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Essentially this was a single commodity block train of empties, London to South Wales, presumably without intermediate stops, possibly with a couple of loaded ones the other way [loco coal and domestic coal separately], run that way because there was enough traffic to justify it. Smaller numbers of coal empties from local stations on the way out of London would probably be picked up by local goods trains and, at a guess, be collected at Acton yard and form part of another through train to South Wales, not necessarily made up only of empty coal wagons, perhaps with intermediate stops. Both trains would be classified as through goods, but, as you imply, rather differently organised, because meeting different needs.

The biggest/tallest, in the pale colour - white, possibly? See https://gelligaerhistoricalsociety.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/NEwsletter67-January2023.pdf [16 page pdf, copy of this photograph and article on p7]

To clarify, the reference here to "intermediate yards" refers to sorting yards, not goods yards; although the two might be adjacent, they had different purposes. Through freights would work between two major sorting yards, and might serve intermediate sorting yards as well, where they would leave and collect traffic as necessary, sorted as stated, usually into sections by destination, each possibly with separate VB and unfitted sub-sections. Large intermediate goods stations would probably be served by trip workings from a local sorting yard or yards. Through freights were assembled in sections according to written instructions which also laid down the class of train and the maximum number of vehicles, as well as such matters as types of traffic which could or could not be conveyed by that train. The whole process was remarkaby complex.

Not all WR named trains came from/went to Paddington https://www.rmweb.co.uk/forums/topic/84189-the-devonian/ In the 1960s the northern terminal of the Cornishman was also at Bradford, after a period at Wolverhampton.

All the aircraft whose names were used for Castles were in RAF service during the Battle of Britain.

But note that this is a 1/800 van, not a 1/801. Did the latter vans ever work off the ECML? [Don't know, just asking.]

I would have thought that a wire rope rated for 45 tons [plus a safety margin] and of a very specific length, is likely to have a noticable influence on the sale price of a crane, as without it the crane is effectively useless. Not only is the boiler of a steam crane subject to inspection, but so is the rope, particularly on a crane which is only used irregularly. There is a lot of paperwork to go with it as well. Unless you have a real need for it, keeping such a crane in certification is likely to be demanding on staff time for limited returns, and requires someone competent to carry out inspections; insurance is dependent on compliance.

Nothing at all, but what's on the van is not what the actual label looked like. I suspect that it's painted as well, rather than a paper label...🙂 Your photos B881061_BANANA__m_at Staines Central 67-01-04 and B880681_BANANA__m_at Southampton Docks 69-04-17 respectively show the earlier and later labels. Which is the same as the 12/1949 edition [I have both]. Mea culpa. Being interested in the period circa 1960, I tend to overlook the "boxed" era. I presume that the use of Vanfit was short lived, replaced by the TOPS code VVV as shown on one of the other vans in the photographs?

But note that the "Vanfit" code officially never appeared on the wagon in BR days, while, also under BR, Shocvans did not carry the GWR style "Not in Common Use" black plate with branding in white, whilst some other BR codes changed over time. Always approach the livery and markings of anything preserved with caution. If possible use contemporary photographs, not, for example, https://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/pics/570027.html which has the wrong code, BR or LMS bauxite livery but no "M" prefix to the number or "LMS" above it to show ownership, odd placement of wording, a white circle which it should not have and an inaccurate "Fyffes" label.

I agree entirely, but the advanced starters were added when the other changes were made. The original layout had FPLs on the points from main to loop at both ends. Whether they were 'main line only' at that stage I don't know, but making them 'both ways' would only need different locking; the new layout would have to be locked from scratch in the new box anyway. The added FPLs were all in the loop, for traps and the connections to the siding. The homes were replaced with equal height brackets at both ends so both lines could be used bi-directionally, with the possibility of a faster train overtaking a slower one as well as crossing it. The Cambrian main line didn't come into that category, especially in summer. Crossing two stopping trains would require one train, after station work was finished, to back out into the section it had arrived from, after having surrendered the token on arrival. It can then pull forward into the loop; meanwhile the second train can be accepted with the home on and the line set for the loop, and is then held at the home. One the first is in the loop, the second enters the platform and surrenders the other token, after which the signalman can offer both trains on to the next box. With the advanced starters the signalman can permit those movements himself; without them the backing move has to be authorised by the signalman at the other end and a token issued, and then returned once the movement is complete. There seems no other possible reason for adding advanced starters at a station which did not previously have them, but I'm open to correction. I think that this station was not the only one on the Cambrian where this procedure was followed, but can't remember where now, I'm afraid.

