Alexander Seal

Broccolo Special

Introduction

The Broccolos

broccoli cornish name for cauliflower

Broccoli Trains

9' wheelbase in Class C?
Does the brake van have to be fitted, piped or just HBO?

They would poodle up to Truro to be examined and piped up and then away as
a class C (provided enough of the wagons were braked). The problems came
later because there were no diagrammed engines or crews for these trains and
as they were wired on from district to district the Controllers at Plymouth,
Bristol etc would have to form an estimate of their arrival time and find a
crew to relieve them. As they were class C you might well have to consider
cancelling something lower down the scale and adjusting the local working to
fit. Each district would want to know whether the engine was fit to work
through - unless there happened to be an unbalanced engine waiting to go to
where the broccoli train was going - and would keep it going for as long as
possible. If it was a Penzance engine, Long Rock could say goodbye to it
for several days since it might well end up at Crewe with a very slim chance
of getting back to the West of England in less than half a dozen jumps

Marazion yard was the point chosen for loading the bulk of the Broccoli
traffic as there was very little other traffic to interrupt matters and
growers could come and go without impediment.

R.C. Riley titled "steam on the Broccolo" which appeared in the 1966 edition of Trains Annual.

Interestingly, Riley lists the trains for May 15 1960 as:-

11.15am Marazion- Cardiff hauled by 6823
11.40am Penzance- Paddington hauled by 6860
12.45pm Marazion- Cardiff hauled by 7929
1.35pm Marazion- Oxley hauled by 6825
6.5pm Penzance - Bristol hauled by 6808
7.35pm Marazion -Banbury hauled by 6873
8.15pm Marazion- Saltney hauled by 3862 (6862?) 37 vanfits

The July 1934 editon of the Great Western Railway Magazine includes an
article titled 'Record Traffic in Cornish Broccoli'. The article states:
"On one day twelve special trains, comprising over 580 wagons, were
dispatched..." However, I haven't a clue as to whether this average of 48+
wagons per train was the norm or whether it was heftier than usual.

"The Great Western Railway in West Cornwall" by Alan Bennett makes several
references to broccoli traffic.

There is a picture of both cattle wagons and vans being loaded with broccoli
at Marazion dated 1959. Also, statistics were as follows: 31,495 tons in
1936 and 35,490 tons in 1937. In 1935 73 special trains left Penzance
district in one week with what is described as heavy consignments of
broccoli. It is worth noting that there was a thriving flower and potato
trade that would be transported in similar wagons.

Wooden crates were introduced in 1929 to replace old wicker and net baskets.

"An Introduction to GWR Goods Services" makes reference to over 450 special trains requiring 20,240 wagons in the 1937/38 season - implies an average of 40+

Questions...

Locomotive

Loco

Wagons

Photograph in Model Rail No. 58 shows about 18 wagons, majority cattle wagons but some ventilated vans.