West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Castle I always thought was the racing machine? Certainly the smaller wheels of the King didn't make it a speed monster.

 

At least the Granada was made out of steel not paper. The Sierra was a scary car to go fast in because it felt so flimsy. (Without a cage fitted). I know of one that the doors wouldn't open after a hump back bridge

 

At the WSR Wagon Division we are pleased to reveal our latest completed project, SR design 12T Van no.752355.

This vehicle, owned by 5542 Ltd was almost finished in time for display at the WSRA Steam Rally in August. After this appearance at Norton, unfortunately the wagon fell victim to a graffiti attack ruining one side and one end of our freshly applied paintwork, including signwriting! After moving back to Minehead, our small but dedicated team got to work redoing much of our previous work. This van was the first vehicle to arrive on the fledging WSR in the early 1970s, then owned by the 1163 Whitehead fund, so very important we continue to look after this vehicle with such historical relevance to the WSR.

In order to allow this vehicle to be included in our early 1940s era Goods, we have reliveried the vehicle from it's previous BR Bauxite to SR Freight Brown. This design of van originated during wartime, so now very appropriate for our train in it's new livery. We have also removed the first digit of the BR number to better represent an SR built vehicle.





Scott's handywork on the signwriting.



Five wagons in our train now in appropriate liveries, now to be joined by 52355. The GW liveried Toad 68765 is currently in use at BL for winterlights prep and will rejoin the train soon, further representing the 1940s era better than the currently BR liveried 114751.



The Goods was used on a Diesel Engineman Course on Saturday, earning their keep on the railway.

A further revenue stream from our work will be the Winterlights trains where once again our most complex project to date, PMV S1464, will be used to house the generators.

 

Nice to see the SR invasion of Minehead continues

On the specific of "This design of van originated during wartime," - that's correct for the plywood-sided variant you have. However, the basic design of elliptical-roofed SR van was actually a SE&CR design from the Maunsell / Lionel Lynes era, the first of them being built as long ago as 1915. The SECR turned out further batches, followed by the SR building wagons to the SECR design until 1929, after which a standard SR design started to be built instead, which were to all intents and purposes the SECR pattern body on an RCH under frame. (The easiest way to tell the SECR vans apart from the Southern ones is to look at the doors: the SECR ones have a three-part door in which the bottom folds down with two 3/4 height doors above; the SR ones have just two full-height doors each side.) Further batches continued to be built into the BR-era to the same basic profile; there was considerable variation including even and uneven planked sides, plywood sides, and unfitted and vacuum fitted variants, as well as specialist designs such as ventilated wagons, but all following the same basic design.

Interestingly, 650 unfitted even-planked versions were built between June 1942 - January 1943 for the GWR; they are GWR diagram V35. 150 more were built around the same time for the LMS as LMS diagram 2078. There's a very good photo of GWR No. 144293, ex-works condition (presumably an official photo) in Vol 4 of "An Illustrated History of Southern Wagons"

We have three preserved: 15750, which is one of the SE&CR originals; 44611 which is an SR design but using wheels, axle boxes, springs etc recovered from an old LSWR van; and 47588 which is one of the standard even-planked SR versions, but fitted with vacuum brakes. Your's represents a nice continuation of the series as late variant wartime austerity version.

Tom

 

Although our alleged V35 has somehow ended up with uneven planks and a vacuum cylinder:



http://www.ws.rhrp.org.uk/ws/WagonInfo.asp?Ref=8380

 

That's just it's "character" Alex.

 

Many thanks! We still have at least one more vehicle to tackle that'll end up in an SR livery to continue the "takeover"

Our next couple to be outshopped will likely be in LMS Bauxite though, hopefully to provide plenty of prototypical regional variety in the train.

Of course you are correct, perhaps I wasn't quite clear enough there. We also have WD47983 an uneven planked unfitted version. Quite interesting historically, I've been told this vehicle served overseas in the Second World War.

https://live.staticflickr.com/4553/37575466835_36fdd5eec9_b.jpg

(Not my image)

 

Actually, my mistake, the GWR vans were uneven planked. I'd suggest the vac cylinder is a later addition.

Southern Wagons Vol 4 says about the WD wagons:

At least 67 [of the Diagram 1458 wagons - TJ] went to the War Department as new or nearly-new vehicles, most for use in SR-constructed workshop trains. Others were used to house mobile generator sets also owned by the Government, and others passed in and out of Departmental use for other wartime reasons. The majority of the WD-owned vans finished up at the end of the war on various military railways but examples have been noted in the Middle East and Continental Europe; there is even one preserved in Vienna.
​

Tom

 

One of the supposed motivations for a certain eviction was a desire on someone's part to make the WSR more purely GWR. These Southern vehicles seem to give the lie to that.

 

Ignoring any purported modern-day motives, wagons freely travelled “off region”, so an SR wagon on the GWR would hardly be odd.

I put this photo in the photo thread - it is an SR shed, but the two wagons on the left in front of the brake van are LNER and LMS origin.



Tom

 

http://www.photorail.it/forum/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view;id=285

Or even more off-region... A Southern Railway style non-vent van, right down at the toe end of Italy. Now sadly scrapped.

 

We were very pleased at the way the WSR Wagon Division guys got to grips immediately with the graffiti attack on our van. I hasten to add that although I'm no freight vehicle expert (or any other expert for that matter) I have on several occasions tried to find another example of this van and have been unable to find anything similar without the diagonal angle iron on the sides as all other similar vehicles seem to have. Am I just not looking hard enough or is it a unique survivor of this particular design?

 

I don't know enough about wagons to know what to look for, but . . . perhaps this will help
The Railway Heritage Register Wagon Survey Project
http://www.ws.rhrp.org.uk/ws/wsearch.asp

 

Seems to be a feature of the plywood versions:—

http://www.ws.rhrp.org.uk/ws/WagonInfo.asp?Ref=10530
http://www.ws.rhrp.org.uk/ws/WagonInfo.asp?Ref=11471
http://www.ws.rhrp.org.uk/ws/WagonInfo.asp?Ref=17118
http://www.ws.rhrp.org.uk/ws/WagonInfo.asp?Ref=13159
http://www.ws.rhrp.org.uk/ws/WagonInfo.asp?Ref=13974
http://www.ws.rhrp.org.uk/ws/WagonInfo.asp?Ref=9299
http://www.ws.rhrp.org.uk/ws/WagonInfo.asp?Ref=16766

All these are grounded bodies. Is yours the only wheeled survivor?

Pete S.

 

I think you are right about the plywood versions not having the diagonal strap, though there were very occasional exceptions. One such was 65171 illustrated in "Southern Wagons", which was plywood sided but with the diagonal strap on the ends. The reason was that SR practice was to build the steel structure of the vans first, after which they would be dispatched to a siding at some country station until wood was available to complete them. Occasionally they would get lost, or come back in the wrong order, the result being that a van that should have been completed with the uneven planking was actually delayed sufficiently that by then plywood was being used, but with the diagonal strap. But that was a rarity.

The move to plywood came when other suitable woods became difficult to acquire, the first plywood van emerging in January 1945, after which the SR (and BR(S) after them) built no more planked vans. The SR had been building containers from plywood since 1929.

Tom

 

Looks like it might be!

 

So... Any updates?

 

Not yet, please be patient

 

The SVR just seem to appeal for money constantly. Latest one is to replace track in Bridgnorth MPD.