Interesting picture with the three types of sleeper, Martyn. Was that a genuine use, or set up to show the three types?
Ken, don't know about the old tankcars, but I guess they are redundant after loss of the traffic. By the looks of them, they would need a lot of work to make them usable again - especially for gas!
As far as I know the shot is a genuine use, I was sat on a bench directly opposite waiting my train (it's at Gravelly Hill, on the commuter line from Birmingham to Litchfield) when I noticed it, the section to the left had been re-sleepered in steel relatively recently, the section to the right was older concrete ones, so I guess these just filled the gap. The wooden ones look fairly new, my guess is they went in the same time as the steel ones.
Ref old wagons, they tend to get scrapped fairly soon these days, (the tanks used on a flow of LNG down in the south here went for scrap within a week of the flow finishing!) but these ones have been stored here a long while! Likely they cannot be removed to a scrapyard without work being done on them and they may even end up getting scrapped on the spot when someone (probably a leasing co. or a private owner) either gets round to noticing them on their books or Network Rail decides to do something else with those sidings! I'm not convinced the industries that used them are not there, but they may need less of it in one go than they used to, so it may be easier/more economical to ship small amounts by truck.
Ref 'AAR trucks', we've had various similar designs since the 60's, they are probably derived from US-style designs: Another 1960's-built tank with similar bogies. http://ukrailrollingstock.fotopic.net/p4169744.html A lower-capacity version went on a bunch of types, including flats and ballast hoppers: http://ukrailrollingstock.fotopic.net/p2970985.html http://ukrailrollingstock.fotopic.net/p18958787.html And like Alan says, many of the modern Thrall built wagons sit on US-style trucks: http://ukrailrollingstock.fotopic.net/p2949903.html And I think the bogies on these probably derive from US passenger trucks of the streamliner era: http://ukrailrollingstock.fotopic.net/p813524.html
Martyn, thanks for the AAR links. Does this indicate that UK freight car designs are evolving to the higher 100-120 Ton capacities similar to US designs? Or am I just being parochial in assuming that AAR trucks allow higher capacities?
No, I think the highest UK axle limit is still 25.5 tons per axle, so that 1960's built BP tanker at 102t is still the highest weight allowed on 4 axles, the same weight as the big red modern Thrall coal hoppers. In the US there are relatively few freightcar truck types (and mostly they are capacity differences, rather than different designs), although they have been made by lots of manufacturers, they are still broadly the same. I suspect the 60's design ones are derived from a design from the US licenced to a UK truck manufacturer, but I can't really be sure there. Can't think there would be that many 100t truck designs around in the UK in the 60's, so maybe that was the logical route to take then. For the 1970's the Y25 and Y25C are very common, but there are a large number of different types around. Found a webpage with some UK freight bogie detail shots: http://web.ukonline.co.uk/wagons/details.html#bogies The plate versions have all gone out of use in the past handful of years, they all had very low speed limits on them which didn't translate well to the modern railway, and many were attached to vacuum braked wagons which were being phased out anyway.
One reason for my interest, was for the same reason as Gil was talking about. How they'd do insulating of steel ties for signal purposes. Boxcab E50
It does look like they'd need a lot of work. Which could be superficial. If the interiors have some type of lining? Over here, when something sits like that, it gets scrapped. Otherwise, they have to pay taxes on the disused equipment. Boxcab E50
Just bought a video of Barnetby area from 1987-1999. Interesting to see how the station and the motive power have changed. I will collect a few more items of suitable stock and put a track or two around my loft to run them on
