90's BR mineral wagon buffer beam question

[Poe]

Hello,

 

Im repainting some br 21 ton mineral wagons, any idea what colour the buffer beams should be, red or black?

 

ive painted the buffer shafts red, just wondering if the bufferbeam itself should be red too.

 

thank you.

 

Paul.

[Fat Controller]

They were meant to be painted the same colour as the body; grey for grey wagons, bauxite/ freight-stock brown for those with bauxite/brown bodies. I have seen occasional ones with black headstocks. Buffers would normally be in the same colour as the rest, though again they might be black, and Oleo ones were sometimes in a grey-green primer.

http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/mdo1doorrebuiltrenumber/h15933f60#h15933f60 shows brown body/buffers/headstocks.

http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brmdv/h2497bdb7#h2497bdb7 shows the primer-finished buffer

http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brmineralweld/h3c9c2154#h3c9c2154 shows the early colour scheme, with everything below floor-level black.

http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brmineralweld/h2cda3c03#h2cda3c03 is the later scheme, with solebars, headstocks and buffers in body colour.

[Poe]

Great, thank you! were there such things as soil wagons?

[Fat Controller]

Great, thank you! were there such things as soil wagons?

If, by soil, you mean the sort of stuff that you find in fields and gardens, then any sort of mineral wagon, or indeed other open wagon might be used. In the BR annual traffic figures, there used to be an entry for 'Earth and stones'; this was actually what all the aggregate and sand traffic was included under, as well as minestone (waste from coal mining) and blast-furnace slag. The railways also carried waste from re-ballasting and other operations, known as 'spoil'.

If, by 'soil', you mean manure or night-soil, then I don't think any's been carried by rail since the demise of livestock traffic; even then, more left by wheelbarrow than wagon, I suspect.

[Poe]

yep i meant gardening soil Thanks very much for the detailed answer, just what i wanted to hear, brill.

 

Paul.

[The Bigbee Line]

On the subject of 'night soil' I remember a driver telling me they used to shift train loads out of London at night in open wagons, not sure where from, but one destination was a pit between Otford Junction and Bat and Ball.  It's now a posh housing estate.  He said that in the summer it stank and was alive with maggots (nice).