Container traffic

Post

Posted
Rating:
#244407
Avatar
Full Member

Detailing the container loads

Barry, you will really have to excuse my ignorance, but as I have said many times before, I'm new to all of this, especially the actually railway side of things.  What sort of things would have been transported in these containers?  And would they have ever been loaded on to ships?  I know modern era it is the case, but I'm back in the 60s!

I'm trying to create a switching puzzle where wagons are dropped off in holding sidings in a random order, and must then be delivered to the appropriate parts of the goods yard - it is how the original Faversham Creek worked, so I thought I would replicate it.  I like the idea of the containers, but it would depend on what they carried.

Thanks for any enlightenment….

Michael

Last edit: by Headmaster

Online now: No Back to the top

Post

Posted
Rating:
#244416
Full Member
Michael, various designs of container were produced to carry different goods such as bicycles, furniture, general merchandise, refrigerated foodstuffs such as meat, and even minerals. (Reference: Goods Wagons in Colour by Robert Hendry). The British Railways BD type container (the large type)  and the A type (small container), both as modelled by Bachmann, were in effect, general merchandise wagons.  One assumes then that they carried just about any merchandise which would fit in them.  More importantly, why were they used?  Just imagine loading small items (all going to the same end destination, let's say a particular company or commercial premises) into a standard box van.  On arrival at the nearest station, the items would have to be individually unloaded onto a vehicle, by railway staff, for delivery to the recipient.   Both labour and time consuming.  With a container, just hoist it by crane from the wagon So basically for your layout, think of a small industry which produced merchandise which had to be transported, but which would have been time consuming to repeatedly load and unload, and which could be packed into a container, say lots of small boxes of something.  And Regards,
Terry
P.S.  I'm sure I have seen a photo of a container being loaded onto a ship.  If I come across it I'll let you know.
 

Last edit: by col.stephens

Online now: No Back to the top

Post

Posted
Rating:
#244420
Online now: No Back to the top

Post

Posted
Rating:
#244451
Avatar
Full Member
Terry
I have a VHS video (old tech of course) called LMS Freight made in the 1940’s. Most of it is on YouTube is you hunt around.  One of the scenes shows a family moving from the suburbs out to Harrow or similar NW London.  They move using a large container. The railway sends the container on a mechanical horse with two blokes in brown coats who pack it all up and drive it away leaving the family to travel by train (at cheaper rates as advertised). The container is loaded onto a Conflat  (those interested in Health & Safety look away now) and it is taken to the nearest station for the new house where another mechanical horse and brown coats unpack it all in the new house whilst the dad sits reading the paper.

Apparently the LMS promised “mostly” same day delivery!!!  But of a charmer if you are sitting there with nothing but the wallpaper because it’s all sitting in a sorting yard in Grimsby or wherever (no offence Grimsby).

So in answer to your question and to add to what Terry has outlined, they were extremely versatile things and convenient to both railway and customer.  I have not seen one on a ship but I will have a hunt around.  Container travel in the 1960’s was, I’m guessing very much in its infancy.

Barry

Last edit: by Barry Miltenburg


Shed dweller, Softie Southerner and Meglomaniac
Online now: No Back to the top

Post

Posted
Rating:
#244453
Avatar
Full Member
Right.  I’m sitting in Nice feeling much less than 100% so whilst my inners turn themselves back up the right way I have been investigating containers.  What a hero - I know, I know :cry::lol:  

There is a guy called Phil Hetherington who is is something to do with the GCR project in the UK who is hosting a website called conflat.com detailing the wagons and containers acquired by the Preservation group and awaiting work. His site is very informative and I have referenced him before.  This is a good opportunity to give him a credit.

Containers carried all sorts of traffic including, of course, the highly insulated stuff.  Phil lists a number of commodities and then goes on to say that “the common factor with all these products is their relative high value and many of them required careful packing to avoid breakages.  This meant that a premium could be charged for a fast door-to-door service which justified the container”

Conflates were first built in the 1930’s.  British Railways inherited 20,000 containers.  In 1959 the Condor service began- CONtainer DOOR to door.

It all changed with the introduction of Freightliner trains in 1967.

Containers on ships?  How about this for an advert from the early 1960’s.  This would seem to confirm that putting a container on a ship berthed beside our model wharf is perfectly correct.

Hope that helps, I’m off to the……..

Barry





Shed dweller, Softie Southerner and Meglomaniac
Online now: No Back to the top
1 guest and 0 members have just viewed this.