Slate Wagons (NWNG)
The NWNGR had a considerable number of slate wagons but it is difficult to say how many. The Official Returns do not separate slate wagons from other open goods types before 1921, and even after then there is confusion as the 2-plank fixed-side wagons sometimes called ‘Slate Box Wagons’ are sometimes included with the crate-type slate wagons, and sometimes as ordinary open wagons. In his Report of 1921 Major Spring reported a total of 90 slate wagons but this seems to include the ‘Box’ wagons. Robert Williams’ 1922 report gives 29 Iron Crate Wagons, 46 Box Wagons and 15 ‘Iron Crates, tops minus bottoms, and wheels in good condition’ – this last item is open to interpretation but if they are counted as wagons this gives a total of 90.
The following is based on examination of the available published photographs. Unfortunately very few of these show slate wagons in use, the photographers of the day being mostly interested in passenger trains. By WHR days slate traffic was significant only on the Bryngwyn line, but very few photos were taken there. A number of pictures were taken in 1935, by H. F.Wheeler and others, showing lines of derelict wagons at Dinas, but there are not many slate wagons visible in these.
Of the open-frame ‘crate’ type, there seem to have been at least five varieties.
1. An early photo (the excursion train picture at Dinas, c1892[1]) shows a wooden-bodied type with outside bearings, looking exactly like the FR ‘bobbin’ type. The FR influence is to be expected, but it is odd that the old wooden type was used, as the FR had been using the iron type from 1857. Could it be that the NWNG, being rather hard-up, purchased or borrowed some of the FR’s obsolete wagons?
2. Several pictures show wagons with wooden mainframes and iron crate bodywork, a combination not used by the FR. The main frames are as wide as the crate, with the uprights fixed directly to the solebars. One version of these has unsprung pedestal axleboxes below the frames. (No 127[2]).
3. A variant of the previous type has small W irons with springs concealed behind. One of these was used during the demolition[3].
4. There were also some with underframes significantly narrower than the crates, necessitating wooden spacing blocks between the solebars and the uprights[4]. Williams’ report mentioned ‘15 Iron Crates, tops minus bottoms’. Could these have been the upperworks from wagons which had suffered from rotten wooden mainframes? Or wagons which had had their chassis converted into timber wagons? Maybe these tops were later fitted to existing smaller wagons such as timber runners, of which there were several. (This is mere speculation but is there a better explanation? There was not much timber traffic in the WHR period and this would be a way of getting serviceable slate wagons at minimal cost.)
5. There was an all-metal type, clearly of later construction but unknown date and maker. They had upperworks similar to the previous types, a steel mainframe with coil-sprung axleboxes in hornguides, with tiebars between them and to the underframe, and (apparently) sprung buffers. A picture of one appeared in the Railway Magazine for 1917 (p38 according to Boyd – that would be either the January or July issue as the RM had half-yearly volumes at this period). At least one of these was seen without its bodywork used as a bolster on the demolition train.
A curious feature of types 2-5 which differentiates them from the FR iron wagons is the arrangement of the uprights, which are all of angle iron with the flanges outward, three on each side and two on each end. There were no uprights at the corners. By contrast FR wagons had angle iron corner uprights (with flanges inwards) and intermediate uprights of flat strip.
The ‘Slate Box Wagons’ were also used for slate as well as coal. Some quarries required coal, and the same wagons were used for this incoming traffic and for outgoing slate.
A photo of the transhipment wharf at Dinas in 1920 shows 2 crate wagons (details indeterminate) and 3 box wagons (all different sizes) in use[5].
The Schedule for the 1934 FR lease of the WHR gives a total of 62 slate wagons (crate and box type) of which 20 awaited repairs and 20 required rebuilding.
Festiniog wagons were also used in the WHR period. A 1935 photo[6] shows wooden slate wagon 314 at Dinas, and this definitely looks like an FR wagon. There were a couple of wrecked FR iron wagons at the foot of Bryngwyn incline[7].
[edit] References
- ^ Prideaux, J.D.C.A., The Welsh Narrow Gauge Railway, David & Charles, 1976, ISBN 0 7153 7184 3 p31. (this photo also appears in Boyd but has been cropped, the whole wagon can be seen in Prideaux)
- ^ Boyd, James I.C.. Narrow Gauge Railways in South Caernarvonshire, Vol. 2, The Welsh Highland Railway. Blandford: The Oakwood Press. ISBN 0-85361-383-4. after p70, pic 13
- ^ Boyd, James I.C.. Narrow Gauge Railways in South Caernarvonshire, Vol. 2, The Welsh Highland Railway. Blandford: The Oakwood Press. ISBN 0-85361-383-4. after p102, pic 1
- ^ Boyd, James I.C.. Narrow Gauge Railways in South Caernarvonshire, Vol. 2, The Welsh Highland Railway. Blandford: The Oakwood Press. ISBN 0-85361-383-4. after p70, pic 12,
- ^ Boyd, James I.C.. Narrow Gauge Railways in South Caernarvonshire. Lingfield, Surrey, England: The Oakwood Press. ISBN 9780853611158. OCLC 707587. "(Later editions split into 2 volumes)" after p192 picture 6
- ^ Johnson, Peter. An Illustrated History of the Welsh Highland Railway. Hersham: Oxford Publishing Co. ISBN 0-860935-65-5. OCLC 59498388. p120,
- ^ Boyd, James I.C.. Narrow Gauge Railways in South Caernarvonshire, Vol. 2, The Welsh Highland Railway. Blandford: The Oakwood Press. ISBN 0-85361-383-4. after p6 picture 6
