Steam Era tank wagons - Some have ladders, some do not.

[TTRAK_Andrew]

G'day All, As I have 'surfed the web' looking at prototypes and models of steam era tank wagons I have noticed that some tank wagons have access ladders to the `dome' and others do not. In the model world the view of a 3 wagon set by Bachmann at:

http://www.anticsonline.co.uk/593_1_2225820.html

show this.

Is the non-ladder/ladder a time based feature, eg. after 19?? all new tank wagons had to have ladders, or are there other factors involved?

 

Thanks in advance, Andrew G.

BLOG: http://ttrakandrew.wordpress.com/
PHOTOS: https://www.flickr.c...s/85896932@N07/

[corneliuslundie]

If you can get hold of a copy have a look at Oil on the Rails by Alan Coppin (HMRS, 1999) or Touret's book on the subject, Petroleum tank wagons of Britain.

Part depends on the loading and unloading facilities and methods. But it seems that at first they were without ladders, access being gained by portable ladders when required. Later ladders were fitted, then latterly they disappeared again apparently to prevent contact with overhead lines. This is a vast simplification. Some wagons were unloaded at low level when no ladder would have been needed - and there might well have been access facilities at the refinery were it was filled. There is a lot of interesting history in tank wagons.

[Fat Controller]

The wagons unloaded at low-level were those carrying Class B (less-flammable) products, such as fuel oil and bitumen; those carrying Class A products were unloaded via the top hatch by siphoning. I'm not sure, but I think the introduction of ladders may have occured during WW2, when there was a massive increase in the amount of tank-wagon traffic.

[TTRAK_Andrew]

G'day again folks, Thank-you to the good people who have provided their informed responses, they have been most helpful. I had an idea that the unloading site on the wagon would be one factor in terms of the presence or absence of a ladder.

The wonderful site: Goods & Not So Goods at:

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/gansg/index.htm#livy

has a page set aside for tank wagon liveries:

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/gansg/6-livy/odds/9-tankliv.htm#top

which has helped me to understand some other factors in tank wagon externals.

Also the point that a tank wagon may have the livery of a petrol company but carry Fuel Oil, and not Petrol. In the operation of a layout this would obviously determine where a particular tank wagon is delivered. EG. A string of BP tank wagons in fuel oil livery would not necessarily go to a petrol distributor's siding unless the distributor also handled fuel oil, but it would go to the siding of a factory where the fuel oil would be burnt in its boilers. If I recall correctly the final years of rail operations in the Slough Trading Estate was the delivery of fuel oil for the power station there.

Thanks again, Andrew G.

BLOG: http://ttrakandrew.wordpress.com/
PHOTOS: https://www.flickr.c...s/85896932@N07/