GN Brick wagons

[Bill Bedford]

Although brick traffic continued from Fletton until well into the 70's, I suggest it was mostly conveyed in Palbricks,

Palbricks were built to carry refractory bricks so were unlikely to be used for flettons, though not doubt someone will correct me on this.

[1H was 2E]

Palbricks were built to carry refractory bricks so were unlikely to be used for flettons, though not doubt someone will correct me on this.

This does seem to be eminently logical. I now recollect that the reason brick lorries were still being loaded manually in the 70's was given, at the time, as bricks were "too brittle to be mechanically handled" (aka palletised); presumably 'brittle' was in the context of 'common' (fletton) bricks, and refractory bricks would not be prone to crumbling in the same way. Explains why much of the railborne output from the Beds brickworks used to be loaded in shock absorbing high goods with plenty of straw.

[R. pike]

There are some good pictures of PALBRICK wagons at Calvert on the net..

[lu4472ke]

So would LNER brick wagons have ran in a rake or were they marshalled into mixed freight trains?

[manna]

G'Day Gents

To answer the last question, it's possible, but normally 1 to 3 Wagons would be marshaled behind the loco, for added brake force.

manna

[Dave S]

I've had this discussion before with some who had more knowledge of the Peterborough brick fields.

Generally there would only be a few loaded wagons ready for transit, if you think that they were loaded and unloaded by hand a full wagon of bricks was a serious commodity to deal with at either end, and demurrage would not want to be paid on a wagon they couldn't unload quick enough.

[Hatfield Shed]

So would LNER brick wagons have ran in a rake or were they marshalled into mixed freight trains?

If they had been loaded at brickworks served by the Midland, they came back to New Rngland in short trains, and were then assigned to form fitted heads to the Ferme Park bound coal traffic.

[manna]

G'day Gents

When we say the bricks, 'were loaded by Hand', what dose it mean, were they loaded by men carrying a 'Hod' with a dozen bricks in it, or a device that clamped about 6/7 bricks around it, and they carried it on to the wagon one in each hand, or did they throw the bricks to one another in a form of chain. ?? Something so common then, but almost forgotten now.

manna