LNER Pigeon Van

[Bulwell Hall]

I hope somebody may be able to help me. Like nearly everybody else it seems, I have the Chivers kit for the four wheel LNER Pigeon Van - not surprising as it is a beautifull little kit! I would like to finish mine in post war LNER livery but I am finding it difficult to determine what that livery was as applied to these vehicles. Pre WW2 they seem to have been finished in varnished teak but were they later painted? Is so is this Teak colour and what colour were the ends? What about the solebars and was the lettering in the normal coach style, as pre war, or was it frieght style? I have a photograph showing a stopping train on the SR circa 1947 and the tail traffic is one of these vans - it is too far away for any details to be seen but the handrails appear to picked out in white. As one whose reference material is GWR and SR based any help would be gratefully recieved! Thanks in anticipation.

Gerry

[Jim Summers]

Sorry, this isn't going to help your specific query, but folk might be interested to know that there is a bogie LNER Pigeon Van at the Scottish Railway Preservation Society site at Bo'ness, and it is in use by the carriage restoration volunteers.
Jim

[smyles]

Post war they would have been painted LNER Coach Brown, probably with black ends and solebars.
Mike

[Russ Elliott]

Here's the North Norfolk Railway example:

pidgeon-preserved.jpg

[Bulwell Hall]

Evening All

Very belatedly I thought I should give an update to my enquiry made earlier in the year. After discussing the matter with several people who know far more about the LNER and BR(E) than I do I eventually settled on the scheme shown in the attached photo. The model is intended to represent a vehicle in teak livery that has been renumbered by the simple expedient of adding an E prefix to the running number. This seems to have been fairly common prctice in the early BR period and I was particularly keen to have a go at the teak livery.

The teak finish followed the article by Martyrn Welch in MRJ 176 using an overall spray of gloss VW Orange from a Halfords spray can, followed by graining in Humbrol Matt Black with a finishing coat of Ronseal tinted varnish. It seems to have worked quite well but like most of these things would probably work even better if I were to do it a second time. Transfers were Methfix - from a sheet loaned by Morgan Gilbert as I dont have any LNER transfers - with weathering using acrylics from the Games Workshop range. I thought at first that I had overdone the post-war grot but now its finished and I've got used to it I think its OK.

The eagle eyed amongst you may notice that the van has EM gauge wheels! I'm not doing a Martin Goodall as the track on which it will operate is being built to EM gauge standards so I hope I don't get excommunicated!

The compliments of the season to you all.

Gerry Beale

LNER Pigeon Van 002.jpg

[HowardGWR]

Gerry,
I know you've gone back to Maiden Newton in your modelling, so tell me, where did they release the birds - you clearly have local knowledge on that. I have romantic thoughts of Powerstock Common but they would be vulnerable to many sharp beaked predators there!
Written from just down the road in the next valley (Marshwood Vale).
Regards, Howard

[Andy W]

Lovely job Gerry.

[Tim Hale]

where did they release the birds

Normally. at the station- nothing more complicated.

Once common practice on BR.

Tim

[HowardGWR]

Tim there was (is) a station at Powerstock Common (not near Powerstock incidentally, actually next to Nettlecombe). I was aware they would release from a station but I wondered which one. In other words if they took them down the Branch to a wilder bit.
Regards, Howard

[Will L]

I was aware they would release from a station but I wondered which one. In other words if they took them down the Branch to a wilder bit.
Regards, Howard

I remember them releasing pigeons regularly from Bletchley station when I was a kid. This is on the west cost main line about 50 miles from Euston. I suspect the distance from home was the key factor, not the rural-ness of the station, so the easiest station to reach the right distance away would be chosen.

Will

[HowardGWR]

My FIL was an expert racing pigeon hobbyist and told me his brethren were not very keen on release locations where many overhead wires would be present or other frightening obstacles. By the way, what a lovely model has been created. I would not have believed the use of orange would have come out so well, congratulations.

[Tim Hale]

Thomasacpre wrote

Tim there was (is) a station at Powerstock Common (not near Powerstock incidentally, actually next to Nettlecombe). I was aware they would release from a station but I wondered which one. In other words if they took them down the Branch to a wilder bit.
Regards, Howard

Surely Maiden Newton is indeed a rural location, as a 'local' I would have assumed that you might have known this to be the case.

Many thanks for providing the geography lesson, as a long term native of West Dorset, I am fairly aware of the facts.

Gerry,

Thanks for sharing this wonderful wagon, now, having seen your teak it is quite simply superb.

Tim

[Bulwell Hall]

Evening Chaps

Thanks for your various comments - I'm pleased that the van has been well recieved. I know very little about pigeon traffic by rail and my van is intended to take its place in a parcels and perishables van train working through Maiden Newton - there was a daily such train from Weymouth over the W,S & W typically made up of vans from all the Big 4 companies. This train incidently stopped to pick up the milk tanks at Maiden Newton for onward conveyance to Kensington, Addison Rd and even as far as Bow. I am yet to find out how the returned empties arrived back at Maiden Newton.

I do know that pigeon traffic could consist of a single basket conveyed in the guards van of a passenger train to an entire train load of vans. Pigeons in one or a few baskets could be released at any station by the platform staff. I also have a clear recollection of an entire train of 10 or 12 vans - almost entirely ex LMS 50ft full brakes - arriving at Weymouth and being shunted into the station yard whereupon the pigeons were released by railway staff. This would have been in the early 1970s and may well have been one of the last such occurences. I understand that there were associations of pigeon fanciers in the North of England that would group together to hire a complete train that enabled large numbers of birds to be released at a considerable distance from home.

Hope this is of some interest.

[Tim Hale]

Gerry,

The other S&DJR was a favourite with the pigeon racing community, I believe that both the Vic Mitchell and Kestrel Publication books mention the release of pigeons between Salisbury and West Moors. One of my photos show a T9 in charge of a pigeon special comprising of at least one exLMS 50' entering Fordingbrige, the lack of traffic on the line and rural location made it ideal for this activity.

Tim