Demountable Debatable 1 (mini blog)

But Firstly ...

Well, it seemed so at the time. fbb has tried to restructure his blog thinking to retain quality (?) but to reduce quantity. Over the last few weeks, the planned structure has repeatedly collapsed, largely due to fbb's lack of self-imposed discipline.

Hmmm?

So here is "the plan" again.

There will be full blogs on Monday, Wednesday and Friday each week.

e.g. Sheffield's Little Nippers

Wednesday 30th April

First's Kernow  Stupidity

Friday 2nd May

On Tuesday and Thursday mini blogs will appear.

29th April Demountable Debatable 1

1st May Demountable Debatable 2

On Saturday and Sunday Variety blogs will appear.

fbb will aim to provide a rough guide to content from time to time, as above.

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Not Such A Big Revolution

It was the infamous Dr Richard Beeching, loved by all railway enthusiasts, that kicked off the so-called "Container Revolution". His plan was that goods would be conveyed long distance by "Liner Train" ...

... with the last leg from depot to customer transferred by the container on the back of a lorry.

Whilst the idea of dedicated trains with huge containers (then 20ft, now 40ft) was the apple of Dr Richard's eye, putting "containers" on trains then lorries is almost as old as the railways themselves.

Indeed, they might well have been road-hauled by a one horsepower tractor unit!

Pre-Beeching, containers came in very varied forms. Like the above, some were half a flat wagon in length ...

... and sometimes used by well known "names" like Captain Birdseye.

Occasionally, they would be plonked in an open wagon rather than on a flat wagon. 

And there were some different designs ...

... made of pressed steel sheet, available in miniature, of course, from specialist railway model retailers.

There were demountable containers for specialist loads ...

... as illustrated by some scale models. A model specialist wagon might be for nuclear waste.

The OO gauge model is pictured above; reality below.

In later years you could unload the old containers by fork lift truck ...

... a system still used today at smaller depots!

The unloading vehicles are now a bit nore sophisticated and they are able to lift much bigger forks!

fbb's fave container wagon, admired for its top-sophistication, was that produced by Hornby Dublo. The wagon was a very basic printed tinplate body on a standard Hornby chassis.

The container was a shaped block of wood with printed paper detail "affixed". But you did get an eye for your crane hook to hook into. 

Oh the fun we had back then!

Of course, these older containers were very different from the big boxes that are used today - but we do all depend of them for a huge proportion of what we wish to buy and consume.

But what about liquids?

Have tank demountables been demonstrated in the past?

To be concluded on  Thursday .

Everybody's At It

Hornby have now joined in with the fake model game. The idea is that you produce wagons that have never existed and flog them. They are either bought by collectors, by modellers who don't  know they are fake, or by modellers who like to consume the branded contents displayed.

The breweries are real - but they do not have any tank wagons, neither are they ever likely to rent any!

 Next Sheffield Nipper blog : Weds 30 April