By Philip Elwin

Containers on the Kirschtal Bahn? Well almost, this low side wagon with removable casks has been added to the commercial fleet to deal with new business.

Recently a local distillery approached the railway with a proposal to ship cherry brandy (Kirsch) in bulk. This had been a regular traffic during the great Black Forest Gateaux Boom in the 60’s and 70’s, but dwindled away since.

As usual, when new traffic requiring special handling comes along, a gang from the maintenance shop is sent down to the scrap (sorry ‘storage’) sidings at the old Oberdorf West station, to see what they can find that might usefully turn a wheel and be pressed into service at minimal cost.

This time, lurking amongst the weeds they found a chassis with mouldering body work probably dating from the earliest days of the line. A promising candidate, it was hauled out, stripped and put through the works, receiving new woodwork, drop sides and a set of new wheels in the process. Further down the scrap line a wagon in even worse state yielded some casks of uncertain heritage which had survived rather better than their carrying wagon. What purpose the casks had been put to is lost in the mists of time, but whatever it was seems to have preserved them quite well. Following a quick wash out (someone did wash them didn’t they?) and a lick of paint they were soon ready to begin earning some much needed revenue.

In fact, of course, this project started out as a means to use up some plywood offcuts and bits and pieces lying around the workshop. A quick tidy up yielded strip wood, various bits of plywood, some brass sheet hoarded against a rainy day, edge trim from brass etches and some iron wire. A new set of wheels completed the job. The casks were fabricated using a wrapper made from a cereal carton over discs of diminishing diameter cut from grocery boxes.