Miss Prism Posted December 17, 2021 Share Posted December 17, 2021 I get some weird enquiries occasionally at gwr.org.uk, but this one perhaps deserves a festive outing. I'm guessing in Opens with tarps... 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
richbrummitt Posted December 17, 2021 Share Posted December 17, 2021 17 minutes ago, Miss Prism said: I get some weird enquiries occasionally at gwr.org.uk, but this one perhaps deserves a festive outing. I'm guessing in Opens with tarps... Agree, size dependant. A tall one would need an appropriately long Macaw or other bolster wagons. Presumably the branches would be roped/strapped to achieve the same tight bunch that a net achieves today. Maybe someone somewhere has a photograph… 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steamport Southport Posted December 17, 2021 Share Posted December 17, 2021 (edited) In a box from Woolies? Certainly by the 1920s artificial trees were commonplace if not the norm. So I would expect those to be transported by vans. Before the bristle type I believe they were made of dyed feathers and originally imported from Germany (demand for which disappeared during WWI). This is the type I mean. I'm sure there was still something similar in the old box of decorations in my nan's house in the 1970s. https://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/digital/collection/imlsmohai/id/14565/ Jason Edited December 17, 2021 by Steamport Southport 1 3 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penrhos1920 Posted December 17, 2021 Share Posted December 17, 2021 I think this topic should be in the jokes forum 1 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Neal Ball Posted December 17, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted December 17, 2021 2 hours ago, Miss Prism said: I get some weird enquiries occasionally at gwr.org.uk, but this one perhaps deserves a festive outing. I'm guessing in Opens with tarps... There was a tree every year on the concourse at Henley on Thames. My assumption is that it would be felled locally… 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Phil Bullock Posted December 17, 2021 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 17, 2021 (edited) Plenty of illegal ones were carried on the footplate or guards vans of the pick up goods on country branch lines ….. allegedly Edited December 17, 2021 by Phil Bullock 3 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Mikkel Posted December 17, 2021 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 17, 2021 Miss P, for want of the actual answer, perhaps instead you can inform the enquirer how certain christmas turkeys were carried (i.e. in horseboxes, as you may remember): https://blog.railwaymuseum.org.uk/charles-dickens-missing-christmas-parcel/ 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Compound2632 Posted December 17, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted December 17, 2021 "the poor people of Reading had been offered the charred remains at sixpence a portion!" - that we should be so lucky. I've got my fingers crossed that Waitrose will be able to fulfil my order this year. But see also E.L. Ahrons, Locomotive and Train Working in the Latter Part of the Nineteenth Century Vol. 2 (Heffer, 1952) pp. 106-7 - Midland, and a goose, but close enough. An undeliverable consignment that the stationmaster disposed of internally. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitpw Posted December 17, 2021 Share Posted December 17, 2021 ....in a train drawn by engine 2926 Saint Nicholas? Kit PW 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Hodgson Posted December 18, 2021 Share Posted December 18, 2021 2 hours ago, Mikkel said: Miss P, for want of the actual answer, perhaps instead you can inform the enquirer how certain christmas turkeys were carried (i.e. in horseboxes, as you may remember): https://blog.railwaymuseum.org.uk/charles-dickens-missing-christmas-parcel/ Mr Portillo did a programme in which he explained that Thuxton Station (now part of the Mid Norfolk Railway) was once renowned for having a lot of seasonal turkey traffic (it didn't have a great deal else). A local firm is still breeding black turkeys, though I think MNR has yet to win back the transport contract. 2 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steamport Southport Posted December 18, 2021 Share Posted December 18, 2021 42 minutes ago, kitpw said: ....in a train drawn by engine 2926 Saint Nicholas? Kit PW Was that on the Feast of 2929? 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul H Vigor Posted December 18, 2021 Share Posted December 18, 2021 'Treevan – converted Mica for special traffic' 1 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Popular Post Mikkel Posted December 18, 2021 RMweb Gold Popular Post Share Posted December 18, 2021 (edited) Since @Miss Prism raised the question I've had a faint tinkling at the back of my mind. A vague memory of sorts. I dismissed it as preposterous, but this morning an invisible hand gently guided me to Atkins' GWR Goods Train Working Volume 2, page 238. Given the subject and the spirit of the season, I'm taking the liberty of showing a (deliberately poor) rendition of the image here. If anyone objects I'll remove it. Caption: "Christmas Trees being loaded into GW Minks". No date. DJ Hyde Collection. Edited December 18, 2021 by Mikkel 11 1 7 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitpw Posted December 18, 2021 Share Posted December 18, 2021 "How did the GWR transport Christmas trees?" "firs class, of course" Kit PW 3 2 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Hal Nail Posted December 18, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted December 18, 2021 12 minutes ago, kitpw said: "firs class, of course" Kit PW take a bough! 