LMS / BR 55 Ton Armour Plate wagon in 4mm

[macgeordie]

I was looking through some of my wagon books last year and saw some photos of the Armour Plate wagons which were initially built for the LMS and the LNER. The BR 55 ton wagon is pretty much identical, there was a 40 ton version as well but that was obviously smaller. 

As a result I decided to develop a kit for the BR diagram 2/002 which as I mentioned above is more or less identical to the LMS ones apart from the livery colour.  The kit can also be used to produce the diagram 2/003 wagon which is the same except for having oval buffers and a 'through pipe'.

 

Here is a photo of one of the test builds.

 

 

The wooden floor is a laser cut item produced for me by Mark Seward.

 

A friend of mine has produced some prototype information for me and here is a copy of it.

 

By the 1930s, extra-thick steel plate was increasingly being used as defensive armour in warships and other naval vessels, as well as in structural engineering generally. In terms of transporting it between steelworks and shipyard, such material was beyond the capacity of existing rolling stock and designs were prepared for a heavy-duty bogie wagon with the necessary reinforcement to enable them to handle loads of fifty tons-plus. Allocated to the revenue fleet and classified as Specially Constructed Vehicles (SCVs) such stock could also be used for carrying bulky steel castings and ingots, especially in and around the steel-producing areas of the north of England.  

As a type, armour plate wagons were never very numerous, and the LMS and LNER chose to share a common design of 55 ton wagons built in two Lots to drawing 13/2528, Lot 1065 in 1937 and Lot 1144 in 1939. Both batches were built at Wolverton, the first being allocated to the LMS and numbered 700201-3, the second to the LNER and numbered 217329-31 and 217295. To cope with the exceptional loads these wagons were meant to carry, the flat steel bed of the wagon was sheathed with 3” x 9” hardwood planks and this feature was perpetuated in the BR builds. Photographic evidence suggests that, when loaded, armour plate wagons would be marshalled directly behind the locomotive or next to the guard’s van so a watchful eye could be kept on proceedings in case the load started to shift.

 British Railways followed suit with their diagram 2/002 wagons of 1955, which were almost identical to the earlier LMS/LNER builds and not to be confused with ARM EL of Dia 2/001, which had emerged from Derby C&W in 1950 and was just 24ft long, rated at 40 tons. Extra carrying capacity was clearly required and the outcome was four 55T wagons in Lot 2174 coded ARM ET and numbered B908000 to B908003, with a further five in the same Lot coded ARM MD and numbered B908004 to B908008. Seven more were subsequently built to Lot 2622 numbered 908009 to 908015 and a further four to Lot 2651, 908016 to 908019. Like many wagon types designed specifically for heavy loads, they had two foot eight and a half inch diameter disc wheels rather than the usual three feet diameter. According to the GA drawing all these wagons were fitted with round 18” buffers, the same as the LMS design. They were not fitted with continuous braking but had parking brakes on each bogie, operated by a handwheel at each end of the solebar. Many survived into the mid 1980s and three of this small fleet were even transferred to the Continental Ferry stock although I don’t have a date for when this happened. By this time some of the wagons from both ARM ET/MD diagrams had been fitted with a single centrally-mounted bolster so they could be used (presumably in pairs) to transport heavy concrete beams and similar long loads – some were marked CONCRETE BEAM.

 The final BR armour plate wagons to diagram 2/003 had oval buffers and were fitted with a through vacuum pipe. There were six of these built in the late 1950’s to Lot 3171, numbered 908022 to 908027 and again coded ARM ET. The inference is that, like all through-piped vehicles, these six wagons were painted bauxite, as the LMS wagons had been when new (brake pipes would have been white). The previous 20 BR-built wagons were in grey as they were unfitted. Bogies and underframe fittings were black.

 

I've started on the final test build for the kit so here are a couple of photos of the progress so far.

 

The floor is assembled and the solebar overlays are in place.

 

 

The sides of the wagon have shackles to allow fixing down of the load, the ribs which carry these are now in place.

 

 

I'll post some more photos as the build progresses.

[iak]

Very interesting Ian...

[macgeordie]

The shackles are now in place, they are a bit fiddly to install but they look the part once they are in place and they work so you can flip the ones you need to tie down the load into the 'up' position leaving the rest down.

 

 

 

I have also fitted the bogie mounting parts, buffer beam overlay, coupling hook and the brake handwheels. There were two different styles of handwheels judging by the photographic evidence and they seem to have been interchanged at random, probably after one got broken or damaged in use. If you want to fit a functional hook rather than have a coupling in the NEM pocket the slot is big enough to take the Smiths ones. These wagons had Instanter couplings so I have put a couple of the Instanter links on the fret just in case.

