Three 1950s BR 'A-type' containers arrived on the railway this week, from Rutland Railway Museum. These two have the corrugated end, the most common variation of the 'A-type' design...
...whilst the third is the all-wood design. They don't look great, but they don't look too bad, do they?
Oh dear. Rotten corner post betrays the illusion. One of the other containers has the same problem as well.
The all-wood container had to be moved so was tentatively picked up with the forklift.
Despite careful handling, there was no way of preventing it falling apart even more during transit.
All the wood was beyond saving so the decision was made to completely demolish it, but retain the metal parts in order to make a new wooden body. Here we see the container in flat-pack format!
This is planned to be a relatively long-term project so it will be quite a while before any progress is made. These parts will be loaded into the one container that does seem to be holding together for the time being, until we are ready to tackle it.
On an unrelated note, GWR 'Hall Class' No.4936 "Kinlet Hall" was due to arrive on the Friday for the steam gala on 10th/11th September. Unfortunately it got held up and should now arrive next week instead.
