HGT1972

A batch of these moved to the SR 11/65 and were repainted green but not long after they started appearing in blue and grey so the green livery was quite short lived. I have S80561 and S80893 both moving as part of that batch and both being repainted although the latter was noted in blue and grey by 8/66. The others I know of (there may be more) were: S80594/695/875/916/26/33/45/9, S81039/50/153/273/89/92/345/510/42. S80933 was also noted with an incorrect S suffix. The two WR BGs pinched for the Pullman service were W80713/4 in chocolate and cream livery. It seems none were green in 1960 unfortunately. Hywel

Along with everyone else I'd like to express my great thanks to Simon (and George) for their excellent service and that amazing book shop. My parcel arrived yesterday with a couple of MRJs, a Weathering Magazine and the lovely, generous, free copy of the MRJ show guide. I even managed to get to that London show...amazing to think it was 30 years ago! I only got to visit the old shop once (having dragged my sister there after a walk along the canal) but we had a great chin wag with Simon and I came away with a nicely weighty bag of goodies to drag back to South Wales on the train! Can't wait to visit the new shop...although it might be a longer walk down that canal to get there! All the very best with the new premises, Simon and George, Hywel

A lovely little layout! One fixture at the Signal Works for many years was the Lennox-Lomax Earth Auger, built on a former GWR four-wheel crane chassis by Automower of Bath. It was intended for the drilling of holes for signal posts but I've only ever seen a few pictures of it, all immobile at Reading. Paul B's photos of it here: https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/otpmiscellaneous And I can spy it in the background two of the pics of No.20 you've posted earlier in the thread. It used a former Lowfit as a runner. Does anyone recall ever seeing it working? Or even better does someone out there have some more photos? I quite fancy making a model of the odd little machine one day! Hywel

Track down the Janes-style colour album 'Coasters of Cornwall' by Bernard McCall. There's a lovely picture on the front cover of the china clay facilities at Fowey in 1967 complete with china clay wagons and Palvans. The theme continues for the first six or so pages including one showing two unfitted Shell BP tanks delivering bunkering oil to a coaster at the end of one of the piers. The rest of the superbly produced book is full of inspiration for Cornish-themed port layouts. A wonderful book! Hywel

That TRM was one of five of that design built at Swindon. Three for the WR and one each for the ER and ScR (DW274/5/6; 78/002 and TRM1/10). I built one for Morfa Bank a few years ago and they're impressive machine but quite big! I can see PWM651 coming my way in green... Hywel

My records show that among the vast fleet of banana vans awaiting the Geest arrivals at Barry Dock there would usually be several FM containers awaiting loading. As a quick snapshot the following were noted towards the end of 1967: FM59547B; FM59628B; FM59688B (twice); FM59745B; FM59764B; FM59818B; FM60259B; FM60272B; FM60305B; FM60401B (twice) and FM60531B. These were all loaded from either Geestport; Geestbay; Geestcape or Geesthaven and the chartered vessel Brunstal I’m not sure about the Fyffes traffic but certainly Geest brought in other fruit to Barry, their main port, alongside the bananas so the FM containers could be carrying something else but mainly they were used for Northern Irish banana traffic (often via Heysham). On average the ships carried up to 200,000 stems of bananas and one delivery included 500 bags of coconuts! Grapefruits and vegetables such as cauliflower were very common too and these were also delivered in the banana vans. Hywel

