Prototypical running question.

Never. PO coal wagons were nationalized during WWII. (that's open to precise date correction) I'll guess that they weren't repainted for a few years and that some intended to be written off wandered around the BR for a decade or so. At a guess, the Hymeks would have appeared late 1960s, by which time all the PO wagons in their PO liveries would be gone.

You're going to have to open a Preservation Society yard beside your main line!

Regards, Greg.P.

"scoot" wrote

Over 1,500,000 private owner wagons were nationalised along with the bulk of the British standard (and some narrow) gauge rail network on 1/1/1948. Some of these wagons soldiered on in day to day traffic into the 1950s, but were gradually replaced by more modern wagons such as the 'standard' steel 16T mineral.

By the time the Hymeks were introduced the chances are there were few if any left, and they were would have been in such a sorry state that any lettering would probably be all but invisible, assuming of course they'd not been repainted into BR grey livery.

I was active around the BR network in the mid-1950s and have no recollection of EVER seeing a private owner wagon - other than tank wagons many of which remain in private ownership to the present day.

John.

As John has said there were none. Even around the remaining Forest of Dean, Somerset and South Wales coalfields there was only wreckage carrying pre NCB names.

Peter A

Don't forget Rule 1 though, it's your railway!

How about.....

"Mr. Brimlighan Turnion, the well know wealthy eccentric PO wagon collector, keeps his remarkable collection of resotored and "as found" stock nearby, often despatching them for display on preserved lines around the country."

Not totally unreasonable - we used to take ex Bristol Port wagons and other rolling wrecks to Cranmore/Merehead in the late 70's/early 80's, all of which were pretty ancient - though none had their original liveries.

Cheers Richard

There were exceptions to this rule, John- apart from tanks, some other types were not taken under the auspices of BR. These included tipplers and certain slope-sided minerals, operated for Stewarts and Lloyds at Corby (I've even seen a photo of a train of the tipplers with a TOPS-numbered Class 47), 21t open minerals operated by the CEGB around Stoke-on-Trent (these lasted until the end of the 1970s, when Meaford PS closed), sand-carrying wagons, salt wagons, soda-ash and grain wagons. The salt wagons were of the pattern modelled by Hornby-Dublo, whilst the grain wagons were either of a similar peaked-roof design (to be found around Scotland) or of the type modelled by Hornby-Dublo, painted red and lettered for Bass. The original taking-over, ostensibly a 'pooling', of the coal wagon fleet was done at the very beginning of WW2, whence all such wagons passed to the Ministry of War Transport or Ministry of Supply. When nationalisation occured in 1948, the fleet passed to BR and the NCB. The former ran the wagons into the ground, with the only post-nationalisation paint being the number patch and the end-door stripe- most ended up with a white circle and cross and 'loco coal- one journey only' painted on them. I remember serried ranks of them in the various sidings around Llanelli Docks in the early

1960s, waiting to be scrapped. The NCB, on the other hand, were profilgate with black paint, so that many ex-PO wagons stayed as 'internal-users' until the pits closed or their replacement by steel-bodied ex-BR stock in the 1970s. There was one mystery I never solved. My childhood bedroom had a view of the southern end of the Llanelli and Mynydd Mawr Railway, close enough to identify the salient features of the stock, but too far away to read the numbers. One Sunday afternoon I was surprised to see, in the midst of a train of assorted 21t 'House Coal Concentration' hoppers and 16t minerals, what appeared to be a relatively clean black 12t open, lettered 'Ocean' in white. I can think of no logical reason for it being there as Cynheidre pit, whence the train came, hadn't been opened until 10 years or so after Nationalisation. Brian

"BH Williams" wrote

Of course there were exceptions, not least the vast fleet operated by the National Coal Board.

There were also others such as Saxa Salt, but I was generalising when I said the vast majority of PO wagons were absorbed at nationalisation. The reality however I suspect was that (NCB apart - most of which were not used on the BR network) well over 95% of all PO wagons were absorbed into the British Railways fleet, and fairly rapidly lost their identity.

John.

Model Rail suggests running Collet coaches behind Dapol's new Hymek. Would Collet coaches still have been in service by then?

(kim)

Certainly were...The Hymeks arrived in 1961, whilst the last Colletts hung round until 1967 or so. I've seen photos, taken in 1964, of a Hymek leaving Aberystwyth for Carmarthen, with a train consisting of Hawkesworth and Collett stock, and some shots of Westerns taken as late as 1966 with inter-regional trains including both Collett and Stanier stock. I just wish Bachmann would do the Colletts in maroon to go with the dirty green 'Mek that the Rev. Lewis has been doing up for me. Brian

Or indeed a Class 121 bubblecar in GWR livery!

"If this be a natural thing, where do it come from and where do it go?"

(kim)

Thanks, everyone for all the information. i shall keep my two lovely little hymeks firmly in their time and place, and should you be watching, you will see my recently inherited dozen or so private owner coal wagons appearing soon on Ebay. I didnt really like them that much anyway. ;)

Scoot

"scoot" wrote

You might be interested in this picture from my collection, which illustrates quite a weird & wonderful variety of stock which you CAN run legitimately behind a Hymek!

Hope it's of interest! :-)

John.

A wonderfully mixed train- just one thing, though..I think that's Port Talbot- there's no hills that tall that close to Neath station. Brian