RhB Covered Freight Car History Question

[Paradise]

I have a string of Newqida Swiss covered freight cars which are various colours, some bright with non prototypical markings which I wish to re-paint for early steam era. I intend to haul them with my Brawa G 4/5 and LGB Heidi.
From what I can gather they were built from as early as 1911 through to the late 60s.
Does anyone here know what colour they were painted in the early days. Were they all brown with silver roof?

"achsig" Fotos (30) - Bahnbilder.de

 

[PhilP]

Slight aside:
Does anyone have a picture of one of these, with one of the ?vents? on the side open?

 

[Paradise]

Sorry, not one but all. Let the cows breathe some fresh Swiss mountain air. Yodel-ay-hee-hoo!

RhB - Gb 5815 am 04.09.1996 in Samedan - Gedeckter Güterwagen 2-achsig mit 1 offenen Plattform - Baujahr 1967 - SIG - Gewicht 7,27t - Zuladung 15,00t ... - Bahnbilder.de

 

[PaulRhB]

Grey was an early livery but the early vans differ in detail. Of course the modern version can run quite prototypically with Heidi in black or Rhätia in green.

Schweizer Bahnen H0m

Photos from Bemo




The one LGB & NQ made

 

[PaulRhB]

Nice bit of film at 55:32 of the vans in use with cattle.

 

[Paradise]

Thanks Paul. so the early car bodies were lined differently with internal frame and vertical planking. I guess what I am asking is what was a typical livery for the earliest external frame, horizontal planking cars like the LGB and NQ models. Possibly around 1911 or so. Surely that RhB logo is fairly modern too. Were they grey too?

Nice video! If anyone is interested, the moos are @ 56:18 time stamp as linked below. Stubborn big lumps won't go through a door unless others have already done so. I had to try do that when I was a skinny kid. Ha!

 

[PaulRhB]

Pretty sure the logo is 70’s to 80’s, before that it was various styles of just the lettering. Not sure when the more modern van was introduced but I can’t find them in photos dated 40’s & 50’s, all the earlier K series vans. I’ve asked on the RhB forum so hopefully more knowledgeable folk can help
Gion, who’s a RhB driver, said the Gb series were delivered in brown with metal doors, the doors were painted brown as they went in for service. The lower three boards rotted in cattle traffic so were replaced fairly regularly. All vans of this type could be used in cattle service, in the season, except those with metal floors for milk traffic.

 

[Paradise]

Paul, many of the outside framed cars listed in the topmost link I made in this thread state the year of construction as 1913 with some as early as 1911. Unless that is just the chassis with the bodies rebuilt later. I'm not sure.
Thanks for your help. Very informative. From what you say It seems like they were brown including the door. My era does not have to be precise. I just like sticking to steam era liveries. The RhB experts will know for sure.

 

[PaulRhB]

I think you may be right that they were rebuilt as the wheelbase looks the same. Steam era would be grey for definite but I suspect the vans are technically wrong in that condition. I wonder if they rebuilt with horizontal slats so it was easier to replace the rotten wood caused by the livestock traffic? Must be far easier to replace three levels than one end of all the boards.

 

[PaulRhB]

The 40284 / 4027 / 4040 or 45300 shorty vans can be picked up cheaply and would make a good version of the shorter van seen above in the Bemo photos







I converted some NQ ones to cattle trucks a few years back. You’ll need to rub down the lettering as it’s quite thick.
Body - Tamiya TS1 or Plastikote 2117 chocolate to get variations in colour.
Underframe - Plastikote 3102
Doors - Plastikote 1149
I did RhB transfers later but I’ve lost those photos at the mo.

 

[PhilP]

Thanks for the (open vent) pictures.. For some reason, I had thought they might be 'top-hinged'..

