OMWB: A Parkside Dundas kit (PC43) as described in the subject, in need of a load.
Problem: Having tried all the usual photopic sites that I use I can't find a decent picture of one loaded with what it was intended to carry. Lots of pictures of them empty and a couple in departmental use full of ballast, but no pipes...
Can anyone help, either with a decent picture of one carrying a load of pipes or with first hand recollections of how they were loaded please?
I've seen a photo or two of them loaded with cast-iron pipes from Stanton and Staveley, though I can't remember where. My recollection is of the black-painted pipes loaded longitudinally to the level of the top of the wagon, or perhaps just below. There may have been vertical wooden packing strips at intervals, as the pipes were quite fragile. The pipes were for use in the post-WW2 installation of mains drainage and water supplies around much of the UK. The pipe traffic had been reduced quite considerably by the mid-1960s, so the wagons moved to other traffic. Amongst these were:- Bricks from Calvert in Buckinghamshire to Lawrence Hill in Bristol- this was going strong when I left the area in 1976. Imported paper pulp to various locations- a dedicated batch of 50 (numbered in the 'merchandise' series) were built for imported newsprint traffic as well. Aluminium slabs from Fort William By the 1980s, they had supplanted the traditional 10' wheelbase open wagons in what remained of the vacuum-braked wagonload network, much of this being MoD traffic. They could be seen with large wooden packing-cases at places like Fratton (Portsmouth), and might also be seen with things like 2-wheel trailers or mysterious sheeted loads- these would emanate from Milford Haven, Trecwyn or Glen Douglas, so were presumably some sort of munitions.
50 were later resprung, air-braked and coded 'ODA' for what remained of this traffic. Those that remained vacuum-fitted were latterly used for Departmental traffic, notably on behalf of the S&T Department, conveying cable drums, location cabinets, cable-troughing etc. Some went to the BR/Cable and Wireless joint venture, Project Mercury, being repainted in a fetching powder-blue- I believe some of these are still lingering in sidings in the West Midlands. In short, unless you're modelling prior to the mid-1960s, pipes would not constitute the most commom load for these long-lived vehicles. Brian
Pipes to be welded had no flange on the end, making them easier to model, pipe welding became more common from the 1920s (what I have on welding, still under construction, is at
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Pipes with flanges at one end only (not common) can be stacked on top of each other with alternate layers laid either way, pipes with flanges on both ends were stacked on shaped wooden trestles, at least two in a pipe wagon, or (for lighter pipes) packed with bracken or straw (common with a lot of cast iron goods such as baths and what have you.
Pipes were (and are) supplied as straight lengths, the bends (a short length of pipe pre-bent into a curve, usually 90 degrees and flanged both ends) were supplied separately and a load might be only a few such bends (there is a photo somewhere of an ex H&BR 12' wheelbase one plank wagon carrying no more than half a dozen 10 inch diameter bends).
If anyone has come up with a sure-fire dead-easy way to add lots of flanges I would be very interested to hear, havent yet found a source of suitable rings and Plastruct tube is just a bit too rattle fit (even the new polystyrene stuff), although if you used tube glue you could probably get away with it in OO.
Thanks Brian, this hits the nail exactly on the head! My intention is to model one of these in original, "As built" and "un-fitted" condition and load them with the black Stanton and Staveley pipes you describe. And thanks to Mike for his reply also.
I remember these pipes when they were used to put in a storm drain along our road in the mid 60s. From memory the internal diameter is approximately 2' and they must have been just long enough to have fitted inside the wagon, or was the wagon built to carry an already standard pipe?
I reckon that I can use Evergreen plastic tube. 80mm length scales to 20', and this is just a little shorter than the internal length of the wagon.
3/8" tube gives a scale internal diameter of just about 24", or the next size down (11/32") gives around 18", however as I used to crawl through these things I suspect 24" is probably nearer the mark. That said, 2 layers of pipe will be sitting proud of the top of the wagon so based on your description I probably need to go with the smaller ones. Also, the 3/8" pipe just about allows 3 lengths to be laid side by side, with added sleeves at one end these may just become a little too wide to comfortable fit in so again it looks like the 11/32" tube is the way to go.
Flanges or sleeves (to comment on Mike S's reply) should be possible because the Evergreen tubes are supposed to "telescope rather well" - so says the gaffer in my local model shop.
The point about the wood bearers is also useful. Reading it, I can remember that they came on something like pallets when they were delivered to the site, to space them both horizontally and vertically.
If you are modelling the wagons in 'as built' condition, they seemed often to have had the woodwork left unpainted, except for the black patches for the lettering, whilst the metalwork on the body was finished in grey. Brian
Thanks John, but these pipes are a lot bigger than the one I am trying to reproduce. I am after the sort of pipes I used to crawl through while they were being laid in the road when I was a youngster.
The wood weathered very quickly to a sort of non-descript grey, and didn't last in the sort of brown colour one associates with new wood for very long. Unless you are modelling the mid-1950s, the wagons were very soon fitted with vacuum brakes and painted bauxite anyway. I fancy trying my hand at some of the ones built with the clasp-type 8-shoe brakegear, having already done about ten of the 4-shoe ones- I remember a mixture of the two working to Lawrence Hill (Bristol) in the mid-1970s, when I lived nearby. Brian
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