GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Moor Street Station: gwrms1722

Having drawn this empty British Rail Banana Van out of one of the electric wagon hoists above Shed B using the wire pulley rope attached to the electric ‘Clyde’ capstan, the Shunter coils the wire rope around the capstan bollard head. These capstans were manufactured by Stotbert & Pitt Ltd., in Bath. They had the bollard head fixed to the gearing and were worked by a Sandycroft squirrel cage induction motor with special high resistance motor windings to give high starting torque at low current. They were rated to pull 750 lb at 300 r.p.m., with a maximum pull of 2,000 lb. This banana van has been unloaded in the lower warehouse Shed B and will now be collected and probably returned to Avonmouth Docks. The wagon has been built to a London Midland and Scottish Railway 1930s design with a welded steel underframe of nine inch channels, plyboard sides, structurally supported with steel angles and corrugated steel ends. The wagon has screw shackle couplings.

Robert Ferris

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