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Shunters wagons - when were they used?


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Hi all

 

Now both Hornby and Bachmann have provided us with Shunters trucks cold anybody say when they were needed?

 

Some GWR goods yards seemed to do without them completely and others had several. Why?

I can remember Tyseley Goods  and cannot remember ever seeing one there whilst the ubiquitous 57xx shunted!

 

Cheers

 

Keith

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It sounds like your in the same boat as me Keith.Bought the Bachmann NA version but not sure how to use it at Brent. :O

They certainly wouldn't be used at a station as small as Danemouth, so I have a weathered one looking forlornly abandoned at the end of the headshunt as if it came down the branch by accident and got forgotten about :yes:

 

Dave

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I think you probably need to understand some things about how freight was worked and how yards worked in order to get the concept of a Shunters' Truck.

 

The first thing is that Shunters Trucks were yard vehicles, they didn't go out on trains apart from very short distance trips, and they normally worked with a particular pilot and hence with a set team of Shunters.  Hence their appearance in busier yards and depots where there could be a lot of movement and where Shunters had to travel distances as well as, in effect, work in different places within the yard.  So in some cases the term 'chariot' (which I never heard used but others reportedly have) was very apt because the Shunters rode on it to save walking round the yard in order to get to where they were working; and they could carry tools with them - shunting poles, brake sticks, possibly sprags, maybe some lamps (although that wasn't the Shunters' job), and sensibly a few old fishplates (unofficial but handy when rerailing a derailment you didn't want higher authority to hear about).  In other words the truck provided transport for men and tools plus it could be a useful working platform for giving handsignals in some situations.

 

Now take a freight trip going out on the road and travelling quite a few miles.  Immediately a very short wheelbase vehicle might be something of a hindrance plus no one could safely (and more importantly comfortably) ride on it - and of course there was no need to as the trip would have a brakevan, which not only served as a much more comfortable transit vehicle for men but could also carry their tools of the trade such as shunting pools and brakesticks as well as providing somewhere warm and dry for a sit-down.

 

Equally on a freight trip there wouldn't be a team of two Shunters but a Guard who might have someone to assist at the more complex and busier places but would otherwise do all the shunting work himself.  Different needs, different vehicle although where very short distance trips ran without a Guard it was not unusual to see the Shunters Truck go with the pilot engine - but I do mean very short distance.

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Although outside my present modelling period, these trucks are bit of a fascination, perhaps due to having the very inaccurate 1970s Hornby version on my layout in my train-set days. I found this useful list of allocations http://www.gwr.org.uk/noshunters.html (doc download at bottom of page) which shows the sorts of places they were used. Generalising somewhat I know, but basically they were at locations where there was a full time Pilot loco (or several!) so if the loco wasn't going anywhere other than working within the confines of the yard, neither was the shunter's truck. When the loco needed to go for coal, chances are it would be swapped as the Pilot duty would need to continue using the fresh engine. The shunter's truck would be coupled to the fresh engine as the job had to go on. And it's hardly an issue to uncouple the shunter's truck from the loco, it was used by the very people who did the job!

 

I still think that when the TOPS implementation people come to my sleepy yard recording what is there and what the flows are they might be surprised to find a shunters truck languishing, unused and forgotten, at the end of the far siding....

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If you want one on the main line, would they have been worked to/from repair in an ordinary freight?

 

Thanks

 

Dave

 

I would think there'd be little need for that as most work arising, or likely to arise, would be within the abilities of the local C&W folk - certainly all the running gear would be well within their capabilities.

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When working in the yard, was there a rule as which end of the loco the shunter's truck would be?

 

e.g. always at the same end as the wagons being shunted, opposite end. Or didn't it matter?

 

Keith

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  • 3 weeks later...
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As a general rule, the shunting truck was between the loco and the wagons.

 

I don't recall ever seeing them out on the mainline, even for transfers between yards in the same locality.

 

The Reading West Jcn ones used to go on the transfer trip to Scours Lane (a published photo exists) and on the transfer trip to Reading Low Level although the latter was entirely via the Goods or Pilot Lines (usually the former of the two).   However in both cases these were sections/successive sections where freight trains were authorised to operate without a brakevan.

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Hi,

 

Just a belated question on the topic of GWR Shunter's Trucks.  Does anyone know anything about the truck that was built for the Chelsea Basin LNW/GWR joint yard?  It was an M4 built under lot No. L798 around 1914/15 and was un-numbered until 1951.

 

I am particularly interested in this vehicle as  I model a GWR/LNWR joint line set in the Great War period.  So does anyone know anything about the livery or the lettering that it carried in its early days?

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  • 4 weeks later...

As typical as you can get ?

.

In a scene that we thought would remain forever, Canton's D3603 shunts the staple traffic at Radyr Yard circa 1966.

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The shunter's truck was DW96208 and branded "Grangetown No.9 Pilot"

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Photos copyright - Bob Masterman.

.

Brian R

post-1599-0-94326200-1538554009_thumb.jpg

post-1599-0-92110900-1538554024_thumb.jpg

Edited by br2975
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Nice one Brian... Kidderminster also had one which worked with its 350 pilot well in to the 60s....

Phil

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At least one was still in use in the Cardiff Newtown/ Tyndall Fields complex in 1975, coupled to TOPS numbered 08s it looked strange.

.

One lasted even longer at Burry Port, still in use circa 1980, but then that was as far from officialdom as you could get !

.

Brian R

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Here's another picture of shunter's trucks with 350hp shunters, this time at Bordesley in 1954

The closest shunter is numbered in the 13XXX series probably one of 13025-29 block allocated to Tyseley from new in '53

 

There is one at work each side of the main line:

https://www.warwickshirerailways.com/gwr/gwrbg1333.htm

 

Keith

Edited by melmerby
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