Any Railway Experts here to help work out what these wagons are for? (1 Viewer)

[dna]

Today I visited the Locomotion museum. At the end of a siding about as far away from the main exhibition halls, I saw two of these wagons. Photographing them was really difficult as they were across two sidings and a couple of fences.

Can anyone identify what they were used for as they have many many axles so presumably had a significant load capacity

 

[Orion]

Armoured fighting vehicles (tanks)?

 

[Dorwyn]

Iron bridges?

 

[pappajohn]

Extreme length loads.....wind turbine blades etc.
I've seen the same axle configuration on Australian roads

 

[whiskyman]

Were the tyres in date and correct for the axle weights

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[dna]

Were the tyres in date and correct for the axle weights

damm, i forgot to check. To be fair, as that was the closest I could get it would be difficult to read any labels

How many years do steel tyres/flanges last before having to be replaced?

 

[maison]

damm, i forgot to check. To be fair, as that was the closest I could get it would be difficult to read any labels

How many years do steel tyres/flanges last before having to be replaced?

I don’t know the answer to that but I bet they are bl00dy hard to inflate.

 

[PhilMary]

And hard to puncture.

 

[Mikeco]

They were for the HS2 northern section but not needed now.

 

[enark]

Certainly not for AFVs, they would be ‘WARFLATS’ in various forms of modification, and by nature give a flat surface for AFVs to drive on and off.

More likely for a specialist application, such as large transformer or similar. Or could have been the chassis for a recovery crane?

Possibly if vintage, they could have been a gun mount, but not sure any would still be around in the UK. Germans made more use of large railway guns in both WWs.

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[L' Hobo]

Today I visited the Locomotion museum. At the end of a siding about as far away from the main exhibition halls, I saw two of these wagons. Photographing them was really difficult as they were across two sidings and a couple of fences.

View attachment 912528

Can anyone identify what they were used for as they have many many axles so presumably had a significant load capacity

I think they are for new heavy lengths of steel track( or anything else extra heavy that might buckle the track.)
The multi wheels are to spread the load on new track base until settlement has been instigated.
Today with machine vibration, this can be nearly instantaneously with continuous rail.

 

[buntyb]

sent the photo to my son and this was his response. Bit over my head but might be of interest

British Railways built 290t boiler bolster wagon.

"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."

 

[dna]

sent the photo to my son and this was his response. Bit over my head but might be of interest

British Railways built 290t boiler bolster wagon.

"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."

That's great - thank you very much. It makes sense they are at the museum then, even though tucked almost out of sight.

Sorry it took me a while to catch up on this. Ask a motorhome group about almost anything and you get the answer!