The LNER Encyclopedia

Hi Everyone

Just new to this great Forum and looking for a bit of assistance / direction please?

I have acquired a Ballast Brake Van and its details are as follows;

Built 1948 by R Y Pickering of Wishaw.
Two numbers I believe are; 042176 & DE470820.

I intend completely rebuilding the wooden top sides as they are in a dreadful state, not a timber that isn't rotten.
The steel frames are though in very good condition.

My question is this....To aid the rebuild, could anyone point me in the direction of where I may get some build plans? Maybe its a long shot but thought I'd ask.

I'd rather start with the original drawings to save time, but if I cant locate any then I will revert to good old tape measure and CAD to draw some up.

Look forward to a valued reply.

Kind regards

Welcome Buffers1

RY Pickering constructed 18 of these Ballast Brake Vans during 1948-9 to LNER Diagram 203. The original numbering was:
1948 - 301554-61
1949 - 306303-9, 470818-21, 544439-42, 634354-5

The Railway Museum (formerly known as the NRM) at York should have copies of the original drawings which can be viewed and photographed. There will almost certainly be 3 drawings: General Arrangement (GA) Underframe; GA Body; details of all the various bits of ironwork used to hold the body together. There may be also one or more drawings giving livery and painting details, which varied over time.
Contact via the Search Engine: https://www.railwaymuseum.org.uk/research-and-archive

There's also details, photographs and a 4mm scale drawing in Peter Tatlow's LNER Wagons Volume 4B. The interesting point here is that the drawing was prepared from a physical survey undertaken by Paul Bartlett and Peter Fidczuk. Paul Bartlett is 'Mr Wagons' and has an extensive photographic collection found here: https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/lnerballastbrake and you can contact him via his website.

There is one stored on the Mid Suffolk Light Railway, seen here in 2017:
Good luck with the restoration...

Good luck with restoration. I was involved in later stages of LNER Grain Wagon restoration at LWR. 12 years on and off in total & a completely new wood all round.

Think SRPS have one too?