stove
 

Hi my name is Allan I recently bought a Guards van Stove from a car boot sale and its rekindled my curiosity with the age of steam
I am 66 so steam trains where very much a part of my interests as a child
The stove is about 22" high and has a seperate base all made from cast iron I have been told its Pig iron ??? I can send photo's of it If some one can tell me HOW to
I would appreciate any information on it that you know Thanks Allan

Hi Allan
welcome aboard the Railway Forum,
Regards

Hello
 

Hello Allan and welcome to the forum, enjoy and all the best.

The stoves in a Goods Brake Van threw out a massive amount of heat when running at 35mph.
This speed was as fast as a class 9 train could go.
In the top of the stove there is a depression in the casting where you put your mashing can.
If there was some good coal to be had, you could have the stove glowing red, and half way up the chimney pipe.
Some guards put detonators in the stove, and when they went off, shifted all the ash in the stove.
The problem with some brake vans was the gap in the floor boards which blew up your trouser legs.
In summer ok but on a winters night you could sit there and shiver.
When putting coal on this fire, you had to keep a firm hold on something, as class 9 trains were apt to throw you about the van.
These stoves were good for cooking onions wrapped up in tin foil or a tin of beans with the lid off.
On a Saturday night ballast train you made up the fire so it threw off a welding heat, wrapped your self up in the bullet proof black BR issue over coat. These coats would stop an exocet missle.
This was called getting a welder on, then if sleep overcame you so be it.
The last BV I rode in was a Shark on Christmas Week 1991. This journey was from Turners Lane, Wakefield to Neville Hill Depot at Leeds.
Sometimes at night, I would go out ont he verandah of the brake to check the tail/side lamps were lit, I then looked at the fire coming out of the BV stove. It would be about 6 inch high, that meant the stove was welding away correctly.

You lucky devil, I have been after one of those for ages and ages, look after it mate.

I found one on e bay not long ago, the seller wanted 50quid for it, which was ok, BUT he wanted another 50quid for postage !!!

So I still "aint" got one.

48111

I put a chitty in to buy a BV stove, management asked £5 for it, but I could not find one.
You could put a chitty in to get coal out of HM yard and many folk did.
It was not uncommon for an HTV to drop its bottom door when it came over the hump too fast and the retarders did not slow it down too much.
You could have as much coal as you could carry for £1

Hello
 

Welcome to the forum Allen, from another 66er, enjoy.

There's a thread on the 'Members Notice Board' section entitled 'How to upload to the gallery' - this will tell you all you need to kow about posting photos. Welcome to the forum Allan.

Tony

Hi HM181

I think you will find that the maximum speed for a class 9 (unfitted) train was 25mph.

I would go back and have another look at your source.
All the pit trippers and other mainline class 9 jobs we had at HM were booked to run at 35mph.
If a Class 9 train ran at 25 mph this would be shown on a BR
Form29973. This would be shown on the driver slip as a 9X
EG A train which had a mechanical shunter in tow. These engines had thier transmissions de meshed and connecting rods removed.
This 29973 would enumerate any speed restrictions on the route of the train or any other special instructions needed to work the train.
At one time class 9 trains were the norm for freight on the mainlines and I worked class 9 trains everyday for 10 years on ballast turns and pit trippers and inter regional work.

I am referring to the good old BR days of the 1960/70's era,when it was a regular thing to run "loose-coupled" trains, I thought you were referring to the same era,a time when every train had a brakevan in tow,not todays "air-braked" era with trains running about minus a brake van .Towards the end of BR in the 1990's a train that ran at a maximum speed of 35 mph was a "class 7" and I thought that "class 9's" had been abolished ? Wasn't the BR form 29973 that you mentioned also used for trains conveying "heavy axle weight" vehicles such as 100 tonne tanks ?These trains normally ran with "normal" and not "X" headcodes such as the ones I worked (6V04-6V98) we even worked a class 6(6066) which conveyed car transporters which were only "OOG" on the SR but not the LM or WR ,this was something to do with the 3rd rail.By the way when you asked me to "go back and check your source" well my source is 43 years spent as a fireman and a Driver at 21A/2E Saltley depot,and of course all the documentation and appendices issued by the BRB over these years from 1963 till 1994(when I worked for the last BR Sector/ TOC,Railfreight Distribution).

My era is Jan 28th 1981 to the present day and counting.
Towards the end of the 1980's trains with BV's on declined as the pits were all closing, all the unfitted vehicles were going to the wall, as well as the industry that we served, steel mills, ORT, newspaper trains et al.
At the end of the miners strike I had 20 pits on my route card now we have no pits to work into, just super markets.
I was on the docks at Immingham recently and the place was sinking with the weight of coal on the floor.
Not from uk pits but from China, Australia and every corner of the world.
So the need for unfitted trucks and BV's has gone forever.

I can go back further than both of you "young strappers" :D
What about 1958 onwards ? LOL.

Dont start....only having a laugh :D

48111

I can remember standing on the footbridge at Duffield and watching a freight coming along the fast line in the fifties.

Presumably the siggie had given him a run and the wagons were jumping and rocking about every which way.