br-nse-fan Posted March 19, 2011 Share Posted March 19, 2011 Hi All My wife has begun to show more interest in model railways, and as such, I have agreed to place a horse stable in the corner of the layout. while trolling Ebay, she's come across various horseboxes, but all are big-4 to early BR... nothing that I would think would have been found on the rail network in the 1980's. So my question would be... when did horse-by-rail stop... and if it was in the 80's (or even late 70's), does anyone make an RTR or kit for this stock? Thanks in advance! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Posted March 19, 2011 Share Posted March 19, 2011 In a word: no. I wouldn't like to say exactly when it finished, but my feeling is late '60s and even then, it was a traffic which would have been in decline for quite some time. Just about the only remotely horse-related traffic after 1970 would have been race-day specials. Adam Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Il Grifone Posted March 19, 2011 Share Posted March 19, 2011 It's your railway! If SWMBO wants horseboxes, then run horseboxes. You can always hide them if anyone critical puts in an appearance. Seriously, I doubt that any made it to be airbraked, at least as horseboxes. R-T-R there's the HD/Wrenn BR vehicle. These are usually found with the doors missing, but these are available as spares. (Avoid the mint boxed examples complete with horse if you want to run them.) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pennine MC Posted March 19, 2011 Share Posted March 19, 2011 I wouldn't like to say exactly when it finished, but my feeling is late '60s and even then, it was a traffic which would have been in decline for quite some time. Same here, it *might* just have scraped into the 70s but only just. Based on what I remember reading, I'd suspect the last were probably not the traditional 'casual' usage but occasional organised trains such as for circuses or the military. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AberdeenBill Posted March 19, 2011 Share Posted March 19, 2011 No disagreement here. This link: http://www.brc-stockbook.co.uk/Horse.htm describes some interesting horsebox specials in the 1960s. Bill Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jim s-w Posted March 19, 2011 Share Posted March 19, 2011 Not everything on your layout has to run on rails. Why not model the stable with even the remains of the rail served infrastructure and space for a long gone siding. A couple of corgi ford cargo's converted to horse boxes and bobs your unc! Hth Jim Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pennine MC Posted March 19, 2011 Share Posted March 19, 2011 Same here, it *might* just have scraped into the 70s but only just. Just checked the 1972 RCTS coaching stock book, they dont appear in that so they must have gone by late '71 at the latest. There are however two special cattle vans, which ISTR have come up in discussion before. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium keefer Posted March 19, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 19, 2011 all the mk1 horseboxes were withdrawn by winter 1971 but parkin book states they were outlived 'by a few of older design'. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pennine MC Posted March 19, 2011 Share Posted March 19, 2011 Cheers K, I dont have that book but have seen it - I thought I'd picked up '70s from somewhere Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold TheSignalEngineer Posted March 19, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 19, 2011 Some polo teams were reputed to send their mounts to away matches by rail!! Don't know the date when horseboxes finally ended, but it would have been around 1970. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pennine MC Posted March 19, 2011 Share Posted March 19, 2011 A couple of corgi ford cargo's converted to horse boxes ... I believe it was the law at one time that all horseboxes had to be Bedford TKs, just as all ice cream vans had to be CFs. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boris Posted March 19, 2011 Share Posted March 19, 2011 If anyone overly critical comes to see your layout and they query the horsebox, tell them it is one of the conversions into a steam boiler training vehicle, or one of the other uses a couple were put to! If fotopic was working I would direct you to some photographs! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horsetan Posted March 19, 2011 Share Posted March 19, 2011 The Severn Valley Railway has permitted a riding horse to travel in the guards / baggage area of one of their brakes before. Have seen photo of it loading; can't remember whether it was in the '70s or '80s..... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium PhilJ W Posted March 20, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 20, 2011 I'm trying to imagine the Hornby-Dublo/Wrenn Mk. 1 horse box in rail-blue/grey livery. One of the preserved ones, converted to a passenger vehicle is or was finished in lined carmine and cream. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-UnitMad Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 I believe it was the law at one time that all horseboxes had to be Bedford TKs, just as all ice cream vans had to be CFs. The TK pre-dates the Cargo, by quite some way, of course .... In fact as the Cargo was introduced in 1981, a '70s layout would have the TK, or maybe the Ford 'D'-series, the TK's real competitor. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
