More Pre-Grouping Wagons in 4mm - the D299 appreciation thread.

[Compound2632]

3 minutes ago, Andy Hayter said:

It's now working as I would expect but at lunchtime it was just a grey box with something like image  12345.jpg written inside which opened to a blank page with a miniscule blue square in the middle.

 

I think what's going on is that the Study Centre website was being slow to load images.

[WFPettigrew]

4 hours ago, airnimal said:

Could it be from the Furness Railway ? 

 

I did wonder, but no.  The FR did have two types of roof door vans dating back to about the 1870s - so would have fitted with the dating of this photo, and one type did have two panels either side of the door, but theirs had the doors inset, and each door had two vertical panels on them, with no horizontal rib.

 

See this heavy crop of a photo featuring one of the smaller ones (with a larger sibling alongside) - the original shows a rake of the FR roof door vans at the old papermill in Ulverston sometime after 1903.

 

 

All the best

 

Neil 

 

 

[Compound2632]

Following on from that "William Kirtley" covered goods wagon, here's something else that's caught my interest:

 

 

[Embedded link to catalogue image of MRSC 92223, Ian Howard Collection.]

 

The catalogue caption reads: "Gloucester, High Orchard branch, around 1905. A broadside view of 0-6-0T No. 1125A, its enginemen in the cab, coupled, bunker first, to coal wagons. Allocated to Gloucester, No. 1125A was normally out-stationed at Dursley. Here, it was shunting coal wagons on a trip from Gloucester shed back to Dursley. This engine was ex-Severn & Wye railway 'Sabrina'."

 

The engine has had footsteps added just ahead of the tank, and a handrail on the tank front, a piece of uglification (though no doubt very welcomed by the enginemen) that was added to tank engines from 1903. It was renumbered 1607 in November 1907 and moved to Burton in or by 1908 [S. Summerson, Midland Railway Locomotives Vol. 3 (Irwell Press, 2002) p. 193]. 

 

On the left of the engine is a very freshly-painted D299. But the real curiosity is the line of wagons behind the engine, which have evidently been out in the smoke for a good while. 

 

The one behind the D299 is a five-plank wagon; it looks a little deeper than the D299, say 3 ft, and has a raised end in the form of a continuous arc. It is labelled CO - presumably LOCO - and below that, in script, 8 Tons - possibly preceded by what might be the word Load or, since the visible letter doesn't have a noticeable ascender, To Carry - which is a bit of a hint. 

 

The wagon part-hidden by No. 1125A's bunker is dumb-buffered and is of a more antique construction, the corner plates not being full height, with a corner bracket plate at the top. It too is lettered LOCO but where the other wagon has the capacity, this one carries the number 05839. To its right is another dumb-buffer wagon with raised end.

 

I'm pretty sure these aren't Midland ex-PO wagons. I think they must be Great Western - as suggested by the italic style of capacity marking - or rather, wagons on hire to the Great Western, as suggested by the number beginning 0. 

 

I get easily confused by the geography of Gloucester's goods branches but the density of trackwork suggests that this must be the middle of High Orchard yard, with the Gloucester Wagon Co.'s works behind the photographer and Baker Street behind the sidings, the large buildings being perhaps the malthouses marked on the map: 

https://maps.nls.uk/view/109725538.

 

This is firmly Midland territory, with only a tenuous connection to the Great Western's dock branch on the west side of the canal. One would have thought that if loco coal wagons were being loaded from the canal, the Great Western's ones would have been loaded at a quay on the west side. In any case, they're presumably only going as far as the Great Western loco shed.

 

No. 1125A and No. 1126A, formerly S&Y 'Forrester', were at this time the Dursley branch engines. The implication of the caption seems to be that it is seen here foraging for loco coal to take back to Dursley. 

 

So, has anyone seen the like of these presumed Great Western hired loco coal wagons?

 

And are they red?

Edited 1 hour ago by Compound2632