Narrow gauge loco design

Wasn’t the issue with transshipment due to gauge difference the delay and extra cost for the railways’ customers, hence also the abandonment of broad gauge?


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No transporter wagons back then! The thought of a full width BG wagon perched on a 2'-6" transporter is one I find oddly appealing.

 

I agree. Having seen rollwagen in Switzerland, I regret the lack of use here.

However, my point remains - the impact of transshipment was on the customer, not the operator.


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@35B I've never actually seen any numbers relating to BG transhipment. The assumption has to be that like any cost, it would be factored into carriage rates, though whether it appeared as a separate charge I don't know. Would Railway Clearing House archives perhaps shed any light on the matter?

 

Not sure I quite understand that comment - Rolle Quay was a standard gauge siding, and the L&B was on the opposite side of the river:

http://maps.nls.uk/view/105998003#zoom=4&lat=1908&lon=12268&layers=BT

Tom

 

I concede your points, Paul, and you are right about the amateurish similarity between L&B and L&M. Neither one was really financially viable, and owed their existence to WIBN on a grand Victorian scale.
In preservation though, the original business case for any line is immaterial, as is the wisdom of the rolling stock specification. 80 years on, they are the ones that got away, two glamour girls of British narrow gauge.
The beautiful scenery through which they operated, and the attractiveness of the whole, locomotives, rolling stock, stations, bridges, are the things that matter to us and our rosy tinted hindsight and nostalgia. It was that rosy tinted hindsight and nostalgia that got Lyn built (which is the subject of the thread)

Two questions for the assembly:
1. Who built Leek & Manifold carriages
2. Should there be a Calthrop/L&M thread. They keep leaking into other NG topics

 

Yes, I did mean the NG quay siding. Apologies for any confusion.

 

With the slate lines standard gauge wagons would still have required transshipment at the end of the quarry tramways. Indeed the Festiniog did originally build larger slate wagons but the quarries insisted on using the small wagons on their systems as they would fit narrow places and could be entirely loaded with the dressed slate from the ground whereas a man had to stand in the larger wagons to stack the slates in the centre.

 

1. Electric Railway and Tramway Carriage Co. Ltd.
2. Has it not been done to death?

PH

 

1. I've a feeling it was Cravens, they did the transporter wagons at any rate, but away from my literature on the subject at the moment. Edit - Paul has answered with what I suspect is the correct answer.
2. Probably!

 

Probably. I was thinking as much of the stories about Gloucester in gauge war days, and who suffered as a result.


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The LNWR also built standard gauge transporter wagons, and compatible 2ft gauge slate wagons, for slate traffic from Blaenau Ffestiniog to Deganwy for shipping onwards by sea. A Ffestipedia page about it here:
https://www.festipedia.org.uk/wiki/LNWR_Slate_Wagons

Steve B

 

As did many standard gauge lines.

 

More than many methinks

Didn't someone work out that we could have achieved the same level of connectivity (or whatever) with 12000 miles of railway that we did with the 20000 we actually built.................

 

Sounds highly likely. If you can recall whose calculations those were, it would be intriguing to track down some detail.

 

An online search of the National Archives suggests that the MW order books are available at Search Engine.

Re the Loco Mag reference mentioned on the CRC Newsgroup, that article is about a 2'6" gauge Nasmyth Wilson 2-6-2 for the BNR, much of which is devoted to its poppet valve gear. I doubt it will help your quest.

 

Given the loading gauge difficulties associated with putting SG wagons on NG transporters, was any consideration ever given - anywhere - of doing it the other way around, i.e. roll the NG wagon straight onto a suitably equipped SG flat-bed, tie down and away you go? Just curious (and with apologies for continuing the distraction from 'Lyn').

 

The 4'-0" gauge Padarn Railway used to do just that, with 2'-0" gauge slate wagons transhipped thus down to the port. Photo by Dave Mills (yolasite):

 

Thanks (although not SG, shows the principle). And what a charming little railway that must have been!

 

It's a damned shame at least one of those locos wasn't preserved. They were broken up in the mid 1960's and all we have left of the 4'-0" fleet is the ancient Horlock 0-4-0 "Fire Queen" which survived as it was parked up in a shed and there it stayed until after the quarry closed!
http://www.irsociety.co.uk/Archives/29/Fire_Queen.htm