China Clay Wagons

I'm sorry to hear it all went sour, I feared as much when it was announced the Facebook page was being shut down - it didn't sound terribly amicable. A great shame as you appeared to be making good progress, it was always good to see wagon developments on another railway.

For clarity though, are you saying that the China Clay wagons are still being restored by the B&WR, just not by you?

 

It won't come as a shock to many to discover that the Bodmin and Wenford Railway in the heart of china clay country has been preserving china clay railway heritage for 35 years ... The 5 wagons that have been at Bodmin a long time have been restored twice before, as anyone who witnessed them running with 30587 will attest to. Like all wooden things if you don't have enough shed space and they live outside they don't stay perfect forever.

I am the Managing Director of the railway and it was me that negotiated the purchase of the 4 additional wagons 4 years ago towards our long stated ambition of being the China Clay Railway.

The Clay Wagon Project was a railway approved initiative to drum up more interest in the wagons that a family had wanted to work on. Unsurprisingly that family couldn't work with anyone else and having thrown their toys out of the pram removed the dedicated Facebook page. It was a great shame as there was a genuine following to the work to overhaul the wagons once again. The family team did repaint 3 wagons to a good standard and stripped apart a 4th wagon that needed a more comprehensive rebuild. The railway has continued to progress that wagon and other projects in our workshops at Bodmin General and it is progressing very well. We are doing our best to have it ready for the upcoming photo charters.

Like lots of preserved railways, people come, people go, the railway survives. I am personally very frustrated that we fell into the trap of not ensuring we had administrator access to intellectual property and allowed a bitter former volunteer to delete what was clearly the intellectual property of the railway. I'm equally annoyed that our dirty laundry is aired in public. We have worked hard to rebuild our volunteer community in recent years and moral on site at Bodmin General has never been better.

We are looking forward to seeing visiting 5553 haul our china clay train in a few weeks time and hope some of you can come and enjoy it too. Who knows, maybe one day we will see a beattie back on them as well.

David Nelson-Brown
Managing Director
Bodmin and Wenford Railway

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

 

Thank you for taking the time to present a fuller picture of the sad situation re the China clay wagons. They are an integral part of the operation of Cornish railways and of the bulk transport role that the railways were built for originally.

 

Whats the story behind the fat buffers ?

 

G.W. self-contained wagon buffers.
Ray.