Railway Freight Operations - Road Vehicles, Military Traffic and Farm Machinery
Wheeled vehicles and machinery were transported on any suitable
railway truck. Smaller vehicles and equipment could be moved on any flat or
drop-sided wagon. Larger items were moved on purpose built trucks, usually with
a dropped centre section and often with smaller than normal wheels. Examples of
these wagons will be found in the section on Goods Rolling Stock Design -
Specialised Rolling Stock, models of suitable wagon loads are discussed in the
Wagon Loads section.
Horse drawn vehicles, mainly private carriages and
traders vehicles, farm equipment and motor vehicles (both cars and lorries)
have all been regular cargo for the railways. Most horse drawn vehicles were
shipped as a one-off load, classed as wagon load traffic and attached to
conventional mixed goods trains. Where an entire train load of horse drawn
vehicles has been photographed these are normally military standard 'General
Service' waggons being moved for the army. Modelling these waggons is discussed
under Cargo & Wagon Loads. One exception was a service operated by the LSWR
for horse drawn meat vans. The vans had their wheels removed in London and were
then craned onto purpose built flat wagons (coded RUCK and later used for
containers, see Unit Loads (containers, pallets and IBCs) section). They ran as
a block train down to the docks at Southampton where the vans were loaded with
chilled imported meat. The train was then taken back to London as an express
goods service where the vans were craned off the wagons and their wheels
re-attached for deliveries to butchers and the like.
Road tank wagons
were sometimes used for beer from the later 1930's and post war they were also
used for various chemicals. The types associated with this traffic are
discussed below, the type used for milk traffic is considered separately under
Non Passenger Coaching Stock Operations - Milk.
Horse Drawn vehicles,
Cars & Lorries
By the 1930's most road vehicles shipped by rail
were new cars and vans being moved around the country. These were mainly moved
on existing four wheeled 'open carriage trucks' or more modern vehicles built
to broadly similar designs. At the time mass production was not quite so
massive so a consignment might consist of perhaps five or six vehicles going to
a dealer, or even a one-off if the vehicle was from the upper end of the
market. These would be forwarded is a cut of wagons in conventional mixed goods
trains.
Cars being transported by sea were often enclosed in a large
wooden case with the framing on the outside. This was craned onto the railway
wagon and quite often the car was then driven into it. At the docks it would be
lifted onto the deck of the ship and strapped down. Bulk cars for export were
often shipped as CKD or 'cars knocked down'. The chassis were nested in batches
of four or five, the body sections were similarly nested, the wheels were
bolted together in groups of four and tyres were stuffed in wherever they would
fit. The engines were shipped in wooden cases. This collection of parts was
shipped in open wagons or vans, depending on what was available and how easy
they were to load. A consignment of perhaps twenty cars would only require
flour large 'plate' wagons for the chassis, four or five open wagons for the
body parts and engines and perhaps a van or two for the remainder.
By
the 1930's there was some traffic in new cars to and from continent via the
rail ferry services. The railways modified some car carrying flat wagons with
securing points so they could be used on these ferries. I have not found any
illustrations of cars being imported in this way but J H Russels book Wagons
& Loads on the GWR and BR/WR (see Bibliography) includes several
photographs of British rail flats. The Carfit S was equipped by the Southern
Railway with dual air and vacuum brakes specifically for ferry operations to
the continent and it happens to be one of the easier models to make, brief
details are shown in the sketch. The two cross-bars each had two white canvass
straps attached to them, these were secured round the axles of the car. If
required they can be represented by 1mm wide strips of cigarette paper folded
over the cross-bars and glued to the floor. The cross-bars were attached to the
side rails and could be moved along the wagon, do remember to fit yours so that
the intended load can fit between them.
