wagonman

Ah thanks. Yes I'd heard about Adrian. Let's all wish him a speedy and comprehensive recovery. Nice work by the way – any chance of writing it up for the S7Group Newsletter? :-) Richard

Anything with a big white star on its side would likely have been hired from the Birmingham wagon co. The GWR hired quite a few wagons from B'ham in the early 1900s. Comprehensive details are in the GWSG Pannier39. Most of them were for clay traffic Richard

Not Blakeney Sailing Club by any chance?

Be careful with the Broadside – it's real falling-down water at 6.3% ABV... Richard

I remember the Wadworth drays around Devizes from my school days, but I was strictly forbidden from sampling the product! Also Young & Co in Wandsworth when I was of an age to sample the wares. Actually preferred Fullers.The brewery calculated that with a compact pub estate it was more economical to use horse drays, even in the 1970s, though lorries serviced the further flung parts. The Letheringsett Brewery here in Norfolk – a rather grander affair in its day than the Trunch – used to send its drays out on trips of up to 30 miles or more in a day, the draymen having to also work in the brewery or malthouse, and on the farm. Lots of information can be gleaned from 'Mary Hardy's Diaries' edited by Margaret Bird. My copy is at the bottom of a pile of books behind the sofa so you'll have to look up the reference yourself if you're interested! Richard

Just a chance, John, just a chance. They were being slaughtered wholesale in the Edwardian period as lots of new wagons came into service.

I hadn't really looked closely, but you're right, the wagon on the far right could well be a twin of the one at H&P which I now suspect was built in the early '70s rather than late. As for the buffers, they could mean conversion from broad gauge – I'm sure BG John can enlighten us – as BG wagons all had sprung or 'elastic' buffers which would have been re-used on conversion to NG; this at least was what happened with PO wagons. The wagons in this photo are quite possibly distorted as it is as you surmise the edge of the plate – and the photographer was using a rather less sparkling lens than usual! The crane is a hand-operated 12 ton affair which lasted at least to 1935 and probably longer. But I haven't been able to find out when it was built. There is a photo in GWR Wagons Appendix fig 235 which is the same photo but with all the lovely background blocked out! The crane had had a viewing platform attached to the end of the jib for tunnel inspection work so I presume it was not new when photographed. As for date, I can't do much better than 1900 ±5 years. There were still quite a few wagons from the 1870s in use in the early 1900s: the famous/notorious single plank wagon no.5141 (see ATB plate 338) was withdrawn from Bridgwater in 1907 and I think scrapped though quite a few wagons of this vintage withdrawn in the 1900s enjoyed a life after death as 'Factory' or 'Dock' wagons.

That general design of LSWR van was built over quite a long period – from 1885 to 1912 – the early ones having wooden underframes, while many of the later ones had steel, They were given Dia 1410. That notwithstanding, that could still be the newest vehicle there. Richard

Indeed, the dumb one end and sprung the other was very common in South Wales for shipment coal wagons, but remember these were 95% or more Private Owners. Plus I think this photo predates the period of takeovers of minor S Wales lines. Richard

I was wondering where you obtained your 3-bolt LNWR buffers? I bought some from NMRS (I think) but they are way too big – more like G1.

I can only remember the last line: "his beak can hold more than his belly can". Must dig out my Nash anthology...

There is more to be seen either side of the tilt, though to the left most of the wagon is obscured by the crane which was the reason for taking the photo. Anyway, here is all the rest of the right hand side of the original – fading off rather, and less and less sharp... Interesting in that it is a 5-plank mineral wagon with an end door and through top plank. Similar wagons were bought from the Bute Works Co but I don't think this is one of them.

That photo is a great improvement – we even have a number 256*7 for next time someone has a chance to look at the wagon registers – though I would say the wagon was a two-planker, not three, and dates from the late 1870s perhaps. Sticking my neck out a bit there!

Compared to the '50s the '70s were paradise, and much to be preferred to the '80s and '90s too. Maybe it's an age thing... Richard

There used to be a French (maybe not Breton despite the striped T-shirt, and beret) onion seller who was a regular visitor to Kensington in the '70s. We managed to converse as we both spoke fluent Franglais. Richard

Is there are certainty that this wagon is actually GWR? There are no discernible markings on any visible wagon (most are end-on) but there are clearly other non-GWR wagons in the sidings including what looks like an LSWR design stage centre and possibly one of H&P's own Birmingham built wagons on the right. On the left two down from our mystery wagon is what could be an SER wagon with high round ends, or just possibly a GWR tilt wagon. The construction of the mystery wagon would seem to be a wooden solebar with an iron flitch plate attached, and the legs of the W-iron sandwiched between – like the attached photo of a standard gauge iron bodied tilt wagon. I too wish we knew more about these earlier GW wagons...

To keep them as far away as possible from BR HQ ?

There were lots of small ports all along the Norfolk coast where the staple import was coal. This traffic lasted from medieval times right up to the end of the C19, ultimately killed by the arrival of the railways. Wells quay even had rail access, as I'm sure you know. Unloading of the ships was usually performed by "jumping" whereby someone would be in the hold shovelling coal into baskets which would be lifted up and out by the rest of the crew holding the other end of the lifting rope and jumping off a convenient spar, their combined weight being enough to lift the load. At Cley, latterly at least, the collier ship were unloaded in the middle of Blakeney 'harbour', the coal being transferred to lighters which were then quanted up the channel to Cley quay. There is an E W Cooke etching that shows just this process. This ma well have been what happened at Lindisfarne too. I'm trying to find my copy of the print! Richard

Perhaps someone should point out to the GWS that the handrails didn't get painted white until sometime after 1904...

But you did have to press in all those weird creases in your bell-bottoms... I went for the Signals section – minimal squarebashing!

My impression – and it is only that – is that engine naming ceremonies were rare on the GWR and what there were usually happened at Paddington. As for what is a 'branch line' in many source the Salisbury line was considered a branch line (off the WS&WR main line). Likewise the Devizes line was a branch once the Stert-Westbury cut-off was built although it was a red route and did sometimes see Castles. But I think the OP is barking up a non-existent tree seeking to run a Castle on a short train on his branch line. In a parallel universe perhaps...

Someone, and I've lost my note of who that person is, does a 3D printed version – details from Shapeways store I guess.

Only problem is lack of lettering and ties. Be good for 'yard sheets' though...

A neighbour of mine used to be an engineer with Thames Water and swears that the canteen wall bore a notice that said "All the water used in this canteen has been passed by the Management"...