GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Hatton Bank: gwrhb2229

Ex-Great Western Railway 56xx class 0-6-2T No 6604 descends Hatton Bank on the up main line with a Bordesley to Leamington Spa local freight train on a clear morning in March 1962. Amongst the load are two 20 ton Pressure Discharge Bulk Powder 'Presflo' wagons (BR Diagram 1/272). These are probably empty wagons returning to Harbury Cement Works (link). The Presflo wagon were first introduced in June 1954 with 1,921 being built by 1963. The wagon was gravity top loaded, but emptied using compressed air pressure through a flexible pipe connected to valves on one side of the wagon. In addition to cement, Presflo wagons were also used to transport; salt, slate powder, fullers earth, sand, silica, alumina, flour and in the late 1980s, power station fly ash.

Robert Ferris

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