Fig___ Carfit S used for
ferry traffic in the 1950's and 60's
By the 1950's the
traffic in new motor cars was increasing and block trains were increasingly
being run. There is a photograph in Dave Larkin's book BR Standard Wagons
(Bradford & Barton, see bibliography) showing one of the early 'Bocar P'
conversions for moving new cars about the place. These had neither sides or
ends but had metal channels built into the floor to locate the wheels. From the
photographs these were recessed into the floor as noting appears to show above
the planking. There was one fixed and one folding flap to allow movement
between wagons. This vehicle is fairly easy to model although lacking a proper
photograph of the deck there is some guesswork involved. Take a Farish 57 foot
chassis and add a deck of 10 thou plain card overhanging the sides by about
1mm. N now add three strips of 1mm planked card, one in the centre the others
laid up to the edge of the 10 thou floor, these three strips need to be cut to
allow gaps for the metal channels. Sand the sides down to about 0.6mm overhang
at the sides by wrapping the fine sandpaper round a block of wood, lay the
chassis upside down on a strip of gash card and rub the chassis against the
paper. This should give you a dead flat side. Finally add a strip of 10x10 thou
along the outer edges and sand again to blend in this last joint, you now have
1mm height to add lettering.
The
later wagons used for this kind of work had low sides of rails and stanchions
with ends which were 2 planks deep (See 'Illustrated History of BR wagons'
pages 82-5, where there are both photos and drawings). These later Carflats
were also used for Motorail services, described in the section on Non Passenger
Coaching Stock Operations.
BR's stock of open Bocar and carflat car
carrying wagons (converted ex passenger coach chassis) were less than ideal for
new car traffic, mainly due to the amount of siding space they required for a
given number of cars carried. Following some not terribly successful
experimental designs in the 1950's double decked car carrying wagons were
further developed in the 1960's. The BR Cartic Four (1964) and privately owned
French designed Autic Six (1981) wagons were introduced for motor cars whilst
the carflats and some converted Freightliner bogie flat wagons were used for
vans and larger commercial vehicles. These are virtually all loaded and
unloaded at privately owned depots. Most commonly the lower deck of the car
carriers is accessed with a pair of perforated steel channels laid up against
the end of the rake. The upper deck is then accessed via a bogie flat wagon
with a ramp mounted on it, the steel channels are used to get the vehicles onto
the wagon, the car is driven along the wagon then up the ramp at the far end.
The angle of the ramp is about 35 degrees from the horizontal, which is steep.
Small shipments, cars going to a dealership for example, were most
often moved by road transporter (avoiding wear and tear and possible damage in
transit). There is a well known photo of two 'Mini' cars roped down to a plate
wagons in Dave Larkin's Bradford and Barton paperback book on BR Standard
Wagons (see bibliography), however I believe this shipment took place when
there was a strike by road car transporter drivers and very few cars were moved
in this way. The photograph is interesting in that it shows how awkward it was
to ship modern types of car, which did not have the axle to which straps could
be attached. Whereas machinery tends to have plenty of places to attach chains
for securing the load motor cars are rather flimsy and need to be secured with
care. The sketch below was made as a working drawing based on the photo when
modelling this load, as the book mentioned above is long out of print I doubt
Mr Larkin will object to its inclusion here. Note the bags of straw used to
prevent the ropes from scratching the cars.
Fig___ Cars on a plate
wagon
In the early 1980's, with Speedlink
in operation and the smaller non-articulated Procar 80 in service, motor cars
and commercial vehicles became regular components of the mixed traffic rakes.
This traffic ended with the ending of Speedlink services in 1991 but in 1999
Freightliners were looking at a double-decked six car carrying container which
could be used for positioning hire cars or making smaller deliveries to
dealers.
Lorries were a less common railway cargo than cars, the
rolling chassis was usually built by one firm and the bodywork added by
another. It was common practice to drive the chassis from one factory to the
other on the roads. I believe this practice continued into the 1960's, after
which the danger to the driver riding an exposed chassis became an issue. Where
commercial lorries were transported their height meant they often required
'lowmac' drop centre wagons. Most of the weight was at the end with the cab and
engine so this would be parked in the well (gaining clearance from the drop
centre) but the rear wheels might well be up on the ramped end.