 

[Paradise]

Paul. I'll probably just paint them brown with silver roofs, perhaps later do the doors silver too, much like you have done. They look really good.
The Newqida cars are a bit bright on the eyes, especially the yellow one. Models always look better painted and will probably help them last with a protective coat seeing the plastic is not as good as LGB.
You may be right about the maintenance, replacing the bottom boards therefore being horizontal. If the cars were often used for cattle, the smooth inside lining would help prevent injury and withstand more banging around by the big cattle rumps. Similar to USA stock cars. I'm glad I bought a few when I could. I don't think anyone is selling them now. Thanks again for the assistance.

 

[PaulRhB]

the year of construction as 1913 with some as early as 1911. Unless that is just the chassis with the bodies rebuilt later.

From those links and translations it looks like they were built in the 1910’s to 30’s with various rebuilds as K series then rebuilt in the late 60’s to Gb vans. That would figure why they appear in 50’s photos as K’s with vertical planking & wood doors and only as the LGB Gb with metal doors from the 70’s onwards.
If you can live with the planking difference you could plank the doors by scribing them and replace the pressed metal shutters with plain ones.

 

[dunnyrail]

As might be imagined over the years the RHB had many differing types of Van so almost anything goes. I have been looking through my Shweers + Wall book on Wagons of the RHB. Undoubtedly many types were built and it is even possible to have Planks all Vertical plus on the Door or all Horizontal plus on the door. In the book there is even a picture of a Van with Horzontal Planks except that the door planks are Vertical! So almost anything goes, but if you need to be correct a look at the book will help. Personally I would be very tempted to replace the door and scribe planks whichever way you wish. A repaint to Grey will certainly put the Van back into the Steam era. When we built the Ruschbahn Andy was of the Steam era with early Electrics persuation thus pretty well everything was painted Grey.

 

[phils2um]

Nice bit of film at 55:32 of the vans in use with cattle.

I do like the "Kuh Express"!

 

[idlemarvel]

Nice bit of film at 55:32 of the vans in use with cattle.

Excellent video not just for the cows (they definitely did not want to get on board!) but for all the other freight movements. I watched volume one as well which shows container traffic (Co-op and PTT) and gravel trains.

 

[dunnyrail]

Excellent video not just for the cows (they definitely did not want to get on board!) but for all the other freight movements. I watched volume one as well which shows container traffic (Co-op and PTT) and gravel trains.

Certainly much of interest on the RHB with Goods workings, nothing like that in UK now just mostly boring block, freightliner and engineers trains. Not sure how the RHB is with regard to the odd wagon (wagon load) situation now, certainly when I visited a couple of times in the late 80’s freights with individual wagons to be added were quite common place. In fact one could travel behind the Crocodiles in Mixed Freights picking up and detaching Wagons as one went. The Mixed Trains were not fast but who cared when so much of interest was occurring.

 

[PaulRhB]

The RhB has mostly followed the standard gauge although technically wagonload still exists but now done with containers so the whole lot is craned off onto a lorry to deliver to the local store. The four wheel vans are still around but mostly in maintenance use although two were in use as baggage space on the heritage train this summer. Van traffic now uses bogie ones with sliding doors for block traffic on a regular basis for the Valser run, smaller takes are owned by Kuoni & Volg but you only tend to see 2-3 together. A few are used for one off consignments though and one builders merchant near Landquart also has a liveried van, probably for bulk shipments of material over the passes, although I’ve not caught it parked up and unloading anywhere yet.

 

[PaulRhB]

It’s been confirmed that the longer K vans were indeed rebuilt to become the Gb series. So if you can live with the horizontal planking and scribe the door, or replace it, to represent a planked one and paint them grey they will go fine as steam era cars. The rebuild coincided with the change to the UIC system in 69.
I’d use the Bemo image above as a guide.

 

[Paradise]

So, there you go. The Newqida cars as they are should be brown as they were rebuilt with newer bodies in 69. I suspect the brighter colours came later as goods brand promotion. It would be fairly simple to built some steam era bodies like the Bemo image above in grey for the NQ cars and swap them out depending on what I like at the time. I think now I have a plan! The thread has demystified the issue and been an education. Thanks to all.