A Restored Example of Our Wagon

Just to give ourselves encouragement:


http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/album/107-rch-spec-wagon-details/?view_style=large

The Wagon Chassis Stripped of Rotten Timbers

      This shows that just over half of the chassis timbers have had to be removed prior to replacement.   This view on the left shows that almost all of the left half of the chassis will need replacing.


What is left rests on a platform between the axles, propped on wooden blocks.

The final two pieces to be removed were joined securely together and were a definite two-man lift.  Prayer was answered in the form of father and son New Zealanders Nath and Shan Pritchard.   Son Shan had the countenance and physique of a Rugby player and between us we heaved away the last piece.

In the centre of the chassis is the draw bar gear (left).   Metal plates separated by rubber discs act as shock absorbers.   Digging away on-line I discovered these were Moulton devices and at first I wondered if they were relatively modern.   Not so it seems.   The system was invented by Stephen Moulton (1794-1880) who collaborated with one Mr Goodyear in the process of vulcanising rubber - setting up a factory at Bradford-on-Avon in 1848.

The Moulton system is used on rail vehicles to this day.   It was famously used on the Morris Mini suspension too - and on the Moulton bicycle, invented by Stephen Moulton's great-grandson, the late Dr Alex Moulton.

The final picture shows the now bare end of the chassis, awaiting its new bits.

On the Telly Again - Maybe

Settle station's Tim Parker, who is a fount of all knowledge about railway timetables, declares that we are on telly again on Sunday - More4 9pm.   "It's in the Radio Times" he says.   Must be true then.

However, we know from previous repeats that TV listings can give false readings.   So Channel More4, Sunday 9pm - maybe.

The Rotten End of the Chassis

The southern headstock has now been removed, exposing the dire state of this half of the chassis.   The two central longitudinal members have fallen way.   The three iron rods in the middle of the wagon are (centre) the drawbar, which takes the entire load of the train between the draw hooks and the two longitudinal tie bars.   These serve to tighten the chassis and will be replaced with new ones.



Below, is the fundamental problem with the chassis - one of the two main cross members is totally rotten at both ends.   Temporary repairs at some time have prevented catastrophic failure of the chassis.   We shall remove those and renew the failed cross member.

Despite the rot, someof the tenon joints are in good shape (below) though the corresponding mortices have rotted.

Another morice and tenon joint about to separate:

One end of the rotten cross member:

And the other:

Today's other job is to remove the brake mechanisms on both sides of the wagon - to restore the mechanisms on the bench and to make for easier access to the chassis.

Knackered

We have had a number of visitors today.   One kind lady made us both feel good by telling us that we both looked twenty years younger than we did on TV.   We shall remember that when we next see a repeat!

Later, two men arrived and, tongue in cheek, I asked if either of them knew anything about wagons.   To my amazement, one replied that he started work as an apprentice at the Carr Hill wagon works in Doncaster.   He gave our wagon a thorough look over.   His overall assessment was that the wagon was 'knackered'!

Even so he admired what he saw and commented that the wheels were of particular interest and of an early type.

With acknowledgement to:
http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/sites/all/lib/aerofilms-images/zoomify/england/EPW012766/TileGroup0/2-0-0.jpg
this is a picture of the Carr Hill wagon repair works in 1925.   The image is not as clear as would be the case today but the scale of the works can be appreciated.   Note the strings of dots - looking a bit like zip fasteners.   They will have been goods wagons awaiting repair.   Repaired ones would not hang around the works for long - they would be out and about earning their keep.

A Tippler Wagon in Action

The internet is not exactly awash with images of end tippler wagons in action but I did come across this splendid picture of a tippler loading coal into a barge.   There are indications that this may have been at Wigan on the Leeds and Liverpool canal - the famous 'Wigan Pier'
http://www.historyworld.co.uk/photos/mining11.jpg

The picture is dated 1890.   The wagon is very similar to ours but has square shaped wooden buffers.   The end door and other features appear identical.

End tippling was a pretty cumbersome process involving one wagon at a time being shunted along a siding to the tippling apparatus and back again before the next could be offloaded.   Much more common were the side tipplers whereby an entire train load of wagons could be tipped sideways one wagon at a time without being separated from their train.   

The end tippler had the advantage that the wagon did not need to tilt very much for the load to slide out.   Side tippler machinery required a much steeper tip - in fact a near inversion of the wagon:

In this instance the wagon contents of coal drops into a pit, thence to a conveyor belt to the top of the coaling tower in the background to be dropped into the tenders of steam locomotives.   In some cases entire loaded wagons were hoisted to the top of the coaling tower to be tipped:

Cutting One's Nuts Off

 The wagon has loads and loads of very rusty nuts and bolts that have to be undone,which poses quite a challenge.  Many of the bolts are corroded almost right through, which makes things easy as they simply break when the nut is turned and the whole lot just collapses in a dust of rust.   Other components are far less easy but not impossible.

The picture illustrates how it is done.   The pen top gives an idea of the size of the nut.  A carefully directed cut with a thin cutting disc goes through the nut like a hot knife through butter.   The nut gets hot in the cutting process and expands, so freeing itself from the threads of the bolt.   Sometimes the nut can be removed by hand leaving the bolt or stud in good enough condition to accept a new nut when the re-building stage is reached.

Please forgive the double entendre caption which will probably result in unsavoury and unwanted spam when GCHQ get hold of it.