 

 

Next job is to assemble the bogies themselves.

Ian

[hmrspaul]

Some Photos in https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brarmel including as beam carriers.

 

Paul

[Jub45565]

Interesting - is any more known about when they entered the concrete pool? Was this all in later life, or may it have been at build/by the late 50s?

[kingmender]

Very enticing Ian. Assuming these ran to the south coast naval ports and shipyards they would have crossed GWR metals (if not rule 1 applies). Could you reserve one for me please?

 

[Enterprisingwestern]

20 hours ago, macgeordie said:

The shackles are now in place, they are a bit fiddly to install but they look the part once they are in place and they work so you can flip the ones you need to tie down the load into the 'up' position leaving the rest down.

 

 

 

I have also fitted the bogie mounting parts, buffer beam overlay, coupling hook and the brake handwheels. There were two different styles of handwheels judging by the photographic evidence and they seem to have been interchanged at random, probably after one got broken or damaged in use. If you want to fit a functional hook rather than have a coupling in the NEM pocket the slot is big enough to take the Smiths ones. These wagons had Instanter couplings so I have put a couple of the Instanter links on the fret just in case.

 

 

Next job is to assemble the bogies themselves.

Ian

 

Them there handwheels should be slightly dished.

Just sayin!!

 

Mike.

[Michael Hodgson]

10 hours ago, Jub45565 said:

Interesting - is any more known about when they entered the concrete pool?

 

They would probably have sunk in a pool of concrete, and it would have set around them.

[Bucoops]

Hi Ian, I think I would be interested in at least one of these - it reads as though the LNER variant was mechanically identical?

 

thanks,

 

Richad

[kevinlms]

Danger of more models being sold already, than there were prototypes!

[hmrspaul]

13 hours ago, Jub45565 said:

Interesting - is any more known about when they entered the concrete pool? Was this all in later life, or may it have been at build/by the late 50s?

Certainly later in life. In the diagram book on 2/800 http://www.barrowmoremrg.co.uk/BRBDocuments/SpecialVehiclesIssue.pdf  They are not in the earlier copy of the diagram book on their website. 

 

Paul

[macgeordie]

On 21/01/2024 at 23:00, Jub45565 said:

Interesting - is any more known about when they entered the concrete pool? Was this all in later life, or may it have been at build/by the late 50s?

 

A friend of mine, Steve Carter has done some research into the wagons and he has produced a spreadsheet with information on the Beam carriers which is attached.

 

ARM Wagons compressed.xlsx

 

He has also given me some explanatory text which is:-

 

According to Dave Larkin the concrete beam sets were formed circa 1968 .

 

On the spreadsheet you'll see that I've colour coded the various concrete beam wagons as they were formed into sets according to their loading height from rail level, their load weight and the type of bolsters they were fitted with (high / low). So Type A (Yellows) comprised of a single set of two vehicles, Type B (Pink) was two sets formed from four vehicles whilst Types C (Blue) and D (Green) numbered as four sets each from eight vehicles. I think that the vehicles from each set could only work with others from within that set which makes sense if the bolsters were different. I've also added the types of vehicles used as spacers (not runners!) and I think that each consist could be made longer / shorter by using more / less of both Arm wagons and spacers according to the shape of each beam.

 

I'm not sure as to the type designations for the bolsters themselves but there's a few useful pictures in "British Railways Wagons - Their Loads and Loading" by Brian Grant & Bill Taylor from which it seems they were more like fabricated steel plinths, one per wagon on the centre line between the two bogies. There's also a few good images on Paul Bartlett's site showing them, especially on ARM EL 2/001 wagons (these too were made into concrete beam sets).

 

 

I hope members find this helpful. I haven't produced a kit for the bolsters as they are outside of my normal timescale but if there is sufficient interest I'll take a look at producing a kit for a typical bolster as well.

 

Ian

Edited January 23 by macgeordie
Excel file modified so it will print on one sheet in landscape

[macgeordie]

A number of members have already asked for one of these kits as can be seen above and that is much appreciated. If anybody else wants to go onto the list please message me rather than make the request in the thread as it is a lot easier for me to keep track of who wants what that way.

 

Ian

Edited January 22 by macgeordie
typo corrected

[C126]

Does anyone know what 'armour plate' looked like with which this wagon would be loaded?  I assume 3" plate sheets (so 1mm. thick in OO), perhaps two side by side loaded along the wagon-length (with a few more on top with laths between for un-loading)?  Thanks.

 

 

Edited January 22 by C126
Clarification.

