Steel train, how many wagons

[1936ace]

I would like to run a steel train and would like to know how many wagons would I need to make it look ok for something running late sixties to mid seventies
I've got a variety of seven wagons, is that enough
Cheers
Bart

[Steven B]

There are plenty of photos of steel trains on Flickr with less than ten wagons so seven's plenty for a train.

7 bogie wagons would be a good load for a class 25 (or 37 if it's hilly!).

Depending on how fussy you're being then watch out for mixing different types of steel wagon. Mixed rakes of four wheel plate (Farish SPA), bogie bolsters (Farish BDA) and coil/slab wagons (Farish BAA) and hood (Dapol KIB) weren't common as the different steel works generally produced a small range of steel forms.

You'd find the likes of BAA and KIB in the same train for example as they were both used for carrying coil. SPA generally worked with other SPA or OCA wagons.

Where the wagon types were mixed in one train then similar types would generally be placed next to each other as they'd have a common source or destination. i.e. SPA SPA SPA BDA BDA BDA would be more realistic than SPA BDA SPA BDA SPA BDA.


Steven B.

[njee20]

Were any of those wagons around in the 60s? Surely they're all more modern than that...?

What wagons have you got, Bart? There are always examples of short trains, so I wouldn't get too hung up on it!

[crewearpley40]

In the 60s i would have thought KAV and cool A plus bogiebolster wagons would have been the norm. Try https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/bdalever   BAA wagons were introduced in 1973    , BDA in 1955

[Steven B]

The period of late 1960s to mid 70s that Bart's modelling saw a massive change to BR's wagon fleet. Wagons were being scrapped faster than new ones were being built. The fleet was modernised with old unbraked and vacuum braked wagons either being rebuilt or replaced by air-braked equivalents. "British Railways Wagons - The First Half Million" gives a good history of BR's wagons from the period.

The wagons I mentioned were all mid-late 1970s builds or rebuilds of existing wagons:

The LTSV Wagons web site has a good overview of post 1960s wagons.

BAA - new build 1972
BDA - rebuilt from Bogie Bolster D from 1975
SPA -  new build 1977

Older unbraked and vacuum braked equivalents of all types would be around well into the 1970s but there use would be similar - i.e. it was typical for wagons in a steel train to be for one type of steel product, or where more than one type was included they'd be grouped with similar wagons. A typical traditional goods train of all different types jumbled up together wouldn't be prototypical for steel wagons.



Steven

[KevTheBusDriver]

In the period Nov 73 to Jul 76, 4E43 (W'ton steel term-Scunthorpe) was seen with a minimum of 4 BAA and a max of 22 BAA!
Happy steel empties! I assume the loaded working 6M60 would be similar but I didn't observe that one.