Built from 1961 and VB as you say. Bogie Bolster As were all withdrawn from general traffic by about 1960, so no TOPS code ever applied; there was no fishkind applied on transfer to the engineers either.

Understandable in modern conditions on a preserved line where trains stop at every station. However, it is not necessarily a guide to what happened earlier. When the GWR inherited Llanbedr & Pensarn from the Cambrian it had one platform and a loop, with a level crossing over both lines, and a double-ended goods siding. In 1937 the GWR extensively resignalled the station, added FPLs to the loop and built a new box further along the platform to replace the Cambrian one, but no additional platform. A non-stop passenger could now cross a stopping passenger, but the new signalling also included the provision of advanced starters in both directions, presumably to make it possible for two stopping trains to cross, by extending station limits to allow the necessary movements without involving the adjacent boxes.

Sine it was apparently on its way to Cefn Fforest it wouldn't have been on Bargoed Hill, which it wasn't equipped for anyway. Yelton and Tayor also state that only specially trained drivers were allowed on the Hill, and training would presumably have used one of the special buses. No. 7 was new in 1947, rebuilt 5/58-11/58 and 8/60-6/61, and was withdrawn 12/63. The first rebuild would almost certainly be down to the age of the vehicle, but a second one that quickly suggests accident damage.

Note number 13, the last hill bus. Once the route was diverted in 1966 its chassis was rebuilt and it became the double decker it was always meant to be. Officially maroon with cream bands lined with black, and black mudguards. I have one photo in a book where the reproduction makes the body colour look brown, but so far as I know this, like the variations you have found, is simply due to variations in films, film processing and colour printing. The colour photos in Yelton and Taylor's West Mon book, which gives the above livery details, are pretty consistently maroon until the change to blue and white, with only very minor variations. The 1963 Bus Fleets book EnterprisingWestern posted pages from gives chocolate and cream, but this is almost certainly an error. The 1966 edition gives maroon and cream.

I would expect both wire runs to end at the corner, each with separate end posts with no wire connection between them. As you say, anything else is going to cause problems. The same would apply to any change of direction at a corner, whatever the actual angle involved. Wire runs could be continuous through a very gradual curve running alongside a railway, where the curves are very large radius, but not at any form of abrupt change of direction at a corner.

I've never studied the matter, but I think you may be making an invalid assumption. Iron or steel wire will contract or expand with changes in temperature, but the wires have tensioners at the ends [bolts through the end posts with loops to which the wires are attached, with nuts on the other side of the post], which is why the end posts have the diagonal supports. Provided the tensioners are suitably adjusted when the wires are installed there should not be too great a level of stress in the system within the normal temperature range, although the wire might sag a little in high temperatures. In extreme cases it would be possible to reduce the problem by using shorter runs, with more end posts.

According to Fyffes, who were well placed to know, and tried hard but without success to challenge the decision, the already seriously reduced imports of bananas stopped completely in November 1940 following a decision of the wartime Ministry of Food. Imports did not resume until December 1945, and then only in limited quantities and subject to rationing. Rationing of bananas ended in December 1952 and Government controls on banana imports ended in March 1953. Given the level of wartime austerity and the priority given to the armed forces I doubt that there was much repainting of anything on the railways during wartime. Certainly by the end of the war there was a considerable backlog of routine maintenance. Since the green patches appeared on all four corners, one thought was that it was to do with identifying which vans had been refurbished for banana traffic following their wartime use as insulated meat vans, but green on bauxite doesn't show up very well, even before it gets dirty, so I'm not really convinced...

Possibly partly because Scottish coal wagons often had cupboard doors rather than the drop type, which apparently weren't particularly popular south of the border, whereas Scottish customers were used to them. With them all now belonging to BR, the distinction between 'ordinary' coal wagons [i.e. ex-PO] and 'Loco Coal' wagons [owned by the railways] also largely disappeared after nationalisation.

