TANKED UP

Ex-BR Class 14 NCB31 is hard at work hauling a stores and fuel train up the gradient towards Maudetown Colliery.

As part of my on-going colliery project, not only have I been amassing numerous mineral wagons under BR and NCB ownership, but I’ve also been creating a range of stores and service vehicles. Allowing the Coal Board to maintain its own rail network and industrial infrastructure, a motley collection of open wagons and vans have been taken from BR’s surplus stocks and ‘bodged’ about to keep them working.

As Maudetown Colliery is set atop a hill, high in the South Wales Valleys, it’s my supposition that much material and resources has to be shipped up the branch from the exchange sidings. This includes clean water and fuel for the colliery’s small fleet of steam and diesel traction. Having originally envisaged converting a spare GWR Collett loco tender into a water carrier, I changed my mind during the painting stage and rendered the finished model as a fuel oil tanker.

Having finished Maudetown’s water tower a few weeks ago, it’s probably time that I did the same with the diesel fuelling point!

With appropriate Hazchem warning signs, the fuel tank certainly looks distinctive as part of Maudetown's service train.