Bogie Coal Wagons
Open Bogie Coal (also known as Bocoal) wagons of War Department or Robert Hudson design (Robert Hudson, unlike the FR, used only one "g"), with wooden drop doors on either side and wooden floor. Mounted on WD bogies. Used as part of the S and T Department works trains.
May be seen carrying almost anything except coal, which is nowadays carried in ex-SAR B_Wagons or the Cleminson Flexible Six-Wheeled Waggon.
Most are fitted with a handbrake working on the bottom end bogie.
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[edit] Wooden Bodied
[edit] Wagon 60
WD type D wagon, ex Smiths, Nocton, No 18. Was in use for loco coal June 1964 [1] but was withdrawn by 1981.
[edit] Wagon 63
Wooden sides, ex Smiths (of Crisps fame) Nocton Estates. Fitted with handbrake and vacuum piped for running in passenger trains.
More information on no 63 was given by John Dobson in an E-Group posting. He wrote:
- "Some weeks ago there was a brief discussion of my theory that the ex-Smiths Crisps No.63 - the one with the centre drop doors - was a rebuild of a WDLR van.
- I've now had the opportunity to measure No.63 and can report that its underframe is 20'6" long (the same as an ambulance van) whereas 'D'-type wagons had underframes only some 17'8" long it is also 5'6" wide compared with the 4' 9.5" quoted for a 'D' wagon.
- It is known that Smiths had a number of ex-WDLR ambulance vans, but that they tended to overturn on poor track and were dumped out of use as a result. It is entirely possible that, when the system required additional/replacement open wagons, some of these vans were converted to open wagons using ironwork from 'E' wagons (the bogie well wagons with centre-drop doors in the sides). It would have been easy to cut new planks of appropriate length for the sides.
- Incidentally, the diagram of the ambulance vans in Davies's 'Light Railways of the First World War' shows the sides as coming down outside the frames, so the frames would be narrower than the 6'0" shown as the width (6' 4.5" over the sliding doors)
- I think 63 is a converted ambulance van."
- At Smith's this waggon was No 3. Source: The Lincolnshire Potato Railways - Stewart E Squires 2nd edition Page 67
Nocton Estates had 12 Ambulance vans, used for transporting sacks of potatoes. Each van had sliding doors. As the sacks jammed against the doors the estate office started by changing the doors to hinged outwards. The ultimate reconfiguration from covered van to open wagon is well within the changes made by the estate workshops.
[edit] Wagon 65
Old FR no 5. Flat, formerly carrying concrete batching plant, now dismantled. Ownership transferred & now part of the Moseley Railway Trust museum collection. This would have been the underframe from either a WD type D wagon, or one of the Hudson Toastracks.
[edit] Wagon 67
Old FR no 7. Flat, formerly used for weedkiller spraying. According to published lists this ought to be the underframe from either a WD type D wagon, or one of the Hudson Toastracks (identical except for some holes present on the coach and not on the wagon). Ownership transferred & now part of the Moseley Railway Trust museum collection.
[edit] Wagon 68
Braked bogie open. Ex RAF Lichfield (Alrewas) 1963, not WD type. In 70s & 80s ran on Feldbahn type bogies from one of the Brookes wagons but is now on WD type. Though un-numbered, "its Hudson waggon number is 68. Bo-coals and locoals are the same thing with all steel construction. (CGM) "
[edit] Wagon 69
Braked bogie open. Ex RAF Lichfield (Alrewas) 1963, not WD type. Bogies WD type. A photo in FRM 45 p5 shows this wagon in May 1969 on its original Hudson-type bogies, rather like skip frames. In addition to its FR number the number 253 can be made out, presumably its RAF number.
[edit] Wagon 71
Unbraked, bogie open, ex LBLR. This is one of the 4 WD type D open wagons acquired by the East Anglian Group of the FRS in 1969 from Leighton Buzzard. They had been bought by Joseph Arnold & Sons for use on the Leighton Buzzard Lt Railway, which had no wagons of its own, all being supplied by the quarry firms. Although supplied 'new' to Arnolds by the Gloucester Carriage & Wagon Co, they incorporated some Hudson parts (WD wagons were supplied by several different builders). When these parts may have been built into them seems now impossible to determine.
[edit] Wagon 72
Handbraked, bogie open, ex LBLR, as 71.
[edit] Wagon 73
Unbraked, bogie open, ex LBLR, as 71. Converted to Carriage 39 in 1992.
[edit] Steel Bodied
Numbers above 73 are all allocated to STEEL bodied Hudson wagons- see Locoals
[edit] Acknowledgements
With thanks to research by Dr. Peter Jarvis and Adrian Gray
