China clay Wagons.

[Tom Bayford]

Hello all

i have been building a few of ratio's china clay wagons and in pictures ive seen of the prototype they dont all seem to have roller bearing axle boxes like the ratio kit so i was wondering what other types of wagons where used was it types of Ex SR wagons or ex GWR and if there are kits availble? Also its based around the North Cornwall/Bodmin area if that helps.

 

Also Question number 2 is; where were the tarpaulins stored during the empty shipment coming back from the docks where they put into the wagons or did they use a covered wagon?

 

Many thanks in advance Tom.

[Fat Controller]

Hello all

i have been building a few of ratio's china clay wagons and in pictures ive seen of the prototype they dont all seem to have roller bearing axle boxes like the ratio kit so i was wondering what other types of wagons where used was it types of Ex SR wagons or ex GWR and if there are kits availble? Also its based around the North Cornwall/Bodmin area if that helps.

 

Also Question number 2 is; where were the tarpaulins stored during the empty shipment coming back from the docks where they put into the wagons or did they use a covered wagon?

 

Many thanks in advance Tom.

The Ratio ones, and the Bachmann equivalent, were used for shipment traffic to Carne Point- not all of them had roller bearings. These wagons had end-doors for the end-tipper at the port. Other wagons were used for flows to destinations within the UK, but not to the port- these were a very motley selection of 5-plank open wagons from all the 'Big 4' and also BR. Paul Bartlett's site has several selections of photos of these. The majority of these wagons were fitted with roller bearings in later years.

In most cases, the sheets would be folded and put on the floor of the wagon- in a few cases, such as the flows to Longport, the sheets might be stacked on a pallet and put in an empty van, but few destinations handled vans with bagged clay on a regular basis alongside bulk clay.

[Pennine MC]

Hello all

i have been building a few of ratio's china clay wagons and in pictures ive seen of the prototype they dont all seem to have roller bearing axle boxes like the ratio kit

 

Very few of the purpose-built clay tipplers or Clayhoods had roller bearings- a literal handful I'd say, and then only relatively late in life. For all those folk who say it doesnt much matter when manufacturers make minor errors, I'd cite the number of times this query comes up as evidence that it sometimes does.

[spamcan61]

From a modelling perspective the most useful magazine article on the 1/051s is that by Peter Totman in June 1988 Railway Modeller, although this focuses on scratchbuilding rather than the Ratio/Bachmann alternatives there's photos etc.

 

EDIT, there's also a useful article by John Chambers in MODRILL vol.1 #2, focussing on building and modifying the Ratio kit.

[7013]

For a thouroughly informative site about china clay wagons I suggest you look into the china clay branchlines yahoo group. it has a good database on the various wagons used for china clay traffic

[Tom Bayford]

Thanks everyone for the Infomation its very usefull as im trying to build up a fleet of kit built wagons as have much time at the moment. Must get myself onto the yahoo group

Cheers Tom