BR 290ton Boiler Wagon set (Boiler EB)

I was at Shildon last year but I could not find the 290ton boiler set on site - it was a bit embarrising admitting that I was not able to find the largest railway vehicle every to run on the UK, is it still there?


BR DB 902805 Boiler Wagon built 1965
BR 290-ton boiler wagon set - Our collection - National Railway Museum


Kind regards,
Gareth

 

Is this what you mean?
Last time I saw it was hiding down the side of the museum

 

Many thanks

Gareth

 

At the moment it's down the main line headshunt, small problem of not enough space...

 

I wonder how much use it actually got?

 

I don't know, but the second image on NRM site shows a refinery column loaded which looks similar to that in a BTF film from the 50's where road transport was used from somewhere in the south of England right through to Grangemouth, if rail vehicle built 1965 (post-Beeching) must have been for some very good reason.

 

"British Railways Wagons - Their Loads and Loading" by Brian Grant and Bill Taylor (Silverlink 2003) is packed with information on how these wagons were employed. Bill Taylor was the Cheif Loads Inspector of BR Eastern Region. It is a facinating book and explains the calculations and procedures he used.

"The boiler set consisted of eight three-axle bogies with a 290ton carrying capacity, was the largest wagon ever built for British Railways. It could operate as a single unit or be used as two seperate units each with four bogies, each having 150 ton capacity and was designed for the conveyance of boiler barrels; however, when not required for this traffic it could be used by others. The minimum loading height to the top of the bolster was was 6ft 1in above rail level and the minimum length was 62ft in order to stretch over two bolsters."

Mr. Taylor describes how the bridge girders for the rebuilding of the Tamar Bridge in Plymouth were moved from Darlington with the Boiler EBs as out of gauge loads with the girdler (laid flat) slewed over the adjacent line. Presume they now form part of the bridge on the approach to Brunel's Royal Albert Bridge?
Another picture shows a 70ton 105ft long and 12ft high girder being moved from Teeside to Llanwern using half of the boiler set.

For the record the largest rigid load ever moved on BR were 156ft 60ton bridge girders from Middlesbrough to Urlay Nook (between Middlesbrough and Darlington) to carry the railway railway over the Yarm-on-Tees to Darlington Road in the late 1960s - almost next door to Shildon. However, he used a pair of exGWR 1909 built "Girdwag WE" wagons instead of the 'Boiler EB' for that job. The Girdwag WE's, DW84997, DW84998, DW84999 and DW85000 (known as POLLEN Es by the GWR) were the oldest wagons running on BR and had been withdrawn in 1960, but the Regional Civil Engineer at York envisaged further use for these wagons and transferred them to his fleet and untill the late 1980s they were still used on many occaisions for general traffic. They were were preserved by the NRM and are now on loan to Didcot.

Great Western Society::Education Team::

Paul Bartlett's Photographs | GWR Special wagons - Girdwag WE, Pollen E YVO VVO

GWR girder wagon set - Our collection - National Railway Museum