Bitumen tank wagons

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- Stu
  
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posted
19 years ago

Wed, Oct 13, 2004 4:05 PM

I notice that Cambridge Custom Transfers do a set of transfers for a bitumen carrying version of the Airfix/Dapol tank wagon. As I have one or two of these and it would be nice to have something a little different from Esso or BP tanks, I'd like to know what the differences were and how the kit can be converted - anybody know?

What traffic flows were these wagons used on? As bitumen is a by-product of the oil industry, presumably they would start their journey at a refinery, but where would the destination be? I'm thinking of the example of Berry Wiggins in the Forest of Dean. Did they receive bitumen merely as distributors, or did they do something else with it? I've done a search of the web but have been unable to find any info, so any pointers to books or websites would be welcome.

Stu

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- BH Williams
  
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posted
19 years ago

Wed, Oct 13, 2004 4:41 PM

The obvious difference was that the tank was lagged and had, I believe, conical ends. There were flame-tubes (capped off flanged pipe-ends- there's a Knightwing pack which might have some useful bits), along with 'chimneys' on the top of the tank. If you can get a look at Tourret's book on petroluem tank wagons, you'll see some photos, whilst one of Shannon and Rhodes' 'Freight Only' books has some photos of the terminal at Elswick, Newcastle. Main use for bitumen is for coated stone for road surfacing, so there were terminals around either quarrying areas or near stone terminals. The former included Cranmore (now the East Someset railway) and Skipton, whilst the latter included the terminal at Thorney Mill, Colnbrook. The Elswick terminal, which I mentioned earlier, supplied bitumen emulsion for Colas , who then distributed it all around the north-east. Chris Leigh did an article in Model Railway Constructor in the 1980s on modifying the Hornby

45t tank to its bitumen-carrying cousin- that included some photos of Thorney Mill. Brian

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- John Isherwood
  
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posted
19 years ago

Thu, Oct 14, 2004 12:01 PM

Cambridge Custom Transfers

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(John Isherwood) responding - you only had to ask! :-)

My reference database for Esso 35T glw bitumen tankers built to BR diagram 6/046 gives :-

"RAILWAYS IN PROFILE No.4, B.R. WAGONS, RAILTANKS" (Cheona) page 21;

"RAILWAYS IN PROFILE No.14, B.R. PRIVATE OWNER TANK WAGONS" (Cheona) plate 111 (with a query as to correct identification);

Model Railways magazine - 1/91;

Model Rail magazine - 9/01.

For Esso 35T glw bitumen tankers built to BR diagram 6/061 it gives :-

"RAILWAYS IN PROFILE No.4, B.R. WAGONS, RAILTANKS" (Cheona) page 21;

"RAILWAYS IN PROFILE No.14, B.R. PRIVATE OWNER TANK WAGONS" (Cheona) plate 111 (again, with a query as to correct identification).

Not having my reference library here at work I can only work from memory, but I'm pretty certain that these prototypes were pretty similar. Certainly I found that adapting the Airfix / Dapol kit with plasticard and brass tube was not at all difficult.

Regards, John.