UNUSUAL LOADS at MIXEDTRAFFIC.NET

The unusual loads section is designed to give you, the modeller some really outrageous ideas for a different, but still authentic look. This is where the fun stuff comes into it - creating something really out of the ordinary, something special, something no other modeller is likely to have. Its your chance to get away from 12 Hornby coal wagons all in a row.

As the pictures below will show you, there was an incredible diversity of running on British lines. This being the case, you can run pretty much what you like and still be true to type. The fact is, if you look hard enough you're bound to find a prototype for almost anything you can imagine. Great news for the imaginative modeller!
Click on the pictures for a larger image
Pannier Tank with GWR shunters truck and two steel sided mineral wagons.
Pannier Tank No 7708 with unique GWR shunters truck in front and a mixed load behind including tanks, open mineral wagons and toad brake van.
South Wales Pullman in the background with van freight in foreground. The near load includes open wagon, refrigerated van, bogie bolster with lumber load, Toad brake van and open mineral wagon (empty). The next train is a "block" coal train with Toad brake van and open mineral wagon (empty), while the third from left is a mixed load of mineral wagons and vehicle conflats carrying military vehicles.
15xx class outside cylinder pannier tank No 1501 with a load of steel wire in open wagons. According to one of our site visitors, the shot was taken at the Cardiff Rod & Wire Works at Tremorfa, Cardiff, in South Wales. The works are still in use, but traffic is now with a 08xxx shunter.
The last four diesel railcars built for the GWR were designed as two pairs of twin units with a driving compartment at each end. A buffet counter and lavatory were included and the set could take a trailer coach in between the driving units as illustrated here. One set worked between Bristol and Weymouth (pictured), and the other between Reading and Newbury.
64xx locomotive No 6417 with a strengthened branch train consisting of an autofitted GWR Autocoach plus a composite coach.
74xx pannier tank No 7431 hauling a mixed train consisting of a composite coach (brake/third), goods van, and Toad brake van.
A personal favourite. A 57xx auto train working with the trailer first, locomotive in reverse in the centre position, followed by two four wheeled Siphon vans carrying Harris sausage loads. The engine in the middle of an anto train was reasonably common practice on the Western when peak loadings were in force.
A slight case of role reversal. LMSR 'Royal Scot' Class 4-6-0 No 6100 Royal Scot on the way to the Bressingham Steam Museum in Norfolk. No 6100 is one of just 2 preserved 'Scots.'
Lacking its outer wing panels, Hurricane L2045 of No 501 Squardon has been loaded onto a French goods train for transport to a coastal harbour. No details are available as to where the photo was taken, or why it was in this dismantled state. The plane did however eventually make it back to England and was posted to No 6 Operational Training Unit.
4930 Hagley Hall at Swindon Works kitted up for a test run with the GWR dynometer car, circa 1930.

GWR "Dukedog" No 3224 with a load of LMS carriages on a Welshpool-Shrewsbury run in 1939.

 
GWR 0-6-0 ST No.813 with a couple of vans, 2 tanks, and a Toad brake van.
Aberfeldy branch line in the Scottish Highlands. Running bunker first, Caledonian Railway 0-4-4T takes a mixed train through the snow in the late 1950's with a brake/3rd coach, 5 plank open wagon, 16ton steel mineral wagon, and an ex-LNER brake van.

The picture is taken at Ilfracombe terminus on the Southern Railway on a Saturday morning in September 1946.A closer look will reveal that the loco in front is the newly built Southern Railway Pacific No.21C105 "Barnstaple" which is temporarily double-heading Great Western Railway small Prarie tank No.5533 which in its turn is hauling carriage stock from the LNWR and LMS, proving once more that in the model railway arena, you an find a prototype or a precedent for running pretty much anything you like in almost any configuration you wish.