MOL's containers

[Mol_PMB]

Now, a question for any intermodal specialists reading this...

In the photo at 9 dock, there are plenty of other containers in the background, mostly other types of Manchester Liners ones. But can you help me identify the others, which would be potential models for me?

On the left hand side there are two unpainted alloy containers with a red and black 'P' logo.

Top right there is an orange container with a blue and black logo that might be made of the letters C M  and H.

Anyone recognise these?

Cheers,

Mol

 

 

[markw]

7 hours ago, Mol_PMB said:

Now, a question for any intermodal specialists reading this...

In the photo at 9 dock, there are plenty of other containers in the background, mostly other types of Manchester Liners ones. But can you help me identify the others, which would be potential models for me?

On the left hand side there are two unpainted alloy containers with a red and black 'P' logo.

Top right there is an orange container with a blue and black logo that might be made of the letters C M  and H.

Anyone recognise these?

Cheers,

Mol

 

 

The IP logo is interpool.

Couldn't find any prototype photos but here is a model.

https://www.trovestar.com/generic/zoom.php?id=189233

[Mol_PMB]

Great, many thanks Mark! With a company name I can now search more effectively for more photos.

A couple here from Matt's Place which confirm the logo, the first one is very faded but is an older ribbed-sde box (rather than corrugated) though still not as old as the ones in the Manchester docks photo:

And one from Smugmug, right colour but a newer box:

Interpool is listed in my Janes 1971 (but not the 1968 edition). At that time they had around 17000 containers available for lease, and offices all over the world.

There wasn't an office in Manchester but there was in Montreal which was the other terminal of Manchester Liners' cellular service. Looks like they're still in the same business today.

 

 

[Mol_PMB]

Still looking to identify this one though - large blue C with a black M and H, on an orange rib-side 20' container, date 1970 or thereabouts:

[Mol_PMB]

My next container build is a more conventional one than the fruit rack, though still not entirely standard.

This is an early Manchester Liners soft-top container.

 

Manchester Liners started carrying containers around 1965/66, initially on their conventional ships and using whatever heavy-life craneage was available (such as the floating cranes in Manchester). The introduction of dedicated container ships and terminals came a bit later in 1968/69. The red livery and the 'classic' ML container were introduced in 1968. ML's earliest ISO containers looked quite different, and they weren't anything like as numerous.

 

There were at least two types of these early containers, a normal box and a soft-top. They were built by Metro-Cammell to an early draft of the ISO specification and had slightly unusual corner castings. Apart from the roof they were apparently identical in design and livery: overall pale grey with a square logo panel in black, red and white. The logo was that used by Manchester Liners prior to the container revolution. I think the soft top was yellow.

 

I chose to build the soft-top variant because I had photos of two of them on railway wagons. However, this is the best photo I have of one:

Here's a peek inside one, also you can see the Met-camm plate below the door (note the adjacent container is also of the same type):

 

These two images (heavily cropped and enlarged from the originals) show a group of four BR 'Conflat ISO' wagons at the Manchester 9 Dock container terminal, and the nearest two (at least) are loaded with this type of container:

The soft-top containers were numbered in the MLS series and this is almost legible on one of the photos. Apart from the door end and the logo panels, lettering on these containers was pretty sparse - remember they were built before the ISO standard was formally agreed.

[Mol_PMB]

This photo from 1970 suggests that when the new red livery was introduced in late 1968, some of these containers were repainted. There were more soft-tops built at that time, but they were of a different design and this is one of the old ones with a fresh coat of paint. The caption on flickr also says that they were used to ship Ingersoll-Rand pumps from Manchester to Canada.

Construction of the model was in plastikard; the main box in 2mm and 3mm thick pieces cut on the table saw.

I then added the ribbing with a lot of Evergreen plastic strip. I made some brass spacers to ensure the ribs were all aligned and spaced evenly.

The basic structure is now done, but I still need to add the door details and the corner fittings amongst other things. The corners will be done with the etched parts I made for the fruit rack container corners; I put plenty of spares on the etch including a handful of the early type for this container.

Mine will be in the original grey livery with logo panels. I may use thin brass for those, plus hopefully some transfers from @railtec-models.

 

 

[Mol_PMB]

A bit more progress on the soft-top container with the door detailing completed and the corner ‘castings’ (actually etched) glued on:

This is perched on a Skytrex lowmac which I recently purchased secondhand and is in the early stages of a repaint and conversion to Conflat ISO spec to carry containers like this one. 

[Mol_PMB]

This has just popped up on Facebook. Peer into the background and there's a nice rake of MSC container wagons with Manchester Liners containers. The date is 1972, the ship is at the Hovis berth on Trafford Wharf and we're looking across to 8 Pier where the wagons are.

[Mol_PMB]

I have made some more progress on the early Manchester Liners container.

This has large logo panels and various other smaller plates over the ribs. I had been wondering what to make these from - very thin plasticard would have been easy but fragile, especially over time. Metal seemed like a better bet but difficult to cut thin sheet without distortion. My custom etches for another project offered a better alternative - thin metal etched to size. So I included the panels in a spare part of the fret. I've just stuck them on and then given the container a coat of Halfords grey primer which happily is exactly right for the prototype colour.

Three more things to do on this are the top cover (yellow tarpaulin) and the custom transfers, followed by a light weathering.

 

[Mol_PMB]

In parallel with the soft-top Manchester Liners container above, I've been working on another in parallel using the same construction techniques, so I'd better feature that here.

In the early days of ISO containers, one firm was dominant in container leasing: CTI. By the end of the 1960s they had offices and depots worldwide, including one in Manchester. In the 1960s, CTI containers provided some rare variety from the dominant Manchester Liners boxes.

The did travel on the MSC Railway as proved by this one just sneaking into the edge of a photo:

This one has some unusual features such as vertically ribbed doors, and only two locking bars.

Because CTI was such a huge firm they had a wide variety of containers, but I have been able to find a few other photos which seem to match the characteristics of this one, and have used them as the basis of a model. 

Here's a better photo of one:

Here's the model, with the brass logo panels applied and ready for another coat of primer:

These early CTI containers were cherry-red, a darker shade than the orange-red used by Manchester Liners. So this will have a top-coat of cherry red and then some more custom transfers.

 

I'll close with a nice photo showing a line-up of Manchester Ship Canal trucks with container loads, probably around 1967:

The two CTI containers here are different variants from the one I've modelled. The third container is the conventional box version of the early Manchester Liners open-top container in the previous post.

For truck enthusiasts, I think they are AEC Mandator with Ergomatic cab, in the green and white livery of the MSC Bridgewater Department. It would be nice to model one of those trucks in due course but I can't find anything close.