2 2 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold phil_sutters Posted December 18, 2021 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 18, 2021 2 hours ago, Mikkel said: Since @Miss Prism raised the question I've had a faint tinkling at the back of my mind. A vague memory of sorts. I dismissed it as preposterous, but this morning an invisible hand gently guided me to Atkins' GWR Goods Train Working Volume 2, page 238. Given the subject and the spirit of the season, I'm taking the liberty of showing a (deliberately poor) rendition of the image here. If anyone objects I'll remove it. Caption: "Christmas Trees being loaded into GW Minks". No date. DJ Hyde Collection. Interesting details - the desk and protective apron. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul H Vigor Posted December 18, 2021 Share Posted December 18, 2021 2 hours ago, phil_sutters said: Interesting details - the desk and protective apron. Another seasonal cameo for those winter snow layouts?? 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Kylestrome Posted December 18, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted December 18, 2021 5 hours ago, kitpw said: "How did the GWR transport Christmas trees?" Mainly on branch lines. 3 1 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
peach james Posted December 18, 2021 Share Posted December 18, 2021 What's the difference between Pre 1963 BR (W), and post ? One had branches... 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Compound2632 Posted December 18, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted December 18, 2021 54 minutes ago, Kylestrome said: Mainly on branch lines. Trunk routes, surely? 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted December 18, 2021 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 18, 2021 I know that in more modern times a main way of loading Christmas Trees at a certain time of year on one particular freight trip working was to jam them into the back cab of an EE Type 3 (Class 37 for younger readers). However in that case I don't think there was any sort of charge for carriage. I understand it was all carefully planned that the loading and unloading would take place well out of sight of any eyes of officialdom. What they didn't think of was that said trees were readily visible from signa box windows 3 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnofwessex Posted December 18, 2021 Share Posted December 18, 2021 While not on the GWR, a book I have on the S&D has a tale about trees being cut down on embankments by goods train crews 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Hodgson Posted December 18, 2021 Share Posted December 18, 2021 3 hours ago, The Stationmaster said: I know that in more modern times a main way of loading Christmas Trees at a certain time of year on one particular freight trip working was to jam them into the back cab of an EE Type 3 (Class 37 for younger readers). However in that case I don't think there was any sort of charge for carriage. I understand it was all carefully planned that the loading and unloading would take place well out of sight of any eyes of officialdom. What they didn't think of was that said trees were readily visible from signa box windows My father worked for the Forestry Commission when I was born. In the run up to Xmas, they manned the fire-watching towers in the New Forest in an effort to apprehend anybody with a DIY approach to obtaining trees. The aim was for Xmas trees to be identified by forestry workers for cutting down and sale as a by-product of the necessary thinning exercise as a plantation got better established. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted December 19, 2021 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 19, 2021 15 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said: My father worked for the Forestry Commission when I was born. In the run up to Xmas, they manned the fire-watching towers in the New Forest in an effort to apprehend anybody with a DIY approach to obtaining trees. The aim was for Xmas trees to be identified by forestry workers for cutting down and sale as a by-product of the necessary thinning exercise as a plantation got better established. I have more than a suspicion that the quantity of trees which made their way into back cabs on that line had as much to do with someone other than railway staff as it did with traincrews whose train would only be stationary there for a few minutes. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJS1977 Posted December 19, 2021 Share Posted December 19, 2021 On 17/12/2021 at 21:07, Neal Ball said: There was a tree every year on the concourse at Henley on Thames. My assumption is that it would be felled locally… Christmas Common, maybe? 1 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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