Some lovely old wagons

[MikeWilliams]

I spotted this old postcard on ebay.  Its obviously a commercial postcard, but apparently a darkroom print from a digital scan.  I hope the watermark across the centre doesn't mean I can't reproduce it here (Mr.Moderator?).

The two wagons to the left look fairly normal 1870s, very short, tierods, dumb buffers, raised end and an end door.  But the wagon nearest the camera is like nothing I've ever seen before.  It also looks like the body has been made higher with end stanchions of different design, which I know was done but this is particularly crude!

A useful detail for modellers are those two crossbars to stop the sides of the real wagon spreading because the doors are full height.  Whatever the material, model wagon sides sometimes tend to bow inwards, so bars like this would be useful!

Dapol do a 4mm scale model with this livery and it has No.262 so presumably based on this picture, though they have it on a standard post-1923 model.

Mike

[LankyTank]

Shouldn't worry to much about copyright Mike, this is a colourised copy of a stock postcard, that has been doing the rounds of just about every L&Y story of Rose Grove/Burnley for at least the last 40 years - I doubt if anyone can claim ownership of the B&W version.

Got to admit the vendor has put a fair amount of work into it, to make it just that bit crisper.

Barry

[MikeWilliams]

Thanks Barry.  I thought it must be a well known picture, partly because of the Dapol model.

Apparently the wagon nearest the camera hasn't been made higher, it was built as a 5 plank and has a part end door at the far end.  Something again that's new to me!

Mike

[MikeWilliams]

Barry, when do the L&Y experts think it was taken please?

Mike

[LankyTank]

Can't give an exact date but is pre-1897 - in 1897 all the ELR station buildings in the photo where removed, to provide space for the embryonic Rose Grove marshalling yard complex. Looking at the dress of the 'passengers' I'd have put it at at about 1890-95.

The PO wagons don't help either, the 'Executors of.....' ran wagons so labelled for a loooong time. Somewhere (from a long time ago) I have a list of when various wagon numbers were 'registered' (result of a visit to Kew), if I knew where it was that might give us a window.