TheSignalEngineer

Stripping the steamers was quite labour intensive compared with wagons. There was bolier lagging to get rid of and the copper to take out separately. The only higher value metal in a wagon was the axle bearings, that's if the locals hadn't already nicked them. Interesting shot of the Palethorpes van, one of two built at Swindon for the Dudley to Cardiff circuit.

Just delving into Mr. Bartlett's fine collection of pictures for a detail or two and I found a Pipe wagon with an NEM socket. http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brpipe/h22ade58f#h11fd3b0c http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brpipe/h22ade58f#hf201156

Where's ABS when you need him? Is he a member of a Southern forum anywhere?

We travelled from Birmingham via the S&D to Poole to change trains. I also remember changing trains at Wareham on one occasion. It was well before BR(SR) green came in so it would still have been SR paintwork.

Would these have been used on the Swanage branch 1953-55? I remember travelling down there via Poole and evening trips to Corfe Castle. At least one train we went on was green.

Even that one is a bit over the going rate unless it is on exceptional condition. IIRC there were four LMS and two GWR of the six-wheelers. There were also two four wheelers, two bogie 50' and three gangwayed 50' vans built by the LMS.

Good news that this has been purchased, hope you make a success of it. I look forward to seeing the new set-up.

£117. !%$@@ http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/6-Hornby-00-Gauge-R670-Palethorpes-Sausages-6-Wheel-Vans-V-Good-Boxes-/201622556295 Two in a bidding frenzy, old stagers dropped out at £32.

The Palethorpes vans were five different types, the most of any version being four LMS 6-wheelers. The Hornby version is loosely representative of the LMS and GWR versions but isn't quite either and is 6mm short. Six vans in four of the versions are needed to accurately depict the sausage special as it passed through my layout area so a lot of cut'n'shut, new underframes and John Isherwood's transfers will be needed when I get round to it.

Hence the Holyhead-Broad St container train in the 1960s

That's probably because of the ambiguity of whether it was still in Wales or had been annexed by England. Fortuitously, as someone forgot to include the traditional parliamentary wording of "Wales and Monmouthshire' the Sunday Closing Act of 1881 apparently did not apply to the county. It's status was finally clarified in 1972.

I think there was a circuit working for these barrier wagons as the tanks varied depending on stock levels of different products at Bromford Bridge. I remember at least one 8-plank vac fitted steel underframe open possibly of SR origin on these trains.

Looking at the timetables available on the Michael Clemens Railways site around 1950 it stopped for water at Coton Hill, engine change and examination at Oxley and crew change at Banbury, terminating at Old Oak Common some time after 11pm.

A lot of meat arrived at Birkenhead 'On the hoof' at one time from the USA and also from Ireland. In the 1880s for instance cattle were slaughtered and butchered on Saturday with the carcasses transported by special GWR train on Sunday to be sold in the Birmingham Smithfield 'Dead Meat Market' on Monday morning. Later there was a lot of chilled mutton from Australia which would have benn transported in refrigerated vans. The 3.55pm from Birkenhead to Smithfield was referred to as 'The Meat' and even acknowledged in GWR publicity. http://www.warwickshirerailways.com/gwr/bordesley-named-freight-trains.htm

Palethorpes vans worked on specific circuits from the factory near Dudley Port. They were part of a deal between the company and the LMS in 1936. The last ran on the mid-1960s. Two almost identical vans were also built by the GWR (2800/01) for the Cardiff circuit which was attached to a Stourbridge Jn to Worcester passenger train in the afternoon. The LMS vans usually went to Dudley Port for Euston and Perth (50' bogie vans) or Crewe for Heysham, (21' 4-wheel), Carlisle, Manchester and Leeds (31' 6-wheel). there were only about 14 vans in total with Palethorpes branding.

I can't remember if this one has been up before but the first four are all different types. BWR056 - Birmingham Snow Hill by Bill Wright, on Flickr

It was common to see small numbers of tanks on ordinary trains as much went to local depots. This picture shows one in a local freight at Snow Hill. http://www.warwickshirerailways.com/gwr/gwrbsh1180.htm Note that as a Class A tank this one is marshalled as the third wagon from the loco. Low flashpoint oils as carried in Class B tanks could usually be found anywhere in the train.

Is that a new one passed by the Welsh Assembly? Doesn't seem to have been applied in my spotting days. I copped one at Wrexham when travelling from Birmingham to Birkenhead in 1961

Also take a look at Birmingham New Street if you want to fit a gallon into a pint pot. As with Kings Cross most of the pointwork fits into about 200 yards at each end. The approach tracks can access between six and eleven platforms IIRC, but don't try running a Mk1 coupled to a Mk2 or Mk3 at more than 10 mph from No.9 towards Monument Lane.

That's a triple Minories off quadruple track.

The instructions with Comet kits imply that it's a D1915 built at Derby in 1935. A total of 376 of the 60-seat version were built between 1935 and 1937. Probably the only Portholes to exceed this were the BTK, although the decision to ignore the CK baffles me when there must have been about five times as many of these as all of the FK, FO and BFK put together.

When I saw that they were using die-cast frames I did have a 'Back to the Dublo Future' moment.

Surprised the rivet counters haven't pointed out that it doesn't have a pin and chain.

The Lickey Banker rating was based on the tractive effort of a Jinty IIRC. Jinty = 20.830lb = 1 94xx = 22,515lb = 1 9F = 39,667lb = 2 Bertha = 43,300lb = 2 The problem came when the 42xx was trialled as a replacement for Bertha by the WR as at 31,450lb it was rated 11/2 so didn't fit in with what the locals were used to doing.