SIX ‘WINDCUTTER’ WAGONS ON TEN-YEAR LOAN TO PONTYPOOL

South Wales line can now recreate coal trains with Great Central wagons.

Six of the Steam Railway appeal ‘Windcutter’ wagons have made their debut at the Pontypool & Blaenavon Railway, after moving on loan from the Great Central Railway.

The South Wales line launched an appeal to raise the costs of transporting the BR 16-ton mineral wagons in November, without revealing where the vehicles were coming from (SR488) – but on January 3/4, six of the vehicles, from 13 that had been stored out of service at Quorn & Woodhouse, arrived at Blaenavon.

Owned by the GCR’s supporting charity, the David Clarke Railway Trust, the wagons are on a tenyear loan with a possible fiveyear extension, during which the PBR will be responsible for their restoration and maintenance.

It allows the PBR to offer a representation of a Welsh valleys coal train, which Traffic Manager Alex Hinshelwood said “has been a long-held dream”. The wagons will make their public debut at a ‘Coal Train Weekend’ on May 26/27.

A total of 39 wagons from various sources were preserved as part of the ‘Windcutter’ project, launched in 1992 with a Steam Railway reader appeal, although three were transferred to Manchester Museum of Science & Industry in September 2009.

GCR Managing Director Michael Gough strongly refutes claims made to Steam Railway by members of the line’s ‘Windcutter’ group that they were not initially made aware of the PBR approach. He asserted that this “is simply not true” and stated: “Anybody who says they were not consulted right from the outset is either ill-informed or not being straightforward.

“We had an approach from the PBR and took it to the DCRT – as they own the wagons, we could not have done anything without their approval – and they engaged with the ‘Windcutter’ group.”

He confirmed that the original proposal was for ten wagons to move, but this was reduced to six following a December meeting between the DCRT, the ‘Windcutter’ group and the GCR.

The wagons were used for the first time in Wales during a 30742 Charters event on January 13, hauled by the PBR’s other new arrival, Bagnall 0-6-0ST Empress.

The GCR ‘Windcutter’ team say they will now “concentrate their efforts on getting the remaining 30 wagons into operation as two

rakes of 15, which can be joined on special occasions.”