Cwmtwrch

https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/6473764 and https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/6473766 show what appear to be BP crude oil tanks; it is difficult to be totally sure, but there is a lot of dark staining on what appear to be silver tanks, the plate which would be carrying the BP shield is spaced off the centre of the tank, and there is a general absence of ladders, which tallies with photographs in Tourret and Larkin "Private Owner Freight Wagons on BR". By the 1970s there were still tanks there, but rather different https://www.flickr.com/photos/blue-pelican-railways/16966555348 and https://www.flickr.com/photos/davidhayes/52140672941.

I agree that the red dot on the map isn't quite in the right place, but the original station was the one shown in your first post, in front of the Smiths Arms. Initially it had staggered platforms on the double line, with the western platform north of the eastern, but was replaced in March 1909 by the one very slightly further north, which had a signal box [dating from 1905] and a goods yard [dating from 1901]; the signal box was replaced by a ground frame when the line was singled 9/4/1934. The sidings and ground frame were removed in May 1935, and the station closed 30/9/1935, with the eastern platform of the original one then being used again, lasting until closure.

Crude oil is not homogenous; it contains liquids with varying flashpoints, some of which are class A. BP were the original owners of Kimmeridge, and had a dedicated crude oil fleet originally inherited from Oakbank Oil, Youngs of Bathgate and Scottish Oils, originally used for crude derived from Scottish oil shales. Tanks from the same fleet also served wells at Formby and Eakring. I have not found any information relating to Kimmeridge, but it seems likely the same fleet would initially have served that well also [the crude is piped to Wych Farm now]. Because of the class A liquids involved, the BP crude oil tanks were silver with red solebars in BR days, the standard livery for that class, but some, at least, also had steam heating coils to permit discharge of the heavier liquids, an unusual combination. The heavier liquids made the crude very dark, and photographs show spillage could make it difficult to read black lettering on the tanks. Unusually for that period, some of the tanks involved were large bogie vehicles. Fawley belonged to Esso; most probably they would have worked to Llandarcy in south Wales, but BP also had refineries at Pumpherston and Grangemouth in Scotland. There were one or two tanks in the BP crude oil fleet built during WW2 which appear to be similar to the Air Ministry design, but they were owned by BP only; they did not form part of the Shell Mex - BP fleet at any time [and I believe never formed part of the wartime Petroleum Board fleet either]. "Petroleum Rail Tank Wagons of Britain" R Tourret is my source for most of the above.

As far as I know, the use of "Steam Banana" with GW livery dates it to the period from about June 1945 or a little later to sometime after nationalisation; exactly how long after would depend on the time before the next repaint. Refurbishing vans (and ships) for banana traffic started well before the first imports in December 1945. According to "Fyffes and the Banana", the wartime Ministry of Food banned all banana imports between 9 November 1940 and 18 September 1945, when there was a partial relaxation, which resulted in the first imports arriving in December.

The Milk poster was around from the late 1950s to the mid-1960s, and had a black background. Your software seems to have given the image a red cast, also shown in the 'white' letters, which really were white. With the Fernvale poster there seems to be a change in the background colour just above "Prince"; the area immediately below the name looks the same as that above. Trying to determine colours from B & W photos is very difficult to impossible, of course, but it doesn't look quite the same to as the black of the milk poster, to me anyway. I have never found a colour image of this poster, but, when I tried to reproduce it a few years ago, I did find https://brewerytrays.co.uk/cms/index.php/fernvale-brewery-co-ltd-round-alloy.html.html and https://brewerytrays.co.uk/cms/index.php/new-product-115.html, so possibly the lower part of the poster might be dark blue rather than black?

The lower vehicle is a diagram D2 Coral A, designed for carrying crated glass, but in later life sometimes used for carrying steel plates too wide to be carried horizontally. Running numbers 41712-30. The kit dates from the 1950s, I think, so I would not depend on its accuracy. The prototypes had two lighter, moveable, inner frames to secure the load.

