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Private Owner Wagons : A Fifth Collection

Private Owner Wagons : A Fifth Collection


Keith Turton

184 pages. 275x215mm. Printed on gloss art paper, casebound with printed board covers.

ISBN13 : 9781899889228

£19.95

This fifth volume reverts to the format of  the first three books in the series and looks at another wide range of wagons and their owners. Again, 60+ operators of wagons are identified and the text is illustrated with over 170 photographs. A further section looks back over all of the previous volumes and adds new material, both photographic and documentary, which has come to light since the original publication. As in the earlier volumes, reference is made to where models of the wagons illustrated can be obtained and a full list of sources for the original material used to compile this book is given.

Private Owner Wagons : A Fifth Collection - Sample Images

sample book illustration
One of the most impressive portraits of a Private Owner wagon is this official study of No. 351, taken in 1927. If the Birmingham manufacturer had been as meticulous with their records as they were in photographing it we could learn more. It is an eight-plank standard RCH 1923 model with side and end doors, brakes both sides and would therefore measure 16ft 0in. x 7ft 6in. x 4ft 7in. It is from an order placed in 1927 for 20 wagons with the Birmingham RC&WCo. of Smethwick, and bears their typical five star trademark on the visible end, together with the oval owner’s plate, No 30830. Despite being built by Birmingham it carries a rectangular repairs plate on the solebar for the South Staffs Wagon Co. although note that a rivals plate has not had the lettering picked out! Registration was with the GWR. The wagon appears, in comparison with other wagons of the same builder and period, to be painted a medium grey with white letters shaded black and black vertical ironwork as shown. Italic letters at bottom left read ‘Empty to Baddesley Colliery, Atherstone, L.M.S.R.’. Note that the ‘Load 12 tons’ is not painted on the wagon sill, but cast on a plate on the solebar. Ian Pope collection
sample book illustration
Taken in the early years of the Second World War at the Spondon Power Station, Derby, two Fox wagons are shown discharging small coal into the underground hoppers. No. 418 is a Butterley product and No. 716 was built by Charles Roberts. Although these may have been a standard design, there are subtle differences to be found such as the manual hopper door mechanism. No. 716 has a date of 6/6/41 on the solebar under ‘Derby’. There are several Fox wagons in the sidings in the background, both conventional and hoppers. Identifiable numbers are 761, 2728 and 2643, all Charles Roberts products. Derbyshire Records Office