In
about 1984 a new air braked vehicle was introduced specifically for lorry
traffic, called the Comtic it was an articulated six wheeled vehicle resembling
two lomacs fitted together and sharing a centre pair of wheels. I believe the
design is a single decked variant of the successful Autic Six twin deck car
carrier. The Lima articulated car transporter makes a good basis for these
wagons, simply cutting away the supports for the upper deck produces something
very similar in appearance to the Comtic. The Lima model can be used to make up
an Autic Six but if accuracy is important to you that involves making new
supports for the upper deck from plastic card cut to the correct shape,
slightly different to the Lima design.
Road-Rail Tanks
Four-wheeled and semi-trailer road
tankers were transported on purpose built railway wagons from the later 1930's.
They were used for a range of cargo types but in use they seem to have mainly
travelled as single wagon loads. Typically at one or other end of their journey
they would remain on the railway wagon and be treated as a rail tanker, at the
other end they would be off-loaded using an end-loading dock and towed to where
they were needed.
The four wheelers were the most common, they usually
had Ackerman steering (the wheels pivot close to the ends of the axle rather
than the axle itself having a central pivot) so the towing bar was a simple
square section tube with an eye on the end. This was hinged up against the end
of the tank when on the railway wagon. This type is not difficult to model in N
and notes on doing so are included in the section on Wagon Loads.
The
semi-trailer types were much less common and the supporting leg at the front
was fitted with rather large wheels (perhaps a foot in diameter) rather than
the small 'coaster' type usually associated with these vehicles. This was
because they had to be hauled on and off the railway wagon without the tractor
unit attached.
Beer tankers were used (I am told) to move beer from the
brewery to local bottling plants because it was much cheaper to move one wagon
load of beer than to move several van loads of bottled beer (3000 gallons
equates to just over four thousand crates of beer). Many breweries, especially
the larger concerns, had rail connections but evidently the outlying bottling
plants did not.
Military Traffic
The military have made regular
use of the railways since the mid nineteenth century and in time of war this
traffic increased dramatically. It was quicker and more efficient to move heavy
equipment or large quantities of material by rail than by road and even today
the railway loading gauge is a factor to be considered in the design of
military vehicles.
In N there has until recently been a shortage of
military models suitable for use as loads, however this has recently changed
and a number of models are now available. The railways built special vehicles
in the First World War for transporting the increasingly heavy tanks, these
were called 'rectank' wagons, most passed to the railways after the war. In the
inter war years 'warflats' were built, again to carry heavy military vehicles,
the size of tanks increased and the Americans in particular produced taller
tanks than everyone else and to carry these the drop centred 'warwell' was
introduced. All these vehicles were designed for end-loading and had jacks in
the corners to take the weight as the tank was driven onto the wagon. The
central floor of the rectanks were lower than standard height, the ends formed
short ramps leading up to a standard height buffer beam. The warflats were dead
flat (I believe) but the warwell was a curved shape with flat sections above
the bogies leading onto a gently curved ramp with a flat bottom to the well
itself. They were used for both tanks and other large or heavy machinery such
as four wheeled van bodied trailers used as workshops or mobile radio stations
and bulldozers. Models of the warflat and warwell are available from Parkwood
Models. In the early 1990's the MoD purchased some new warflat wagons and these
are used to transport armoured vehicles about the place, secured with heavy
chains The military do not advertise their movements but the Chieftain tank
could be transported by rail and the smaller vehicles such as armoured
personnel carriers and light tanks are still occasionally moved on bogie flats.
Smaller vehicles such as jeeps, landrovers, two wheeled trailers and the like
are shifted on one plank wagons or the more modern lowfit equivalents. Lorries
were moved on Lowmac drop-centre wagons, these days I suspect they would need
to hire Comtics for these but they might get away with a converted Freightliner
flat wagon. Towed field artillery was usually draped in tarpaulins, making
modelling rather easier, it could be shifted on longer flat wagons (one on a
'plate' wagon or equivalent, two or three on a bogie flat wagon).
