had a time machine and found themselves in Kirkcaldy one night. (Could have been the other way round of course.) No matter, it just works.

 

Another possible use for the Lowfit (or more precisely two Lowfits) is conversion to the bolster twin. The Red Panda kit has the required inner ends to do this.  Conflat As can be converted too.

 

 

Andy

[Fat Controller]

I know that there have been adverse comments about some of the 'Moving the Goods' part-works, but they do contain interesting photos. Volume 5 has quite a lot of photos of tractors and other vehicles on Lowfits:-

P28- a mixed freight with several Humber one-ton GS trucks on a mixture of planked and steel Lowfits.

P29- a mixture of Army vehicles

P32/3 A view of Meltham station, absolutely full of Lowfits and Medfits loaded, or awaiting loading, with David Brown tractors.

P36/7; an 8f hauling a block train of export tractors on a mixture of Lowfits and Conflats.

There are other photos of similar traffic.

Military traffic didn't have to go to big bases- most towns had a detachment of 'Terriers', who would receive vehicles via the nearest goods depot. They would generally get the 'cast-offs' from the Regulars, as the latter upgraded their fleets.

There wasn't much in the way of s/h tractor business, but one regular flow was from Cambridge Goods to Fishguard and Holyhead for export to Ireland.This traffic, unusually, normally used 'Borail' wagons. There are photos in the Paul Shannon book about Wagonload freight. Presumably these were vehicles taken in exchange by Marshalls of Cambridge after Fenland farmers bought larger vehicles, more suited to their sort of operation.

[stewartingram]

I know that there have been adverse comments about some of the 'Moving the Goods' part-works, but they do contain interesting photos. Volume 5 has quite a lot of photos of tractors and other vehicles on Lowfits:-

P28- a mixed freight with several Humber one-ton GS trucks on a mixture of planked and steel Lowfits.

P29- a mixture of Army vehicles

P32/3 A view of Meltham station, absolutely full of Lowfits and Medfits loaded, or awaiting loading, with David Brown tractors.

P36/7; an 8f hauling a block train of export tractors on a mixture of Lowfits and Conflats.

There are other photos of similar traffic.

Military traffic didn't have to go to big bases- most towns had a detachment of 'Terriers', who would receive vehicles via the nearest goods depot. They would generally get the 'cast-offs' from the Regulars, as the latter upgraded their fleets.

There wasn't much in the way of s/h tractor business, but one regular flow was from Cambridge Goods to Fishguard and Holyhead for export to Ireland.This traffic, unusually, normally used 'Borail' wagons. There are photos in the Paul Shannon book about Wagonload freight. Presumably these were vehicles taken in exchange by Marshalls of Cambridge after Fenland farmers bought larger vehicles, more suited to their sort of operation.

 

Cambridge had a large Cattle Market, just south of the station. Over the years this morphed into a large auction site, with a large content of farm machinery. I suspect this would be the traffic source rather than Marshalls, who were principally body builders and new vehicle suppliers? The market eventually succumbed to redevelopment of the site, but still lives on, at the site of the old Mepal airfield, some 20 miles north of Cambridge. The amount of equipment I see daily, on lorries, to & from that site, is quite high.

 

Stewart

Edited December 28, 2018 by stewartingram

[hmrspaul]

No one has mentioned the half dozen or so BR steel sided, LNER style brake gear fitted Lowfits converted to Glass Wagons by the fitting of upright frames and screw adjusters.

.

I'd given up hope of ever finding details of these conversions, until Bob Masterman produced a photo he'd taken of one loaded, at Spike Sidings, Cardiff circa 1966.

Where is the photo please?

 

Paul

[br2975]

Where is the photo please?

 

Paul

.

Paul.

.

When I can force my wife away from the computer I'll send it to you as a PM.

.

Brian R

.

[Ian Smeeton]

This looks like it might have been a tight fit.

 

BWR0520 13T LOWFIT B452746 IN FREIGHT HAULED BY D3568 PASSING DERBY ST MARYS GOODS DEPOT 02.1966 by David Russon, on Flickr

 

Regards

 

Ian

[The Johnster]

This looks like it might have been a tight fit.

 

BWR0520 13T LOWFIT B452746 IN FREIGHT HAULED BY D3568 PASSING DERBY ST MARYS GOODS DEPOT 02.1966 by David Russon, on Flickr

 

Regards

 

Ian

 

Oo, look, a lorry and a lowfit, doing it...

[Fat Controller]

It looks like someone mixed up 'Lowfit' and 'Lowmac' when requesting a wagon. Presumably it's a Royal Engineers tipper from one of the various depots around Derby (Marchington etc) ?

[durham light infantry]

This looks like it might have been a tight fit.

 

BWR0520 13T LOWFIT B452746 IN FREIGHT HAULED BY D3568 PASSING DERBY ST MARYS GOODS DEPOT 02.1966 by David Russon, on Flickr

 

Regards

 

Ian

Vac bags dIsconnected, couplings not tightened up and the ropes look a bit slack. Hope it wasn't going very far, or very fast.

 

Mike

[dvdlcs]

Vac bags dIsconnected, couplings not tightened up and the ropes look a bit slack. Hope it wasn't going very far, or very fast.

 

Mike

 

As the haulage was an 08 (D3568) presumably a trip working if not a shunt move. Max speed 15mph, or was it 20mph in 1966?

