Info needed please ex GWR W1/W5 cattle wagons

[Mr Grumpy]

Having trawled the net again for information, I could do with some help please!
I'm looking for a photo of a W1 or W5 cattle wagon as running in the very late 50's/ early 60s? Or info on their running numbers?
Thanks,
Richard

 

[Dog Star]

Running numbers can be found in GWR Wagons by Tourrett... so if you wish to consult a copy then one can be at the Basingstoke MRS club room on 27th May.

As to photos... try this WT topic.

 

[Mr Grumpy]

Thanks!
Does the book include BR details?

 

[Dog Star]

Does the book include BR details?

Not sure what you mean... the book presents what can be described as the design history of GWR wagons and as such omits information about withdrawals. The book does include alterations after building such as conversion for traffic requirements. Also worth considering is that most of the W1 and W5 stock was built before WW1 and hence probably either withdrawn by the GWR or ear-marked for condemnation by BR(WR) in the early 1950s (as per the cull of pre-group designs which started circa 1951).

Why do you ask about W1/W5 when there were other MEX diagrams which were built after the W1 / W5? Some "GWR designs" were built into BR days, for example:- the Airfix kit version!

 

[Wagonman]

I doubt (m)any of the W1/W5 Mexes lasted into BR days except possibly as Ale wagons. As Dogstar says, there were plenty of later designs available.

Richard

 

[AJC]

There are a handful of pictures of prototypes in Geoff Kent's '4mm Wagon, part 2' (I believe - though I'm sure that @Simon could confirm more readily. These are from either the Ted (A.E.) West collections or the Roye England collections and, if I remember rightly, date from the early '50s. I can't recall now whether any had received BR lettering or a repaint. These are precisely the sorts of vehicles that would have been replaced by post-Nationalisation builds of Grouping designs and the BR- standard which leant heavily on the GW designs that preceded them. If any survived the '50s I would be surprised. The later survivors seem to have been the LMS-derived and GW-derived types, but I believe these were the most numerous so this is hardly surprising.

Adam

 

[Mr Grumpy]

I have some Slaters W1/W5 kits and had hoped they ran on BR (as cattle wagons) in to the late 50s early 60s.
I guess I will have to look at a later type of wagon. Thanks for your replies!