Fat Controller

Hmmm, I think I need to go and search out this book - I may even have it in my library. I've seen references to Conflat Coke, Conflat Salt and Conflat Sand.

Conflat Coke were the ones that worked from Derwenthaugh to Wakefield Cobra- these went to potash/salt traffic from Teesside.

I haven't heard 'Conflat Sand' before...

As I mentioned on Ully-Pug's blog, there are photos of orange containers with blue sheets on this traffic- I remember them from working in Avonmouth in 1976/7. They'd presumably be for a flow which would have been too small to justify a even a small ship from Cornwall. There's another shot in one of the more recent Larkin books, page 86 of 'Wagons of the Early British Rail Era'. The wagon in this case was B947880, fitted with cast bogies. Wagons recorded were:-

B947861/5/8/80/95, B947946/86

Larkin reckons the traffic finished in the early 1980s- I wonder if these wagons ended up on the containerised fertilizer/salt traffic from Boulby afterwards, as did so many others?

I think I scaled them off the photo at a little under 4ft. One Bachmann 8ft x 20ft ISO cut longitudinally(twice) left about a 2mm sliver. Interesting point about the colour. The book I used just mentions light blue boxes and black sheets, but as I've another one and haven't yet sprayed the boxes maybe I should follow your suggested colour scheme. They're going to have a healthy coating of white yet anyway!

I knew I'd seen something...

Page 86 of 'Wagons of the Early British Rail Era' by David Larkin has a photo of B947880 taken at Avonmouth in Febuary 1976. Containers described as orange with translucent blue sheets. The wagon is on cast bogies. I wonder if the other livery had been applied to the boxes used on the short-lived Par to Park Royal Freightliner service, which mainly conveyed clay for John Dickinson (Basildon Bond) at Croxley Green.

How tall are the boxes on the Conflat Clay- 4'? I remember seeing them at St Andrew's Road (Avonmouth)when I used to get the train to work in 1976/7. Were some of the boxes also another colour? I seem to recall orange with blue sheets.

Brian