Concrete sleepers

[BLHS]

A query from Bicester LOcal History Society. Can anybody identify the markings on a concrete sleeper found in the Bicester, Oxfordshire area? The sleeper has the initials GFCR 1943. They were probably used on the spur off the Oxford - Bletchley line just north of Bicester which ran to Bicester airfield (built in the 1940s) but lifted years ago.
Just wanted to know what GFCR stood for - if anything! Two of them have been offered to the Society:?

 

[John Webb]

Probably the maker of the sleepers? But as a wartime production this might be someone who wasn't usually involved in such work in peace-time. I suspect the best bet is to see if there's any files in the National Archive relating to this area of railway - there may be information there.

 

[kentuckytony]

Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete?
http://www.stonewear.com/tech/history.htm
Maybe they were experimenting with it? [If 1943 is actually a date.]

 

[John Webb]

Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete?
http://www.stonewear.com/tech/history.htm
Maybe they were experimenting with it? [If 1943 is actually a date.]

Thanks for that link - I wasn't aware of glass-fibre reinforced concrete prior to Building Research's 1967 and later work and hadn't thought of that. (I used to work at BRE!)

It is very common for railway track components to have the date incorporated and 1943 ties in with the date of the airfield involved and was two years after the 1941 introduction of GFRC. So these sleepers probably have some historic interest?

 

[kentuckytony]

Sounds like it may be worth the Society to give the proffered objects a nice home!
Maybe even worth, if not too expensive, having a sample tested to see if it really is GFRC.

Keep us informed as to what is decided.

[As usual, forgive my American spelling of fibre as fiber. We do, however, have a cereal here named "Fruit & Fibre" and when it first came out, they would have people on commercials saying "Fib-Ray" for laughs!]

 

[John Webb]

Sounds like it may be worth the Society to give the proffered objects a nice home!
Maybe even worth, if not too expensive, having a sample tested to see if it really is GFRC.

An X-ray should do the the trick - that would show if there was any metal reinforcing - if not it's almost certainly GFRC without having to chop off any of the sleeper. Might be worth contacting BRE Ltd. (as they now are) http://www.bre.co.uk - but as now an independent company and not government any more they probably wouldn't test it for free, alas!

[As usual, forgive my American spelling of fibre as fiber. We do, however, have a cereal here named "Fruit & Fibre" and when it first came out, they would have people on commercials saying "Fib-Ray" for laughs!]

Of course we do - likewise please excuse any of us who complain about people refering to "train stations" rather than railway stations!

 

[Trog]

You can usually see the reinforcement sticking out of the ends of reinforced concrete sleepers. So if the ends show no reinforcement, that may be evidence that these sleepers are not reinforced with the normal wire. (Or strands in more recent designs of sleepers.)