19850223_ZD_AdrianNicols
45 ton Covered Lime Hopper Wagon.
DETAILS FOR THIS VEHICLE., Location : Doncaster Belmont Yard., Date : 21/04/1987., Type : Covered Lime Hopper Wagon., Weight : 45 t GLW / 14t Tare., Number : 250019., Number Series : 250000 to 250051., Builder : 1969 by BR Shildon Works., TOPS Code : CBA., Lot no. : 3680., Diagram no. : 1/252., , ADDITIONAL NOTES., For all intense and purpose the 31t capacity CBA's were an MGR coal hopper with a roof lid. The steel industry being a large user of lime for blast furnace flux was seen as an obvious customer to use the same Merry-go-Round principle to deliver lime. In reality the only steelworks to adopt this method of delivery was Port Talbot Abbey Works in South Wales and they never built the automated discharge facilities with trackside equipment to drop the wagon doors, instead a portable hydraulic ram operated manually was used to open the wagon doors., 52 wagons were built which permitted two trains sets with maintenance spares. They very nearly got numbers in the BR general freight stock number series as the construction order was placed with wagon numbers B 870880 to B 870931 issued. This was rescinded prior to the first wagon being built and instead they were allocated numbers in the new BR Air braked wagon number series., , From new they operated daily from Tunstead Quarry in Derbyshire to Port Talbot (Margam Yard) such was the demand for lime flux. It wasn't possible to run the entire circuit loading and discharging in a 24hr period so both trains (6V23/6M66) ran overnight in opposite directions. In 1977 a serious derailment saw five vehicles written off causing short formations so BR replaced them the same year with lot no.3922 comprising five new vehicles 250052-56. The recession of 1980-81 saw the demand for steel fall off enabling one set of wagons to work the entire circuit on alternate days so by 1984 sixteen wagons were declared surplus and redeployed to rock salt traffic out of Boulby mine, Cleveland. The nature of the product wrecked the wagons with severe corrosion in less than 3 years and many went to Smeeth Metals at Hoo in Kent for breaking up in late 1987. The Tunstead to Margam flow lasted until 1990 when British Steel switched to their own quarry at Hardendale in Cumbria for sinter lime, by then the trains were down to twice weekly and the CBA's were starting to be replaced by higher capacity bogie covered hoppers. In the end just 10 wagons survived into the EWS era and were stood down in 2000 when the lime traffic switched to special 30t open boxes on container flats.
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