Parliament legislated for them to be pooled when war started, as traffic flows changed greatly as a consequence, and using coastal shipping to move coal around Britain became much more problematic, while coal for civilian use was rationed. The MoWT, or the Petroleum Board in the case of petrol tanks, was required to make the most efficient use of such wagons in view of the changed requirements of heavy industry and the demand for fuel for the RAF.

I don't know when the legislation was passed, but pooling came into effect immediately war was declared on 1/9/1939. The LMS did, as did some trade builders, but the MoS didn't come into existence until 1/8/1939 and wartime orders were actually placed by the Ministry of War Transport, who didn't start doing so until 1942. There were various PO minerals, inccluding some steel ones, on order at the start of the war, which were delivered to the MoWT. The December 1958 BR painting instructions for wooden wagons were still body unpainted, steelwork grey; wood underframe unpainted, steel work black, steel underframe grey with black running gear. Despite this there is photographic evidence of both 13T minerals and BR traffic opens being painted grey with black underframes, hence the uncertainty on the subject. The joker in the pack from the modelling point of view is that wartime timber for railway wagons was usually hardwood rather than softwood, which weathered quite differently. BR's first priority was to eliminate grease axlebox wagons and wagons of less than 13T capacity, which were usuallyolder as well.

The only PO wagons that were pooled were petrol tanks, which reverted to their owners after the war, and most coal wagons [there were a few exceptions which remained with their owners]. Pooled wooden coal wagons were not repainted during the war; if the livery and ownership details became illegible then they had those details shown in small print on the bottom of the side in one corner, in white. Neither the Railway Executive after WW2 nor BR officially painted them either. There may have been a relatively brief period in the 1950s when the rules might have changed temporarily, I'm not sure, and wagon repairers (who did most of what maintenance there was, even under BR) may not have always followed the rules. After a minimum of eight and a half years, many had little of the pre-war livery left by nationalisation.

Quite possibly. Machen was still mostly in GWR colours in June 1962, so probably stayed that way until closure. However, it was in the stone and red brown scheme, which is what the above photo suggests to me may have been the case here as well. Machen's running in board seems to have been recently repainted when that photo was taken, but was still in black and white. The photo is in "Welsh Railways - A Photographer's View" p92 if you have access to a copy. I suspect Aberbargoed looked much the same; it presumably was repainted when it was reopened, but it may never have been painted again...

Most interesting; thank you. They got around quite a bit, as they visited Western Welsh's Ely works [WW were the hosts and provided the transport], and Bridgend, Barry, and Cwmbran garages and workshops over the weekend. West Mon were at Blackwood, and the film shows the Merthyr CBC garage.

Peter Fidczuk in his article in Modellers' BackTrack Vol, 1 Nos. 3-5 mentions an experimental aluminium 21T mineral wagon built in the 1940s reaching its seven year general repair in 1952. He also refers to a policy in force by 1954 of descaling and repainting mineral wagons at five year intervals, which lasted until 1962 when the period was extended to seven years. The implication would seem to be that seven years was 'normal', but that, because steel mineral wagons deteriorated faster, they had to be dealt with more often, which would have been fairy obvious by 1954. I am speculating here, and even if it is correct it is possible that rarely used wagons would be overhauled less frequently, or not repainted at overhaul, whilst intensively used vehicles might be overhauled and repainted more often. To add to the issues affecting the answer, wagons sometimes got 'lost' and overran the scheduled overhaul date, whilst accident or other repairs, or modifications to the wagon, might lead to a premature repaint. The shortage of suitable paints immediately after the war, and BR policy decisions, meant that some wooden bodied wagons only had the steelwork repainted at the first BR overhaul, the wood not being repainted, and some weren't overhauled and repainted at all, being withdrawn instead, or left in use until they were 'stopped' for repair. Also the war itself had left a large backlog of maintenance which affected wagon stocks in particular, and took some time to clear. Early 1950s photos suggest that wagons in pre-BR liveries were becoming a minority by then.

Unless, of course, Fred only knows one way to do things, which is him doing it on his own, and he has no particular ability to manage, lead, or coordinate, even a small team and cope with the inevitable disagreements and occasional foul-ups and taking responsibility for what the others do. Putting him in that position would probably lead to him having a breakdown and/or leaving.