After
the second world war a number of 'Palbrick' pallet wagons were converted to
carry heavy artillery shells. The existing body was retained but wooden
internal partitions were built, forming a set of rectangular boxes, each
holding a single round. I have never seen a photo of a loaded wagon of this
type but I would assume they were sheeted over in transit and they would
presumably be moved in rakes of ten or more wagons. The rake would require
barrier wagons, these would be vans as the load was explosives, and I would assume they travelled as a block train.
The
military stores depots were mostly rail served but they were built in the era
of short wheelbase wagons. With the change to much longer wheelbase air braked
stock a number of the ten foot wheelbase 'vanwide' vans (available from
Parkwood Models) and the twelve foot wheelbase BR standard 'pipe' wagons
(available from Parkside Dundas) were converted to air brake specifically for
military traffic. These converted vehicles travelled in standard Speedlink
services as wagon load traffic. Following the end of Speedlink in 1991 I
believe there were only a couple of train load military movements but from 1994
the Enterprise wagon load service would allow for future military traffic of
this type. Most military stores are shipped palletised and where clearances
allow standard BR air braked vans are used.
As far as I am aware
military goods are always handled on military siding except in times of
emergency. During time of war any station might see military traffic. I believe
military vehicles travel as block trains (it is obvious what they are and
running them in wagon load services might attract the wrong kind of attention).
The standard unit for tanks is four vehicles but eight would be a more probable
block load.
In the early 1990's the MoD purchased a fleet of
drop-centre four wheeled wagons designed to carry twenty foot long containers
(these were originally used for coal traffic by a firm called Kelly's). I would
assume these could run as either a block load or as single wagon load traffic.
As the wagons are drop-centred the doors cannot be opened when the container is
on the wagons.
Farm Machinery
In the main the loads of farm
equipment have been 'one-off' jobs on a single wagon and included in
conventional 'pick-up' goods services. I believe that virtually all this
traffic was transported as wagon loads in conventional mixed goods trains.
The traditional British farm waggon was not often moved by rail as they
were built to local designs by local wheelwrights so there was no general flow
of these from factories to dealers. Taking such a cart to another part of the
country would in any case be problematic as the spacing between the wheels had
to conform to the local standard or the cart could not negotiate the heavily
rutted roads.
There was a steady traffic in farm (and light industrial)
machinery, virtually all railway companies built wagons for this traffic,
commonly known as 'implement wagons' or 'machinery trucks'. Examples would
include all the horse drawn farm equipment and also the 'portable engines'. The
latter were either small steam engines or oil engines fitted with a pulley and
used to drive machinery. The steam type and the larger oil type were moved on
road wheels and would travel on an implement wagon or machinery truck.
Farm machinery was in the main designed to be easily moved about by the
farmer, so it did not require heavy wagons to transport it. The (more or less)
standard width for a farm field gate was about ten feet so a piece of farm
equipment such as a horse drawn rake, made to fit through the gate, would be
about nine feet wide. The lighter equipment could be easily craned in and out
of wagons, heavier vehicles were moved on end-loading wagons. Heavier and
larger equipment such as threshing machines would require a suitable machinery
truck, something the size of a threshing machine would require a drop centre
vehicle such as a 'Lomac' (Low Machinery truck).
Self powered steam
engines, such as the ploughing engines available from W&T would normally
travel by road, albeit rather slowly. If shipped by rail the chimney would be
removed and stowed in the cab to reduce the overall height of the thing. There
is usually a hinge at the base of the chimney, allowing it to drop forward, but
I was assured by an enthusiastic owner at the steam ploughing competition that
it would be removed for rail transport. A fairly hefty end-loading wagon would
be required as the ploughing engines weigh in at about eleven tons I believe.
Hefty wooden chocks, cut roughly to shape, would be fitted under both sets of
wheels and the machine would be secured with chains not ropes.