Prototype Old King Coal [adventures of a '60s Edinburgh Coal Yard]

AJC

Western Thunderer
Courtesy of another place, I have become aware of this pair of short films from Edinburgh.


While there's lots of interest here in terms of the wagons involved, the main point to be noted is the date: c. 1968. In the course of the first film are, in order of appearance, one end of an 8 shoe minfit (0:37); what appears to be a retro-fitted morton-braked 16 tonner (1:28); an RCH pattern wooden bodied 12 tonner marked 'locos' (1:35) and, if the film really is from 1968, this begs a second question since steam had by then gone from Scotland; a PAIR of LNER wooden framed and bodied 6 plank open and a similar LMS 5 plank of the once ubiquitous dia. 1666 (1:42). The latter is clearly marked 'cond' and one of the LNE vehicles locos' as well, but also evidently in some sort of service. At 2:18, we see the other side of one of the LNER opens, E 238275 I think; at 2:33 an RCH 7 plank; at 2:40 some possible dating evidence in the form of a yellow liveried artic hauling what appears to be an early Freightliner box. Also shown at the centre of the shot is a dia 1/100 slope sided mineral, shown more clearly at 3:02 next to a riveted 16 tonner and a pair of wooden RCH types.

Now, from what I can see my thoughts about the wooden-bodied and framed vehicles is that by this point they never left this yard but were being used mostly as reach wagons to aid shunting: none seem to appear in the exchange of wagons from the yard. Their presence, however, is an interesting exception to general 'rules of thumb'.

The shot of the coalman damping the back of his lorry (an early '50s Bedford A type) to keep the dust down on what was clearly a hot day. The accompanying film, from a different time of year also has much of interest, but primarily in its depiction of coal handling and the road vehicles involved. Possibly the same Bedford A and a nice TK dropside modified with full-height 'greedy boards' are featured prominently.


At 1:18, however, there's a nice clear view of a maintenance panel: note how the strip of the left hand edge is underpainted with what looks like 'Freight Brown'; black was more common but this arrangement was far from unusual.

Anyhow, I hope the group finds this of interest.

Adam
 

Osgood

Western Thunderer
Having in the first few seconds thought 'OMG' to the music accompanying the train to St.Leonards coal station, I must admit I quite enjoyed it (downloadable from Beatport but not from iTunes) and in a way it kind of lifted the whole delightful film. There is so much detail to absorb in each scene.

Wouldn't a dirty, faded 350hp DE shunter sound great on one's layout with that soundtrack installed on the DCC chip instead of the E.E. engine :thumbs: :cool:
 
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