GN Brick wagons

[manna]

G'Day Gents
I'm trying to find out a bit more about the large double bogie brick wagons, used between Peterborough and ??? Ferme PK, Kings Cross Goods yard, Ashburton yard?? I know that some used to be hauled up to Edgware.
When were they introduced and how long did they last, I don't remember them in use as from 1970/71, any help or pictures.
Thanks.
manna

[mr B]

Dont know much on these things, did'nt the get used for brake tenders before brake tenders, on the early diesels ?

Mr B.

[2512silverfox]

The first 25 GN built bogie bricks were introduced in 1921 for London Brick Co traffic and a further twenty five were added by the LNER in 1930. They were almost exclusively marshalled next to the tender since being fitted they greatly increased the braking efficiency of the long non-fitted coal trains coming into London. I have photos of one or two such vehicles on coal trains up to early BR days. The wagons were also used for vegetable traffic in season and in the 70's ended up on internal user traffic at Vauxhall.

[manna]

G'Day Gents
Thanks for that, Veggie trains! now thats new, 50 tons of cauliflowers! Tell me more.
manna

[hq1hitchin]

The wagons were also used for vegetable traffic in season and in the 70's ended up on internal user traffic at Vauxhall.

Which Vauxhall do you mean, please? - as there was more than one place known by that name on the railway. The ex LNER bogie wagons used for the Ashburton Grove - Blackbridge refuse traffic were 50 ton sulphate wagons, unfitted and very, very smelly. I saw some in the train on the very first day I started on the railway in September 1966, it was sitting in the Luton platform in Welwyn Gdn City as I walked along to present myself to the Station Manager. Think the loco was a Brush Type 2.

[manna]

G'Day Gents
They ended there days at Vauxhalls at Luton,for moving car bodies around, how long did they last there? are they still there?
manna

[hq1hitchin]

G'Day Gents
They ended there days at Vauxhalls at Luton,for moving car bodies around, how long did they last there? are they still there?
manna

Depends which Vauxhall you mean, Manna. Dunstable plant flattened years ago, Luton just about hanging on but hasn't been rail connected for years. Not sure what goes on at Ellesmere Port but don't think they would have got there. Then there's Vauxhall in Sarrf London, there were carriage sidings called Vauxhall in Birmingham...

[manna]

G'Day Gents
Sorry I thought that they still built Vauxhalls at Luton/Dunstable, where do they come from now? How much a secondhand Vauxhall Victor
manna

[hq1hitchin]

G'Day Gents
Sorry I thought that they still built Vauxhalls at Luton/Dunstable, where do they come from now? How much a secondhand Vauxhall Victor
manna

Getting a bit off topic here, but since it's you they only make little vans in Luton now, no lorries any more and they make cars - Astras? - at Ellesmere Port. Do you remember seeing all those crated Vauxhalls loaded in mineral wagons en route to the London docks? Came over the branch to Hatfield. Victors? Nearly all rusted away....

[2512silverfox]

In my post I was referring to the Luton/Dunstable Vauxhall plant and I cannot be sure when the traffic ceased, but if the rail access was taken out, it must have been just before. I know that the bogie bricks had by that time been taken out of BR service, but I cannot put any dates on it. Quite possibly at the time that the brake tenders were introduced - this would have made them redundant as were many of the brickworks.

[Barrie Hill]

Hello, The topic on the 50 ton bogie brick wagons interests me as I used to see them regularly in Old Fletton goods , my father worked for the brick industry for 51 years and I do have lots of info on the wagons and other brickmaking memorabilia, Barrie.

[Boris]

I remember seeing a couple at Tinsley [Sheffield] in the early 50 massive things they looked to what we normally saw

[65447]

The brick traffic from Fletton was certainly still operating mid-60s. My father was at that time the LBC sales rep working out of the Commercial Manager's at GN House and I remember him at home in the evening writing up his call notes and calculating prices. An anomalous thing but he was taught to drive and supplied with a car by BR so that he could visit his customers...

[manna]

G'Day Gents

Fletton was still going in the mid 70's, a lot of the track was still there, but I think most of the bricks were going by road.

manna

[1H was 2E]

Loco spotting at Peterborough from 1961 on, I do NOT recollect ever seeing one of these wagons - and I think I was on the look-out, because Tri-ang had just introduced a model.

Although brick traffic continued from Fletton until well into the 70's, I suggest it was mostly conveyed in Palbricks, or later, shock absorbing HGs. This was the case for the brickworks in the Bedford - Bletchley area. According to the useful Don Rowland book, the first lot of Palbricks were in service by Jan 57; perhaps some replaced the bogie wagons. The 50 tonners of course had to be loaded by hand, but for example Marston valley brick lorries were still being loaded by hand in 1970, so I'm not sure whether palletisation was the cause of their demise.

Who can forget Palbricks, with their distinctive plywood slot-in sides and two hand holds? These sides were to be seen up the side of cuttings and at the bottom of embankments suggesting that their ride quality when empty (never saw any bricks lying about) left something to be desired.