Presumably you’re talking diesel days? The first diesel shunter arrived for crew training in 1957 and the first two new English Electric Type 3s (class 37) in 1963, also for crew training. Just a year later, from September 1964, the building closed as a loco depot and was left empty for some years but the yard was still used to stable locos. Eventually one road in the shed was seeing use for stabling with class 08, 14, 37 and 47 common at that time. Wagons were under repair in the main shed from closure. In 1967 MGRs began to Aberthaw and were soon being serviced here with new lifting jacks and the door closing mechanism found at the power stations. At the same time it was repairing banana vans from the Geest traffic with two roads on the north side being allocated to diesel stabling. The rest of the shed was used for wagons, and for a few years, Freightliner flats from Pengam. Diesels by the mid 1970s stabled south of the shed that was then generally full of wagons. Tracks, by the 1980s, were numbered 1 to 5 from the north side. No.1, a stop end, was used for brake repairs, No.2 was for welding, 3 and 4 were for general repair, No.5 was the condemned wagon road. By the end of that decade ten MGR sets were based here. They also worked on cement wagons, VDA vans in Ford traffic and HUO coal hoppers and towards the end of work here the Welsh MDV coal wagon fleet and a lot of Departmental stock. There was an excellent open day here in 1990 and later that decade had the following types allocated for repair: HAAs; HFAs; HCAs; MEAs; the five MAA/MABs and a large number of the HEAs in the national pool. There were also a large fleet of mixed Engineer’s wagons. Two Cardiff Canton allocated class 08s were based here for local work for many years although from 1995 only one class 09 remained. After Privatisation, in a new venture under EWS management, they built six new MEA box opens on withdrawn HEA underframes. However the workload was dropping off with the main work on FPA coal container flats. Several of the new class 66s worked their first trains from Barry at this time. During May 1999 the remaining staff were given notice and the depot closed in August although the local pilot still stabled here for a few months until October. This wasn’t the end though and in 2000/1 EWS used the shed to store locos with a total of nine class 56s and seven class 37s locked inside at various times followed a few years after by two class 57s. Once they all left the shed was taken over by the preservation society before changing hands again several years later and now is often used for servicing charter train stock and storing ex-Freightliner HXA coal hoppers (with around 100 on site) and other stock. A bit long winded but that’s just a summary – it’s had quite a life since the end of steam days! Hywel

Two that were in blue were S707 (filthy rail blue by February 1978) and S713, which was rail blue when withdrawn during August 1979 (and the last of the type in service). I'm sure they were others but as everyone has noted, they were generally all that rather unpleasant road dust brown! Hywel

Thank you both - some new bogies will be under the beastie soon! Hywel

Hello all, I’ve just acquired a second-hand Bachmann BG in blue/grey livery (E80617), which is fitted with Commonwealth bogies. I know some of these parcels vans received Commonwealth bogies later in life but does anybody know of any so fitted in 1972 when my layout is set? As far as I can find out the vast majority carried BR1 or BR2 bogies with several gaining B4 bogies to work with air-braked Mk.2 sets. So, do I need to swap bogies or can I save myself some work and get away with leaving the Commonwealths in 1972?! Hywel

Hi Brian, I don't recall one...but I didn't see them all...over to Brian R! I always felt it a shame that LP120 at Morris' never made it to preservation given its late survival. This was how it looked in 1989 with the two ex-Morris tanks and the other Lubricant Producers former Shell BP tank...and Paul B has a lot of nice close up shots too. Hywel

Hi John - I've just checked my notes and unfortunately the date came from a photograph I found on the web but I have no further details. The photo showed Bullied Pacifics being cut up at Buttigieg's yard, Newport, which was adjacent to the Morris works and LP122 (and shots of LP120) appear in the background. A search for 'Buttigiegs' might prove fruitful. The twin tanks and Morris' own Cambrian-built tanks frequently appear in the background of loco scrapping pictures taken at that yard. I also have a note of LP122 in photos dated 1967 and October 1968 so it was a regular at the oil works. It's not much to go on but hopefully useful for your modelling? Hywel

It would seem there were at least two of the twin tanks. 1581 became Lubricant Producers 120 and was a regular visitor to the Baltic Oil Works in Newport operated by Henry Morris & Co. it actually ended up as a static store there until it was sadly cut up about 2012. Several photos exist from 1965 of LP120 at Newport in traffic but one dated May 1966 shows identical twin tank LP122 (complete with overhead electrification plates!) at the works. One wonders if LP121 was also one of these designs? Hope that helps? Hywel

No problem at all! Nice to see them out and about again - the car is still there and a little more overgrown. Nice to hear the real version got preserved! Hywel

