R220 Norstand Limited mineral wagon

[Blue Pullman]

Can anyone please advise what kind of mineralast were carried in this wagon? I would like to make up a mock load should it be coal or aggregates sand or something else 

 

[96RAF]

They were a fishing firm

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F169881

so does this help

https://www.yesterdaystoys.co.uk/Hornby-OO-Gauge-Norstand-Limited-Fish-Docks-Grimsby-Open-Wagon_A1D86Z.

and

https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/Dapol-OO-Gauge-B395-Norstand-Ltd-Fish-Docks-Grimsby/511198907

[Blue Pullman]

Yes that’s what I found so they were operating from the 30’s to the 60’s. I’m thinking they brought their own coal to the docks for their steam trawlers. Possibly and I don’t know enough about the subject they could have also brought Stone as a ballast to be removed as the fish hold filled up? 

[walkingthedog]

They were ship builders.

[LCDR]

 Many trawler companies had their own wagons to bring coal from collieries to the docks to fuel their trawlers. Privately owned wagons served a number of purposes, as well as transporting fuel they acted as bunkers so that a stockpile of coal could be held at the dock to be called upon at need.

[Ruffnut Thorston]

Trawlers do not use stone ballast.

 

Most ships that need to be ballasted use water ballast tanks, that can be filled or emptied.

 

So, most probably coal wagons.

[LCDR]

 Something that was important when using mineral wagons was to avoid contaminating a load with the residue of a previous load. The simplest way was to only load a wagon with the same goods, such as coal, and not to put anything else in it. This was easy with privately owned wagons (like the Norstand wagon) which were nearly always sent back to the colliery empty, but for common user railway owned wagons this was always a problem.

 

Mineral wagons owned by BR (and the pre-Nationalisation companies) might carry coal, to the docks, and then a back load of bauxite, or scrap metal,etc  so between every journey men had to get into the wagon and clean the wagon with brushes and shovels. Special sidings were set aside for wagon cleaning. The material removed was often a nice little earner for the men concerned. Cleaning out a score or so wagons might accumulate a nice little pile of coal, coke, or scrap metal depending upon what they had been carrying, which could be sold as a 'perk'. Some material was not particularly valuable but they had to take the rough with the smooth!

 

In the appropriate season agricultural goods was carried in railway owned mineral wagons and other open wagons, and loads such as sugar beet and potatoes might be loaded in bulk into the wagon. Potatoes were often sheeted, but sugat beet was loaded open. Hay and straw was another load for open wagons of all descriptions. Because of fire risk hay and straw was always protected by wagon sheets.

 

One particulatly nasty load in mineral wagons I have heard if although I have never experienced it, was offal from abatoirs. This was loaded and taken to factories that produced pet food or glue, or other strange by-products. Wagons were sheeted, but this didn't stop the swarms of flies that would accompany the wagon, especially on hot summer days!

 

One less offensive back load that might be sent to collieries in privately owned coal wagons was pit wood (pit props). This consisted of soft wood round timber probably originating in Scandinavia or North America, which was used to prop up the underground mine working. It was frequently loaded on end packed tightly in the wagon. Large storage yards at docks, such as Hartlepool, would contain massive amounts of such timber which was used in most collieries all across Britain.

 

Choosing authentic loads for wagons I find is a lot of fun.

[Rana Temporia]

Wagons were also used to move ‘night soil’ which was human excrement collected to be used as fertiliser in agricultural areas. There were special sidings to unload it near to the point of use. I won’t go into the possibilities of replicating the load on your model railway but it shows that people in the past knew about the importance of returning what we take from the soil. Nowadays it wouldn’t be possible due to the chemicals, medicines, hormones etc. That are in what we flush away and which would contaminate wherever it was used. 

[LCDR]

 There was a movement of sewage 'sludge' in private owner wagons from the Blackburn Meadows to Thryburgh Tip along the old GC line between Tinsley and Mexborough the train had to pass through Rotherham Central station.and evil minded drivers would arrange for a coupling 'snatch' as it passed the platform!  Sheffield Sewage works had a small fleet of Hudson type side tipping wagons registered for use over the main line.

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