Brick trains

[53C]

Pallets and fork lift handling seemed to start in the 1960's , caused much bother in the Dock labour handling as huge numbers of labour were in effect not needed. For Rail use our company used train ferry a lot and standard 4' x 4' UK pallets were not
much use as internal width of wagons would not allow two pallets side by side. From memory the rail people tended to use what we called the Swedish "SJ" pallets . These were around 3'6' in width and therefore would go two across a closed ferry van.

[drmditch]

I understand that UK Pallets are still a different size to that standard in the rest of the EU. Mr Farage take note!

[53C]

Think they are refered to as something like " Euro pallets" to indicate size.

[jwealleans]

They were in the early 1990s when I was involved in a startup in France. We had to specify Euro pallets to all our UK suppliers.

[adrianbs]

Hi I am interested in the bogie bricks due to finding a photo of a train in a wartime railway publication and have gathered a few Triang ones together. The booklet shows a train of loaded brick wagons with the caption " Millions of bricks for RAF airfields" There are quite a number in view but the picture is from above and the whole train is not shown. I assumed the bricks were for buildings until a TV programme showed a US pilot standing on the end of a derelict runway. Under his feet there was clearly a carpet of bricks laid herring bone fashion. I assume ( never assume you are always wrong ! ) this was a way of quickly hardening a grass runway for the B.17 bombers etc. Does anyone know more. I will try to dig out the booklet if it would be of interest.
adrianbs PS In their later life ( BR ) they were used for scrap traffic I believe.

[53C]

In the event of not having a concrete runway,using grass would the Americans have used the same system they used in the Pacific
War, Steel Matting, ? The bricks could have been for many purposes including the Airfield buildings themselves.?

[52D]

In the event of not having a concrete runway,using grass would the Americans have used the same system they used in the Pacific
War, Steel Matting, ? The bricks could have been for many purposes including the Airfield buildings themselves.?

53C the term for what you are describing is PSP (Pierced Steel Planking) sheets of steel that could be clipped together to form roads and runways basically ridged steel sheets with holes in it. This is still in use today for temporary road ways etc and you often see it or its modern equivilant strapped on the roofs of off road vehicles to assist recovery if they get stuck in sand or mud.

[53C]

In the event of not having a concrete runway,using grass would the Americans have used the same system they used in the Pacific
War, Steel Matting, ? The bricks could have been for many purposes including the Airfield buildings themselves.?

53C the term for what you are describing is PSP (Pierced Steel Planking) sheets of steel that could be clipped together to form roads and runways basically ridged steel sheets with holes in it. This is still in use today for temporary road ways etc and you often see it or its modern equivilant strapped on the roofs of off road vehicles to assist recovery if they get stuck in sand or mud.

Thanks for that info.

[Bryan]

Having been involved in Airfield Damage Repair (ADR) for the Royal Engineers.
I have never heard of a brick layer being used as an underlay.
The nearest alternative that I can think of would be one of the American methods of ADR that was the use of rectangular concrete blocks placed as temporary surfacing in a repaired bomb crater.
Herringbone pattern would work well here as you do not want wheels to cross a joint at right angles 45 degrees is preferable to ease the load transfer.

The UK method was to refill the crater with aggregate and compact it, then screed level to the Aircraft operating surface then roll out a preprepared mat of trackway and bolt this down.

PSP is one of the methods of creating trackway for wheeled vehicles and creation of hardstandings but not suitable nowadays for an Aircraft operating surface. Although it has been used in the past for this purpose especially in WW2 when it was introduced.
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=psp+p ... 774%3B1060

The newer alternative is Class 30 for lighter use roadways.
trackway https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=psp+p ... ay&imgdii=_

Class 60 is used for heavier vehicles and for bomb crater repair on runways.

[D2100]

... PS In their later life ( BR ) they were used for scrap traffic I believe.

I've not heard that one; whilst I wouldnt rule it out, it seems unlikely when there were so many 16T minerals around. There were a few used for carrying lorry chassis from the Vauxhall (Bedford) plant though.

[Colombo]

As a student in 1960, I obtained temporary work as a builders labourer. One job I had to do was accompany the driver of a tipper lorry to a railway yard in York where we loaded common bricks from railway wagons into the tipper truck alongside. The bricks were commons and arrived neatly stacked. We had to pick them up 5 at a time if possible and throw them into the tipper truck.

In contrast, the more valuable face bricks arrived at the building site on the back of rigid 8 wheelers or articulated lorries in bundles of about 100 tied into a pack by a steel band. These were wheeled off the back of the truck on special hand barrows down planks, using their momentum to carry them to the stacking area.

I don't remember any accidents,

Colombo