FOA flask wagon

[bazjones1711]

Having acquired a Cambrian BAA kit for the sum of £5 .00 rather than add it to my rakes of Bachmann  BAA  , my thoughts have turned to converting  it to one of the FOA  Flask wagons that ran from Winfrith to Sellafield, numbered  900115 this is the easier of the wagons to do as it retained its original bogies,  will need to replace the floor , build a flask , modify the end uprights , no time limit yet on this one though ! 

 

This is in its original livery , found a few pics of it in train formations,  yet cannot find any pics of the wagon itself  it in its red livery , any information or pics of this wagon would be appreciated   ( to see if the chain down lugs have been removed etc... ) 

Regards baz 

[br2975]

Quote

 

 Baz.

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I saw this wagon at Clapham Junction circa Feb. 1987 or 1988, being shunted by the light blue liveried and named ED.

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I believed at that time (but couldn't confrim) it was in Winfrith traffic.

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I promised a copy of my photo to Paul, but can't find it at the moment.

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Brian R

Edited September 8, 2019 by br2975

[bazjones1711]

Thank you Brian , expect it is lurking on a hard drive somewhere  ! Hope you can find it , its one of those projects for another day . I saw it in the dark at Rugby many years ago .

[jonhall]

Ohh, its the only good photo I've seen of this one, I've seen a few 'in train' snaps, but nothing to work from. It's on my list as it would have passed Hamworthy fairly frequently.

 

Jon

[newbryford]

Nice pic of 900115.

Here's 900115 and 900230

900115 is in red.

 

 

Photo by S.Moore - used with permission from my collection.

 

Cheers,

Mick

 

Edited September 10, 2019 by newbryford

[nightstar.train]

What were these wagons used for? Obviously they don’t look anywhere near as strong as the FNA flask wagons, so presumably they’re not carrying as high level waste?

[hmrspaul]

54 minutes ago, nightstar.train said:

What were these wagons used for? Obviously they don’t look anywhere near as strong as the FNA flask wagons, so presumably they’re not carrying as high level waste?

They are converted from BAAs, 100ton GLW wagons - just as strong as a BBA but only 40ft over headstocks. Very strong and many still running around loaded with steel products (they are c40 years old now). FNA on the other hand are only 80t GLW.

 

Paul

Edited September 12, 2019 by hmrspaul

[newbryford]

1 hour ago, nightstar.train said:

What were these wagons used for? Obviously they don’t look anywhere near as strong as the FNA flask wagons, so presumably they’re not carrying as high level waste?

 

Winfrith wasn't a power station - but was a research centre site for reactor designs and did have a few small reactors on the site.

[jonhall]

Diagram is available in the Barrowmore MRG downloads (320part2)  http://www.barrowmoremrg.co.uk/Prototype.html

 

Obviously the shape of the cover is wrong, interestingly the cover appears to be asymetric along the length of the wagon- a quick guesstimate from the photo suggested that the cover was a shade longer than the 'inner' wheelbase, so of the order of 21ft or 84mm in 4mm/ft

[jonhall]

Winfrith was, I understand, the test centre for checking nuclear flasks, so it took a great deal of varieties of flask, which was one of the appeals for me of building Hamworthy which is only just up the rails - I can justify almost every type of flask wagon if I feel inclined!

 

Jon

 

 

[nightstar.train]

11 hours ago, hmrspaul said:

They are converted from BAAs, 100ton GLW wagons - just as strong as a BBA but only 40ft over headstocks. Very strong and many still running around loaded with steel products (they are c40 years old now). FNA on the other hand are only 80t GLW.

 

Paul

 

By strong I really meant crashworthy. The FNAs carry the flask down in between the sides, and the sides are large and very square looking. Whereas this is a hood on top of a wagon. So any flask under the hood can’t be as secure as in an FNA, was my thinking. Thus it carrying lower hazard waste than an FNA. 

[leisuresl]

Coming to this a few years late...

The Winfrith site hosted a number of reactors, one of which provided power to the National Grid. The last reactor was shut down in 1995 (the one supplying power was shut down in 1990) and the site is due to be fully decommissioned in the next year or so. The large reactor used 'slightly' enriched Uranium fuel which I suspect is a lot like the fuel used in RN subs. I also think the fuel was carried in a similar style flask - cylindrical with a set of cooling vanes at one end, which would explain the asymmetric flask hood - just a cover if the load rating is anything to go by - as the centre of the load isn't in the middle of the wagon (if you see what I mean). The flask was really substantial and was expected to survive a collision on its own without needing the wagon to protect it - hence the need for a 100GLW wagon to move it.

HTH,