The RCH Specifications were basically just a formalisation of current best practice. Materials and techniques changed between 1907 and 1923, as did the size of wagons most customers wanted, so a wagon maufacturer could approach the RCH to request a variation to the specification [many of which would have been about materials to be used rather than design], which would be considered, agreed if acceptable, and a notice issued to confirm the changes. Unless some aspect was specifically withdrawn in favour of a variation, the existing specification could also continue to be used unchanged. The result was that over time some new wagons could include variations to the original specification, or anticipate the later specification, while an older wagon might get repairs to a later variation. Should there be a "not" in the first sentence? RCH specifications were not guidelines; they were minimum requirements. If they were not met no railway company would register the resulting wagon, so no company would permit it on their system. Differences, particularly in body design, between manufacturers certainly occurred, but were either to aspects not part of the specification, or were the subject of agreed variations as indicated above.

The buses which worked up Great Ormes Head, Llandudno had the same provision, and there were probably others. The idea was to prevent the vehicle running back if the driver missed a gear change [manual boxes in those days of course...]

It looks as though the track has been lifted. The parapet of the bridge is visible and the three pubs close to it are clear. The end wall of the Smiths Arms appears above the roof of the Travellers' Rest, but how much else is left is not very clear.

The bus is No. 1, carrying its original body, which dates the photo to some time between July 1949 and February 1953. The Government of the time was prioritising exports, so pre-war cars were still much in evidence.

To avoid possible confusion it might be as well to make it clear you are looking for transfers for a B type container [assuming I have understood you correctly]. The Conflat is the GW wagon it's on.

The Smiths Arms was still there in 1959; there was a lane in front of it, visible in the aerial view, which would have allowed a view of at least part of the Traveller's Rest from the far end of the platform. Which was quite notorious until the route was diverted in 1963. The bus is just starting to turn to its right, to bring it almost parallel to the railway before immediately turning 90 degrees left to go under it. The whole manoever was on a gradient of about 1 in 5 down. The bus, incidentally is going to Bargoed Square [it's coming from Markham], which was a triangle in shape... Certainly a gas holder. The station is Bargoed. The road behind the railway, which the bus has just come down, climbed about 170ft in 950ft, on gradients between 1 in 4.77 and 1 in 7.19.

Such a small set up would never have a spare loco for shunting purposes. It would spend virtually all its time with nothing to do, which is very, very, expensive in real life. If you extend D 'offstage' it can form the end of a loop with A giving a run-round for the freight, perhaps with a loco cassette offstage to minimise handling of the loco. The EMU/DEMU/DMU will just shuttle in and out of the platform as timetabled, while freight will probably appear, do its work, and disappear again in the time between two passenger trains, so that there is never more than one train present at any one time. All that is then necessary is a ground frame to allow the guard to shunt as needed. The g/f can be released by a single line token or remotely by a control centre, depending on era; either way, no signalling is necessary, just a telephone. If you have space for a second siding it would probably make operation more interesting... A signal box is equipped to accept or refuse trains from the next box along the line [hence it is sometime described as a 'block post', the block being the space between two boxes, which should only ever be occupied by a single train]. The functions formerly controlled by multiple signal boxes are often now controlled by a remote signalling centre. In either case a ground frame is there solely to operate one or more points, but has no control over trains.

At that period, electrical cables of various sorts, as far as I know. Now Prysmian Cables and Systems, although Aberdare Cables apparently still exists, in South Africa.

C83 all third, D132 brake third, officially shown as 63ft ¾in x 8ft 11ins. Fair exchange, I suppose, as Swindon built 35 E156 composites for the LMR in early 1953.

The cable drums belong to Aberdare Cables, and the train is westbound at Quakers Yard High Level, so the drums are empties going back to Trecynon. I can't identify the origin of the first wagon, but it's not seen a works for some time, judging by the state of the paint and of the unpainted top plank in the end. The second is an ex-GWR open which is not long ex-works, having had all the wood replaced, apart from the addition of steel channel for the two lowest planks in the ends, with blocks inserted for the circular sheet cleats, and the nearest is an elderly wooden underframe ex-LNER unfitted open which probably won't last much longer. It's not often that you get such a helpfully clear colour photo of this sort of variety in wagon condition.