Hi all, the Viva is on Morfa Bank Sidings...and in reply to Brian, it's only travelled down the road from Swansea to Port Talbot! The seats are made from various gauges of wire. There's also an engine under the bonnet but it's not that visible. A nice distraction from the trains! Hywel

Hi Paul (Lyddrail) - I've had a quick look...there's a lot of albums...and so far the only one in the opens album is a Ferry Tube (21 70 6094 053-3 ex-B733233) that sports a rather faded Railstores livery in 1993. My scanner is not about at the moment but if you're interested I'll add it when it is! I'll keep looking in the other albums too. Always enjoy seeing your fine layout as I'm a fan of the Departmental too! Hywel

At Celsa steelworks in Cardiff all the scrap comes in currently using rakes of MBAs. To allow the shunters to move them they use an old BRA steel carrier (outwardly the same as the BYA) that's missing a few roof sections as a 'translator vehicle' with the swing-head couplings used to couple to MBAs without buffers and hooks. A nice conversion for a Bachmann BYA perhaps and an excuse to use things other than class 66s? Hywel

Good luck, Nigel! By the way, forgot to mention it's ADB781007 and one of the air-braked, vacuum piped modified batch with new suspension so you may need to do a bit of conversion work on your Vanfit too. I may have other wagons in that livery but not yet scanned. Hywel

I'd say it was green on the examples I recorded. This Vanfit at Cathays certainly looks very much green to me! Did the green perhaps weather to blue after a rare bit of British sun? Hywel

They were indeed awaiting some OTAs and, as you suggest, ran up to Shotton Paper on Deeside. It didn't last long from here and finished with the demise of Speedlink. There was also inbound timber to Isis-Link in the form of chipboard loaded to VTG and Cargowaggon bogie vans and later VGA vans during 2000. The Isis-Link depot was demolished and is now the big new signalling centre. Hywel

Yes Paul, that's at Tyndall Field - I found 15 of the 27 there at that time and they're the ones that went to Woodhams where you later found the removed cradles. I made a couple for Morfa Bank Sidings and clambering over those condemned wagons was the catalyst for those models 30 years later! Those same Coil F seemed to have had some work into or out of here carrying tinplate coils over the years. In fact another of the tinplate coil designs, the unique hooded Bogie Coil S converted from a BBE (although it seems to have always carried the 'Coil RR' designation) was actually allocated to this yard in 1975. For what reason is still a mystery. A much missed yard! Hywel

The background of #222 was Tyndall Field Yard - it had closed 1/81 and, as surmised, all those wagons making the place look busy were actually condemned. I took a fair few photos of the wagons there at that time (a wide mix including the elusive Coil F conversions), all of them destined for Woodham Brothers down at Barry. Just a month after your photo the wagons began to leave for Barry with the last of the sidings closing 1/82. By 2/83 I saw a Plasser & Theurer self-propelled crane working there lifting the rails - shame as it was really busy yard until the end of vacuum-fitted wagonload services when the surviving air-braked traffic left for the Isis-Link depot at Canton. The only survivor today is the former weighbridge at the west end, which is still used as the gatehouse for the modern units down that side. If anyone finds themselves down that way it's worth a look at the end of Ellen Street. Hywel

It is, Paul. The 15 were all to diagram 1/445 and the same as one in your picture. They were in pool 7909 originally then in 7157 and didn't travel very far at all! Nice idea though and would make an unusual addition to a Freightliner terminal model... Anybody out there have a photo of a loaded one?! Hywel

Having been there once or twice many moons back I can confirm that the south side of the three sidings was wide enough for the lorries to receive their loads. The cranes were a pair of Morris Goliath 0-4-0 Mk.III examples, which replaced the original two Allen 30-ton cranes. Does anyone remember the fleet of 15 former drop-side Tube wagons that had their sides removed to carry open containers from Castle Rod Mill to Pengam for transshipment? The curves to and from that works were too sharp to take Freightliner wagons. They were converted around the later 1970s and lasted until scrapping in 1984. Always thought they had some modelling potential! Hywel

One for the wagon fans...