51L: The finely detailed railway model. A brief background to the use of prvate owner wagons on Britain's railways.

Private owner wagons: A brief biography

Use of Private owner wagons on British Railways may be traced back to the earliest days. By 1887 the private owner wagon was firmly established on Britain's railways. The standard of maintenace of some wagons left much to be desired and through the Railway Clearing House the railway companies organised a series of requirments including the regisrtration and design of wagons. This led to the 1887 RCH specifications followed by the 1907 and 1923 requirments.

Private owner wagons were used principally for the conveyance of minera traffic, mainly coal ; although limestone, coke, other goods such as petroleum products and salt were also carried in specialist vehicles. Private owner wagons were found throughout the country although they were less common on North Eastern Railway where large numbers of railway owned specialist wagons were available. The private owner wagon lasted until nationalisation in 1947, the exceptions being specialist vehicles such petroleum tankers, salt vans and three box coal wagons. More recently privately owned wagons have become common place again on Britain's Railways but this era is more suitably considered elsewhere.

For further reading we suggest the following:

Coal trade wagons, L Tavender, 1991, L Tavender
British Goods Wagons 1887 to the present day, R J Essery, D P Rowland, W O Steel, OPC, 1970, Chapter 3, ISBN 7153 4739 X
Private Owner Wagons, vol 1, Bill Hudson, OPC
Private Owner Wagons, vol 2, Bill Hudson, OPC
Private Owner Wagons, vol 3, Bill Hudson, OPC, 1984, ISBN 0 86093 2060
Private Owner Wagons, vol 4, Bill Hudson, OPC, 1987, ISBN 0 9512793 00
Private Owner Wagons, Bill Hudson, Oakwood Press, 1996, ISBN 0 85361 492 X
Private Owner Wagons from the Ince Waggon & Ironworks Co, A J Watts, HMRS 1998, ISBN 0 902 835 25 4
Private Owner Wagons from the Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company Ltd, K Montague, OPC, 1981, ISBN 86093 124 2
Modelling aspects of the coal industry, R Johnston, BLP, 2003, ISBN 1 899624 43 0
Private owner wagons: A first collection, K Turtron, Lightmoor Press, ISBN 1 899889 12 4 0
Private owner wagons: A second collection, K Turtron, Lightmoor Press, ISBN 1 899889 14 4 0
Private owner wagons: A third collection, K Turtron, Lightmoor Press, ISBN 1 899889 14 0
Private owner wagon of the forrest of Dean, Ian Pope, Lightmoor Press, ISBN 1 899889 09 4

Many of the these books may be obtained from specialised book sellers for some suggestions press here.

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