[hmrspaul]

Nice LNER wood sided VB Lowfit here https://www.flickr.com/photos/blue-diesels/45772458865/in/photostream/

 

Paul

[Phil Bullock]

On 28/12/2018 at 10:40, SM42 said:

Another possible use for the Lowfit (or more precisely two Lowfits) is conversion to the bolster twin. The Red Panda kit has the required inner ends to do this.  

 

And here we go! Red Panda Lowfits - dia 2998 - as twin bolsters. Not only does the Red Panda kit have the correct inner ends but Peco (PD) do the bolsters. The plastic bar Red Panda supply for the coupling between the pair isnt up to it however - have to replace with something better.

 

Added brake cross ties and safety loops in N/S wire - buffers and coupling hooks from Lanarkshire models, bolster pins are Hornby spares as the Peco ones looked too hefty. Lamp brackets from Silver Tay. For 5 mad minutes I did contemplate adding all the brake rigging but having seen Tony Wright at Doncaster at the weekend he described the models he was building as layout models - not show models - common sense prevailed. Liquid lead now also added.

 

Theres another pair to do yet before painting and transfers....will post completed models when finished.

 

 

Edited February 11, 2020 by Phil Bullock
Picture added

[Fat Controller]

Phil,

Did these have a cut-out in the floor timbers to allow the bolsters some play? I know the last build of single bolsters were so fitted, but wasn't sure of any of the other types (ex-Lowfit and ex-Conflat A) also had this feature.

Twin Bolsters of various types were a staple of our local steelworks (Duport, Llanelli) until the beginning of the 1970s, as they were ideal for their staple product, 30' lengths of 4" Engineers' Bar. A train of them would leave Old Castle sidings at about 15:30 every day, bound for the Black Country steel terminal at Great Bridge. Being limited to 35 mph by 1970, they were replaced by Bolster Es.

[The Johnster]

They used to appear on connection with workings out of Panteg steelworks, New Inn, in the early 70s, so this may be what happened to your Dupont twins. 

[TheSignalEngineer]

This was a Lowfit I made up from an old Mainline or early Bachmann body with Parkside underframe bits plus Dave Franks buffers and pipes

 

[Phil Bullock]

11 hours ago, Fat Controller said:

Phil,

Did these have a cut-out in the floor timbers to allow the bolsters some play? I know the last build of single bolsters were so fitted, but wasn't sure of any of the other types (ex-Lowfit and ex-Conflat A) also had this feature.

Twin Bolsters of various types were a staple of our local steelworks (Duport, Llanelli) until the beginning of the 1970s, as they were ideal for their staple product, 30' lengths of 4" Engineers' Bar. A train of them would leave Old Castle sidings at about 15:30 every day, bound for the Black Country steel terminal at Great Bridge. Being limited to 35 mph by 1970, they were replaced by Bolster Es.

Many thanks. We are modelling that traffic with bolster Es - we have a complete rake of Dapol ones and am just about to order a significant quantity of 1.5mm square brass rod to make the loads. I had assumed - wrongly - that the twin bolster pairs had disappeared by the early 70s. There’s a cracking picture of  Peak 193 at Chepstow on the railways of South Wales group where the first few wagons are twin bolster pairs. 
 

And have certainly seen evidence of play in the bolsters as you say in the purpose built twins but have struggled  to find that in the low fit/ conflat conversions so have built these with solid bolsters.

 

And it had always confused me that there was a flow of 4” bar in both directions... S Wales to W Mids as you describe but also Scunthorpe to S Wakes. What was that all about I wonder?
 

Thanks to everyone on here for gen on workings .... it’s a gold mine! 

[Fat Controller]

I believe the Duport flow was partially destined for various sister-companies around the Black Country; somehow, they were involved in Slumberland beds. The two-way Cardiff- Scunthorpe flow was the result of 'rationalisation' . Someone like Brian Rolley might be able to give more gen.

[Phil Bullock]

5 minutes ago, Fat Controller said:

I believe the Duport flow was partially destined for various sister-companies around the Black Country; somehow, they were involved in Slumberland beds. The two-way Cardiff- Scunthorpe flow was the result of 'rationalisation' . Someone like Brian Rolley might be able to give more gen.

 

It was that Mr Rolley that got me started on these in the first place! Hee hee

[hmrspaul]

12 hours ago, Phil Bullock said:

 

And have certainly seen evidence of play in the bolsters as you say in the purpose built twins but have struggled  to find that in the low fit/ conflat conversions so have built these with solid bolsters.

 

 

Sorry wrong. https://PaulBartlett.zenfolio.com/brtwinbolster/e255bfb52   https://PaulBartlett.zenfolio.com/brtwinbolster/e3d4ca0f1   https://PaulBartlett.zenfolio.com/brtwinbolster/e17a2cb92

 

Paul

[Phil Bullock]

On 12/02/2020 at 23:52, hmrspaul said:

Sorry wrong. https://PaulBartlett.zenfolio.com/brtwinbolster/e255bfb52   https://PaulBartlett.zenfolio.com/brtwinbolster/e3d4ca0f1   https://PaulBartlett.zenfolio.com/brtwinbolster/e17a2cb92

 

Paul

 

HI Paul - isnt that a conflat? If theres similar evidence for Lowfits will have to add it to my list of modelling crimes.....

 

Edit - just seen 3rd photo is Lowfit. DId see that and came to conclusion that replicating that arrangement would involve taking a chunk out of the wagon floor which gives the kit its strength - so ducked it! Sorry.....

 

 

Edited February 14, 2020 by Phil Bullock