A lot of non-corridor coaches disappeared from the late 1950s onwards, due to cessation of services post-Beeching or replacement by DMUs and EMUs. How many actually survived long enough to be repainted in lined maroon is a good question; a lot did not.

If there was only one, then it may be out of shot nearer the road.

It does show that the gap between buildings to the West of the road in the 1928/30 map has been filled in by new structures, though, so that aspect was part of the changes.

1) I was suggesting that the loco might be from a different picture, because it seemed not to be at the angle I would have expected if it was on the line behind the building, in a reply made to a suggestion, by someone else, that the line ran in front of the building. I should have credited the Signal Engineer, though. Apologies to both. The Signal Engineer's latest post has, however, made the respective angles much clearer, and made me question my original conclusion. 2) I have never referred to any curvature in the roof lines. My interest in the cantrail and roof lines is that, using the same method as you do, both appear to be slightly higher than I expected, compared to the other coaches, on the clerestory, when they should be the same. 3) I made no suggestion of short coaches; I actually pointed out that they were very improbable.

At the wrong angle to the camera, horizontally, not vertically. To me, it looks as though it's coming closer to the camera, which contradicts the line of the railway, which is actually going further away. There is no structure behind the railway at that point in the 1928 map linked to earlier, nor in this 1930 map https://maps.nls.uk/view/101461123, nor in the 1962 map https://maps.nls.uk/view/189240228, just someone's back garden or a field, depending on the actual angle of the shot. The photo linked to by MartinRS shows that the railway is behind the building.

I think the Frith photo is probably correctly dated [the one VRN which can be read at all appears to be from 1935], and may well have been taken the same day, by the same photographer, so I suggest that the year is 1939. The last 4/6 wheel GWR stock was built in 1902; the last with clerestories was built in 1894, so 4/6w stock can probably be ruled out. On that basis I think the photo has been altered, probably at the time of issue rather than more recently. Not only does the leading carriage appear to be far too short, but the roofline of the clerestory is higher than the elliptical roofed coaches. Also, the loco and first coach appear to be at a somewhat different angle to the coaches to the right of the building, and http://www.britishrailholidays.co.uk/ suggests the train should be going behind the pale building, not in front of it.

This load is apparently completely unsecured and one rough shunt would probably reduce the load rather abruptly and potentially dangerously. Someone has taken the trouble to have it posed for an official photographer, so I suspect that it may be intended as an example of how NOT to do it... Wagon codes were only a very minor part of the system - see http://www.railwaycodes.org.uk/features/telegraph.shtm. Unfortunately the LNWR Society link at the bottom no longer works. However, two of the biggest pre-group railways regarded them as useful timesavers and a method of reducing misunderstandings, and the practice continued into BR days, so it seems likely other railways would have done something similar for similar reasons.

Not only that, but extra sales generate extra costs in other areas, as others have implied. Potentially those additional costs can be bigger than the benefit gained. Staffing is only one area where taking on extra costs may need to be considered against the probable/possible extra benefits. Getting it wrong may be costly, both in reduced net income and in resulting reputational damage. There may also be time implications arising from less time being available to do other things.

Wagons were generally ordered by telegraph message for years, hence the various codes railways used to minimise the length of messages, whilst maintaining clarity. The methods used eventually changed, as did codes as needs changed, but telegraph codes existed well into BR days, hence codes such as Low, Lowfit, Med, Medfit, High, Highfit, Hybarfit, Shock, Cartruck, Carfit, Clay, Pigiron, Salt, Sandwag, Sleep, Sodash in the BR code book for various types of open wagons. You ordered what you needed, according to what the instructions for handling the traffic in question required.