Ages ago I contacted the Strathspey Railway at Aviemore to see if they had any further details or photographs of our coal wagon. Out of the blue this came from Strathspey's Ron Black:
In the very early days of our history, 1972, we were gifted a Simplex 4 wheel diesel shunter and four “LMS Coal Wagons” as they were stated to be from Aberdeen Gas Works. The Simplex became the only operational motive power on the line for the next few years. The wagons, although used were, because of their 7 plank size, found not to be terribly useful. Too deep to carry ballast for example as it could only be shovelled out of the discharge doors. I could find no other reference to wagons of this type being acquired by the railway so I’m certain that the one you have must have come from this batch.
At some later point I found reference in our journal to consideration being give to scrapping the less useful and time expired rolling stock but when this policy was put into action I’ve not been able to trace. We had a member, now sadly deceased, who was very interested in PO wagons and he was instrumental in saving, refurbishing and lettering the one survivor. I’m sure he would have been delighted to know and see what a fine job you have made of “his” wagon.
The image shows the wagon, as yet unlettered, in a siding at Aviemore.
I hope the above is of interest and if I should find any more details I’ll be in touch.
And here is the image:
Look at the header picture of this Blog and the details all fit nicely
No comments:
Post a Comment
Do please leave comments. If nothing else it shows that there is somebody out there.