Windcutter Wagons

Yesterday, 2nd Jan 2019, 5 Windcutter wagons left Quorn GCR to go, on loan, to the Pontypool and Blaenavon Railway. Believed to be B279714, B279717, B98858, B212705, B165121. There may be another one to follow.

 

The final wagon B 568314 left today. That still leaves the GCR with 30 16T mineral wagons for the "Lengthy train" .

 

279714 is really B595478.

279717 is part of a 4-way mystery and I’d rather it had stayed on site as sorting the mystery out is going to be far more difficult now! It’s bad enough that another of the 4 was scrapped in the early days of the project. (Talking of which, if anyone has any decent pictures of wagon 15 (279715, though doubtful if it ever carried this) I’d be interested. I don’t think it was at the GCR for long as it was swapped with the scrapman for a different wagon I believe.)

 

Yes, two wagons were scrapped/swapped for better ones in May 1997.

 

The wagons have arrived safely in are looking good in the crisp morning sun at the P&B.
(Photograph courtesy P&B)

 

Jan 21st Windcutter Update



Three members of our team were able to go round all the serviceable Windcutter wagons (Rake and three spares at Swithland plus two in the yard at Rothley) draining and oiling the axleboxes, oiling and checking brake linkages. So they are all in a suitable condition for use when required. We have nearly finished the welding on the "Palbrick" wagon in the shed and it will be painted bauxite over the next 3 or 4 weeks.

Additionally, we have the Sales stand at Rothley this coming weekend.

 

Nice video - thanks for posting Sidmouth. Good to see them running.

 

An" interesting" article in this months "Steam Railway" about this loan of the 6 wagons. I am led to believe that there will be no more wagons leaving the GCR. The final few of the 30 left, will be brought back into running order so that two rakes can be run and sometimes joined to make that "Lengthy train". What is the chance of a "Windcutter Weekend" to see that in action??

 

The welding work on the "Palbrick" chassis mineral wagon has now been completed and the floor has been bitumen coated. The outside has been prepped, primered and undercoated, topcoats (bauxite) to go on in the next two weeks.

 

We welcomed a new volunteer to the team and so we had an extra pair of hands to help change the oiler pads. Whilst that was being done a start was made on the first top coat.

 

Hi folks,
One of the interesting features of the Palbrick wagons was that the chassis included two extra longitudinal supports to beef up the floor. I understand this was because the wagons were loaded by fork-lift which could drive onto the wagon at some locations. When some of them were converted to 16T mineral wagons, these extra bits of steel were chopped out (to save weight I presume - unnecessary once the wagon has a steel floor instead of a wooden one). If you crawl underneath B596329 (built as B462129 in 1957/58 and converted in February 1979) you can see the battle scars where these strengtheners were removed. It's an interesting wagon and a great example of recycling.

 

Thanks for those details pmh.
Further painting has been done and now the wagon has its first top coat ( so shiny the reflection makes a funny picture!!)

 

Sad news as two of the running rake have been "stopped". On routine inspection they discovered two mineral wagons which fall below the minimum requirement for flange thickness. These vehicles are B279719 and B279723. As such, these have been removed from traffic and will require the wheelsets either replacing or turning, subject to tyre thickness.
It is not surprising as these have been in use from 1995! However we will have to have detailed discussions as to the best method of getting the wagons back into service. Fortunately, we do have a few spare wagons ready to go into the rake.

 

Surely there must be a lot of wheels laying around on various sites that could be bought up as spares ?

 

The "Palbrick" mineral wagon is now finished and ready to join the running fleet - possibly in the mixed goods rake?
photo by J Taylor.

 

Is John Brooks still involved?

 

John is still taking a close interest, but is no longer directly involved.

 

Our "Palbrick" mineral wagon is now part of the working "Windcutter" rake stored at Swithland.
Comparing the two wagons, it is possible to see that the "Palbrick" body has an extra 6" at each end, as the spacing of the two angled ribs behind the top edge is not equal....and it is rated for 16.5 Tons.
The rake should be out on the line again as part of the "Goods Galore" gala in May.

 

For a bit of variety, we also have a wooden bodied Box Van to hold our stores. This was in need of some TLC and so we have been working on that, stripping paint, repairing and replacing rotten wood ready for priming, undercoating and top coating.



But then we had a bit of bad news as two of our running wagons have been inspected and failed due to "thin flanges". We have a pair of spare wheels for one but the other is unique as it has larger 10" axleboxes...and one pair of spoked wheels!