br-nse-fan Posted March 20, 2011 Author Share Posted March 20, 2011 Thanks for all the input guys! Always appreciated! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JZ Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 While horse boxes are available from Parkside and Hornby, is there a kit available of the Mk1 version ? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
birdseyecircus Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 Billy Smarts Circus stopped it's tenting tours at the end of 1971. One of the major reasons for this was that British Rail were increasing the prices they charged the circus for transporting it's 13 elephants, 50 horses, ponies, zebras and llamas. I know they used SR parcel vans with strengthed floors for the elephants. Wether this type of vehicle was used for the other animals i am not sure. Paul Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pennine MC Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 I'm trying to imagine the Hornby-Dublo/Wrenn Mk. 1 horse box in rail-blue/grey livery. If they had survived, they'd have been plain blue In fact as the Cargo was introduced in 1981, a '70s layout would have the TK, or maybe the Ford 'D'-series, the TK's real competitor. Yeah, 'twas just a wry comment on the almost overwhelming prevalence of the Bedfords at the time I know they used SR parcel vans with strengthed floors for the elephants. 'How d'you get four elephants in a Cortina?' 'One through each door, of course' Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium keefer Posted March 20, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 20, 2011 One of the major reasons for this was that British Rail were increasing the prices they charged the circus for transporting it's 13 elephants, 50 horses, ponies, zebras and llamas. I know they used SR parcel vans with strengthed floors for the elephants well, parcel post, it's charged by weight isn't it? a helluva lot of stamps and i'd like to see the postie deliver them in his van! a link to mike's railway history pages, contemporary accounts of stuff up until 1935: special loads http://mikes.railhistory.railfan.net/r080.html quote: "For the farm horses the usual "horse-box" is used, and great care has to be taken in conveying these animals to their new homes. But the removal of domesticated animals, a difficult enough task in itself, fades into comparative insignificance when the railway is called upon to transport a party of 70 lions, which once happened on the Southern Railway. The 70 animals occupied 15 cages, each weighing about 5 tons, and waited in the hold of a ship at Newhaven for the railway to convey them to the circus at Olympia. The cages from the ship's hold swung ominously in mid-air before coming to rest on the flat wagons, and caused the railwaymen considerable anxiety. Once, however, the cages had been successfully lowered to the trucks the subsequent journey passed off smoothly enough. The Great Western Railway once tackled a similar proposition when it undertook to transport an entire menagerie, comprising tigers, leopards, lions, bears, monkeys and elephants. The whole consignment was taken to its destination in sixteen "crocodiles"—"crocodile" is the telegraphic codeword for a type of long, low well-truck—two "pythons"—covered carriage trucks ; and two "scorpions"—open carriage trucks." pic of the lions' train is towards the bottom of the page. love the description 'bad tempered from a sea-voyage' sorry for the diversion Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSWR Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 There are still many stables and pastures next to active railway lines. So a stable in the corner of a post-privatization layout is not out of place. However the residents will not be travelling by train. In the pre-grouping era horse traffic was an every day load for the railways. There was a poster in the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden from the Metropolitan Railway offering special fares for "Hunting Gentlemen" and their mounts for a day's hunting in Buckinghamshire. Several books I have on different branch lines in southern England describe the horse traffic. I remember, as a teenager in the late 1950s, climbing into an empty horsebox in the up bay platform at Basingstoke, which had been in use. There's also a picture in a book I have of the Winchester B4 shunter attaching or detaching a horsebox from a Western Region DMU in the down platform sometime in the early 1960s. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jim s-w Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 The TK pre-dates the Cargo, by quite some way, of course .... In fact as the Cargo was introduced in 1981, a '70s layout would have the TK, or maybe the Ford 'D'-series, the TK's real competitor. Indeed but topic title is horse traffic in the 80's. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-UnitMad Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 Indeed but topic title is horse traffic in the 80's. Yes I appreciate that Jim... Pennine & I just went a teeny bit OT (and I did get it that his was a 'wry comment' ) as the fact emerged that there was no horse traffic in the 80's... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pennine MC Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 Pennine & I just went a teeny bit OT Yes, we really must get a grip Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bernard Lamb Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 Yes, we really must get a grip Please don't. One of the things that I like about RMweb is the way that topics ramble OT. In particular when they throw up interesting information that would never come out otherwise. I have never seen a photo of an horse box in use in post steam days. Bernard Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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