Old Railway Goods Vans etc.

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Nearholmer
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Re: Old Railway Goods Vans etc.

Post by Nearholmer »

Looking again at Colin54’s wagons, the left-hand one, so probably all of them, is actually a cattle truck. The ironwork is quite distinctive, so a real aficionado ought to be able to tell exactly what type it is.
Pebble
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Re: Old Railway Goods Vans etc.

Post by Pebble »

There is a valley I often go down, and there must be nearly an entire trains worth of these old railway goods vans. funny thing is, there was never any railway here, . I would reckon i could probably find 20 to 30 of them, most are very dilapidated. My understanding is they were dotted about on the hillsides to store hay for winter fodder.

went specifically to photo these, but forgot my camera - so here are a few screenshots of the dashcam

Image

Image

Image
colin54
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Re: Old Railway Goods Vans etc.

Post by colin54 »

Thanks for the contributions Nearholmer and Pebble.
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Paulatic
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Re: Old Railway Goods Vans etc.

Post by Paulatic »

Pebble wrote: 22 May 2023, 12:15am My understanding is they were dotted about on the hillsides to store hay for winter fodder.
Yes that’s right. We would fill them in summer with hay and feed blocks and use the feed in winter. You’ve to remember there were no quad bikes or four wheel drive tractors. Just a man and his dog walking around.
I reckon they must have been cheap in the sixties as they were all in place by the seventies when I went to work on the hills.
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Nearholmer
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Re: Old Railway Goods Vans etc.

Post by Nearholmer »

If this is too much railway history, just say so …,

In the late 60s, two things combined to cause a big sell-off of wagons:

- rapid decline in “wagon load” traffic (as opposed to whole block trains, and the use of containers); and,

- significant increase in the speed of freight trains as general railway speeds increased, which traditional wagons couldn’t cope with because they had a short wheelbase. There was a series of nasty derailments of freight trains in the period and engineers tried to improve suspension to stop the wagons bouncing themselves off the track, but the ultimate solution was longer wagons, with longer, more stable wheelbase.

Good for farmers everywhere!
Jdsk
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Re: Old Railway Goods Vans etc.

Post by Jdsk »

Nearholmer wrote: 22 May 2023, 9:32am If this is too much railway history, just say so …,

In the late 60s, two things combined to cause a big sell-off of wagons:

- rapid decline in “wagon load” traffic (as opposed to whole block trains, and the use of containers); and,

- significant increase in the speed of freight trains as general railway speeds increased, which traditional wagons couldn’t cope with because they had a short wheelbase. There was a series of nasty derailments of freight trains in the period and engineers tried to improve suspension to stop the wagons bouncing themselves off the track, but the ultimate solution was longer wagons, with longer, more stable wheelbase.

Good for farmers everywhere!
Very interesting, thanks.

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rjb
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Re: Old Railway Goods Vans etc.

Post by rjb »

Shipping containers seem to be the current option as railways have moved away from freight. Many get converted into homes. As they aren't considered permanent they often don't need planning permission. :wink:

BTW Colin did you stop and inspect that abandoned bike in one of those sheds.

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Pebble
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Re: Old Railway Goods Vans etc.

Post by Pebble »

Nearholmer wrote: 22 May 2023, 9:32am If this is too much railway history, just say so …,

In the late 60s, two things combined to cause a big sell-off of wagons:

- rapid decline in “wagon load” traffic (as opposed to whole block trains, and the use of containers); and,

- significant increase in the speed of freight trains as general railway speeds increased, which traditional wagons couldn’t cope with because they had a short wheelbase. There was a series of nasty derailments of freight trains in the period and engineers tried to improve suspension to stop the wagons bouncing themselves off the track, but the ultimate solution was longer wagons, with longer, more stable wheelbase.

Good for farmers everywhere!
I guess it would of also been around the time of the Beeching tragedy. A lot of rolling stock would have been surplus to requirements. And these small goods vans would have been much in use on the branch lines. Didn't know about short wheelbase and derailments though.
Nearholmer
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Re: Old Railway Goods Vans etc.

Post by Nearholmer »

And these small goods vans would have been much in use on the branch lines.
The problem was that by the time Beeching arrived on the scene they weren’t much in use on branch-lines, because branch line goods traffic other than coal was already rapidly deserting the railways and moving to road.

But, Beeching was instrumental in the wagon cull, because he was the one who gave BR a hard shove in the direction of containerisation and block trains.
colin54
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Re: Old Railway Goods Vans etc.

Post by colin54 »

rjb wrote: 22 May 2023, 4:01pm
BTW Colin did you stop and inspect that abandoned bike in one of those sheds.

No I didn't, it looked like it might be an old Raleigh roadster of some sort. The wagons are still there (two years later) I quite expected them to be gone and a house built on the land by now. I don't see the bike anymore so maybe someone's rescued it.
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Re: Old Railway Goods Vans etc.

Post by harriedgary »

[img]/img
main-qimg-ad62820293aab34c7d5ecee9024ae219.jpeg
apparently this was a cement truck body that fell off, so some artist painted it
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colin54
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Re: Old Railway Goods Vans etc.

Post by colin54 »

harriedgary wrote: 1 Jun 2023, 2:46pm [img]/img
main-qimg-ad62820293aab34c7d5ecee9024ae219.jpeg
apparently this was a cement truck body that fell off, so some artist painted it
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harriedgary
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Re: Old Railway Goods Vans etc.

Post by harriedgary »

Image

here's one I saw back in 2016 from the works van, no I wasn't driving :)
Attachments
Screenshot 2023-06-09 12.45.54.png
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colin54
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Re: Old Railway Goods Vans etc.

Post by colin54 »

:) Painted & a lucky horseshoe, posh !
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colin54
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Re: Old Railway Goods Vans etc.

Post by colin54 »

The farmer has added another aeroplane to his collection. So there's now left to right, a Boeing 737, a De Havilland Devon and a Percival Pembroke. The owner is going to put the wheels and wings on them and make them into glamping pods, as somebody guessed a while back.
P1170600 (3).JPG
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