Railway archaeology - what the hell is this?

Ned Bloody Ludd

I'm posting this here because I thought 'notch might be the one to shed some light (and perchance to avoid RP dribble).

Now it looks like some kind of broad gauge precursor to the NBH or summat. What's with the vehicle in front of it with some kind of tarp? And for that matter the thing behind it looks familiar, but I cannot put a finger on it.

Any ideas?
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ninthnotch · Site Admin Joined: 12 Jun 2007 Posts: 2340

Errrrm....

.... Bloody SLV. One thing that shits me to an extent is how low-res their pictures are to the point of being completely unable to identify anything about them. They're both Q wagons for sure, though.

I reckon at a guess it looks like it was used for horses or cattle, possibly as a stop-gap for a shortage of horseboxes or cattle wagons.
If you look at the wooden sides, there's what appear to be hinges at the bottom for gangways like a horsebox has.

It looks like there's fixed-wheel carriage bodies on the furthest car, or a Leyland RM?
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t_woodroffe · Joined: 09 Apr 2008 Posts: 1

Wooden Q wagons modifed for use as demonstration platforms on the "Better Farming" train.

http://www.prov.vic.gov.au/images/12903/12903-p00001-000221-050.asp

TW

Ned Bloody Ludd · Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 3:16 pm Post subject:

Wanna know something, just ask!

Thanks, ya bastards.

Ned.
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MeanMcKeen · Joined: 08 Nov 2008 Posts: 1

G'day!

I'm afraid I can't help you with the two closest vehicles - although they do look as though they are designed to carry animals of some sort. Actually I have no idea at all about the first one because it has a tarp all over it! The mystery on rails.
But - the carriage in the background is (I'm about 99.9% certain) a Kerr-Stuart double-ended steam railmotor bought from England by the Victorian Railways around 1912. It entered service about the same time as the two McKeen petrol railmotors from the USA. It had a vertical boiler in an engine room with driving controls at one end (looks like the end facing in the photo) and a sort of 'remote' cab at the other - probably with (I'm guessing) some kind of speaking tube arrangement so the driver could keep in contact with the fireman..."I need warp STEAM Scotty, and I need it NOW!" "I canna give ye any more! She'll blow the valves and we canna go faster than 15 mile an hour up Ingliston bank any way!"
Yeah, it ran out of Ballarat for about 10 years as a workers train and I think it's top speed on the level was about 30mph, maybe faster. It was somewhat significant in that it introduced the Walschearts valve gear for steam locomotion to the Victorian Railways. Every VR steam loco built in Victoria after that was fitted with same until the last J class in the 50's.
The Kerr-Stuart ran until the early 1920's and when withdrawn had clocked up about 100,000 miles. It was to have been rebuilt into a dynamometer car, but sadly this didn't happen and it was scrapped by the 1930's. In the photo it already looks in a bad way so I would say the pic was taken late 1920's. If it had been made a dynamometer car, chances are the body at least would have survived until the present and it would have been preserved, most likely at Daylesford. Ah, well.
A similar vehicle is being restored (with the boiler and driving gear being built from scratch!) at the Didcot Railway Centre in England, probably the only known survivor of this type of rail vehicle.
Phew! Hope that answers your query - at least about one of the vehicles, anyway.
Stick that one up your arse!. Smile

Ned Bloody Ludd

Bigged · Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2009 11:27 pm Post subject:

Filtertron · Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 1:43 am Post subject:

Not like the pansies of today... Shit-eating grin

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