Windcutter Wagons

Many thanks for posting Lee - it looks to have been a great day and makes our efforts so worthwhile.

 

A wonderful rake of wagons, a true credit to all those who care for them.

 

Another short workday at Rothley yesterday saw Tim in action on the end door. This highlights the problem of the trapped debris between the inner skin and outer body. There are numerous areas where the outer skin has been thinned by corrosion and any patches end up being made larger and larger as the welds break through on the thin areas. The only real answer is to replace the whole lower area of the end door.


The next job is to cut out the area between those end cut-outs above the beam.

 

Now that these wagons are not being used to carry coal etc , are they being painted inside and out ? and are they lasting well once they have been restored/renewed ?

 

Beautiful, a true testament to the coal trains that ran over the line.
Quick question, why are they called "Windcutters"?

 

In BR days, there were unfitted mineral trains run at express freight speed, locally known as "the Annesley Cutters" or "Windcutters"

Dave B

 

Makes sense.
Though here's something [I think] that doesn't make sense, noticed a few times when I have visited the GC that one goods set has a SR Pillbox and BR 20T brakevan while the other has an LMS 20T and BR 20T brakevan.

Surely it would make more sense to have both BR 20T's on the "Windcutters" or Van train, while the Pillbox and LMS 20T on the mixed freight?

 

It has always been my impression that they were more commonly known as "Runners".

 

It makes no difference whatsoever; in BR days they were just common user brake vans and they used whatever was available.

 

In my early days as a Mainline Guard at Eastleigh, We only ever had the Standard BR 20T or ex Midland brakevans on the main freights.
Ex GW Toads Ex SR Pillboxes and Queen Mary Bogie BVs on Ballast or Civil engineer A/C trains.

 

Well, you're talking to someone who is Aspergus, I like everything neat and tidy, a full rake of one type of wagon [Windcutter or Van] need one type of brakevan [BR 20T].

A hodgepodge rake of wagons need a hodgepodge of brakevans [SR Pillbox/LMS 20T].

It would certainly be more satisfying to the eye.

A Queen Mary fitted with ballast ploughs, now there's an image.

 

I don't have Asperger's (well, I don't think I do) but I can quite understand that a rake of matching wagons looks better. And you can do that on a model railway.
Unfortunately the real railway wasn't like that. And as we're talking about the Woodford-Annesley 'Runners' which the Windcutter rake is representing - those fast freights weren't all 16T mineral wagons either, it's just that they predominated.
This is a photo of a down 'Runner' at New Basford in July 1961. I've pinched it from the Book Law publication No.7 'Great Central Lines' and I believe Don Beecroft took the photo. And I've cropped it slightly.

The most obvious thing wrong with the Windcutter rake on the GCR is that it runs with a brake van each end at all, however that's a compromise to avoid massive amounts of shunting at each end of the relatively short journey, and is understandable. Other than that, 16T mineral wagons predominate this image but look at wagons 2 (wooden bodied and hence most likely 12T or 13T capacity), 5 (slope sided mineral, nice!) and various other unidentifiable variants further back in the train (most obvious where heights are mis-matched).
I think you should be grateful it isn't more of a hodge-podge, because it certainly should be!

 

PS: If anyone is wandering past Swithland with a paint brush... the above image also shows what a GC carriage shed is supposed to look like.

 

Does anyone have a slope sider or are they all gone now?

 

Surprised to see a wooden bodied coal wagon in a 1961 photo. I thought they had gone from big railway by that date, except perhaps in engineering service.

 

Sorry for the delayed reply but Yes, the wagons are being painted inside (black bitumastic) and out (primer/sometimes undercoat and top coat) - depending on what is on the particular wagon. All the wagons have been painted at least once in the thirty years. Most were painted after a fairly basic overhaul in the 1990's. Then they have come in for a more thorough overhaul - new floor etc at a rate of about one per year (plus work keeping the rest of the rake operational).
The aim is to have done a comprehensive overhaul on all the wagons (one left) then try to get two per year in for refurbing, so a 15 year cycle on our 30 wagons.

 

Great Work.

 

More rusty metal has been removed from B 279721/114733. The underframe is in good condition and it is being cleaned up before priming and undercoating. It is of the early type with angled
beams and rivetted construction.

 

Another workday had three of us busy removing the last rusty steel at the bottom of the SW corner. We were also wire brushing more of the underframe, then priming and undercoating. Steady progress.