[Asterix2012]

41 minutes ago, C126 said:

Does anyone know what 'armour plate' looked like with which this wagon would be loaded?  I assume 3" plate sheets (so 1mm. thick in OO), perhaps two side by side loaded along the wagon-length (with a few more on top with laths between for un-loading)?  Thanks.

 

 

3 inch armour plate is actually quite thin

 

Belt armour on the King George V class battleships was 15 inches 

I suspect these were intended to carry the thicker types of armour plate from the thirties 

[C126]

@Asterix2012 thanks for that.  As you will have guessed, I had no idea.

 

[SP Steve]

1 hour ago, C126 said:

Does anyone know what 'armour plate' looked like with which this wagon would be loaded?  I assume 3" plate sheets (so 1mm. thick in OO), perhaps two side by side loaded along the wagon-length (with a few more on top with laths between for un-loading)?  Thanks.

 

 

 

The following website has some useful insight into armour plate used on ships:

 

https://kbismarck.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1643

 

ARM ET and EL wagons could also find a use in transporting heavy castings as well as plate - there's a nice shot in Don Rowland's "Twilight of the Goods" showing a diagram 2/001 ARM EL B907113 at Carlisle in 1960 with just such a heavy block load.

 

Incidentally when carrying plate on flat topped or armour plate wagons it was stipulated that loads were to be chained along their length as well as crosswise.

[macgeordie]

The bogie frame is a one piece 'fold up' item. There are two rivets (bolt heads) to press out at the base of the axleguards but some of these wagons had a tie bar fitted in later life so if you want to model that version don't bother pressing out the rivets or you will just have to file them off again to get the tie bar to fit neatly.

 

 

There are two variants of the beam across the ends of the bogie, one has an NEM box built into it and the other is plain, If you want to fit a working coupling just fit the plain version at both ends.

 

 

 

The next job is fitting some 0.9mm wire across the bogie above each axlebox, this will represent the spring mounting point later in the build. The wires can be left in place if you wish which significantly stiffens the bogie but it makes it more difficult to fit the wheels later.  The pin point bearings are also now in place and the bogie pivot points are folded up. These allow one bogie to rock in a linear direction and the other axially giving some compensation to the wagon.

 

 

A number of members have now asked for one of the kits so if anybody else wants one please message me.

 

Ian

[MartinRS]

On 22/01/2024 at 13:49, C126 said:

Does anyone know what 'armour plate' looked like with which this wagon would be loaded?  I assume 3" plate sheets (so 1mm. thick in OO), perhaps two side by side loaded along the wagon-length (with a few more on top with laths between for un-loading)?  Thanks.

 

 

There are some photos of plate made into bow sections in this publication https://archive.org/details/thosfirthsonslim00firtrich though they might be too large for the wagon.

[micklner]

1 hour ago, MartinRS said:

There are some photos of plate made into bow sections in this publication https://archive.org/details/thosfirthsonslim00firtrich though they might be too large for the wagon.

Photo 86 looks like a similar Midland wagon ??.

[figworthy]

5 hours ago, MartinRS said:

There are some photos of plate made into bow sections in this publication https://archive.org/details/thosfirthsonslim00firtrich though they might be too large for the wagon.

 

What a wonderful collection of photos.

 

Adrian

[MartinRS]

17 hours ago, micklner said:

Photo 86 looks like a similar Midland wagon ??.

I can remember working in the battery room, next to the switchboard at what was then Firth Brown Steel. An old framed map of the huge Tho. Firth (partly dual gauge) railway system had been abandoned there. It was to disappear only to turn-up on the wall of a manager's office at Gripple. Both Gripple and Firth Brown backed out onto this railway system which ran parallel to the route of the Sheffield and Rotherham Railway. The S&RR had a south-bound connection north to the North Midland Railway in Rotherham. Both were taken over by the Midland, which might explain the presence of a Midland wagon. Sheffield Wicker station was to become a goods only station when the Bradway tunnel and the 'new road' opened in 1870. When I worked on BR in the 1970s the Sheffield-to-Rotherham route to London, used if the 'new road' was ever closed for engineering works was still called the 'old road' by railwaymen. (An alternate route in times of closure of the 'new road' is via the curve at Nunnery Junction, picking-up the old GCR main line).

Edited January 24 by MartinRS
Tunnel name - thanks Enterprisingwestern

[Enterprisingwestern]

9 hours ago, MartinRS said:

Bradley tunnel

 

Bradway Tunnel.

 

Mike.

[Mol_PMB]

This photo shows one on Manchester docks with a load that isn't armour plate or concrete beams. Date around 1961:

I'd definitely be interested if a 7mm scale version was to evolve from this project.

Mol

 

 

[MartinRS]

50 minutes ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

Bradway Tunnel.

Thanks for the correction. It was very late when I posted that!