Freight Operations - Private Owner Stock - Overview
Although they add a welcome splash of colour to the railway scene the
Private Owner or PO wagon was for many years something of a problem for the
railways. In many countries the PO wagons are not used and it is probably worth
considering how British private owner wagons came into existence in the first
place.
When the first railways were being built there was no real
understanding of how they would operate in practice. Concern that the railway
owners would hold traders to ransom by virtue of being a virtual monopoly on
high speed land transport was a very real issue. The canals had dealt with this
problem by banning the canal owning companies from operating their own boats,
or legislating to allow private operators to use the canals for a fixed and
reasonable fee. This had worked on the canals and a similar approach was taken
with the railways. No one objected at the time and although it soon became
clear that all the locomotives had to be railway company owned several lines
were built with the intention that all goods would be moved in privately owned
wagons. The railways then found that operating their own wagons was in many
cases preferable, and more profitable. By the 1850's there was so much
competition between the railway companies that concern over monopoly control
receded, however the provision for the use of PO stock had been written into
the legislation required to authorise the building of the lines and the PO
wagon remained a feature of the business.
The railway companies found
that people tended to hang on to a wagon or van, especially those taken onto a
private siding, using it as temporary storage. To get round this they
introduced charges, called 'demurrage' that fell due if a wagon was not loaded
or emptied and made available for collection within 48 hours. In many cases
this made little difference to the users but coal in particular had its own
operational needs that often favoured retaining a wagon for some time (coal
traffic is discussed separately in the section on Freight Operations - Private
Owner Stock).
The charge levied for moving goods by rail was made up
of a series of separate fees - There was the hire of the wagon and possibly the
hire of a tarpaulin and ropes to cover it, there was a charge for loading and
unloading, possibly collection and delivery using railway owned road vehicles
and a charge for hauling the wagon through the system. The PO wagon avoided
most of these charges, and demurrage, the railway could only charge for the
hauling of the wagon from point to point. For some trades the use of PO stock
was therefore preferable on financial grounds.
The railways were
allowed to turn down any traffic would damage a standard wagon or taint it in
such a way that it could not then be used in general traffic. Coal was such a
widespread commodity that this rule did not apply however and PO coal wagons
were in the majority
The main problem with the PO wagon, particularly
the coal wagons, was that they were often built to the most basic permissible
design (controlled by the Railway Clearing House, see Historical Background
section) and furthermore they were often poorly maintained. Grease lubricated
axle boxes remained common on PO stock long after most railway owned wagons had
oil filled axle boxes, the grease type were cheaper but tended to overheat and
cause problems. This meant that many (if not most) of the PO wagons could only
be moved in the slowest of goods trains (typically 20 mph) and they were the
most likely vehicles to break down. A severely overheating axlebox could melt
the end of the axle right off, depositing the remains of the wagon (with its
load) on the track. This would block the line in use until the remains had been
cleared away and could even block adjacent tracks if following wagons were
derailed. A train which included these older types of wagon had to be stopped
every 60 miles or less so that a carriage and wagon inspector could to check
every axle box.
As a result there was something of a tradition amongst
railway companies to seek to eliminate, or at least greatly reduce the number
of PO wagons they had to deal with. The Midland Railway had a serious go at
buying all the private owners out, offering their own wagons for lease at
favourable rates, but the task proved impossible. The GWR's Felix Pole twenty
ton coal wagons were similarly aggressively marketed, these also required a lot
less siding space than the old eight and ten ton PO stock, which contributed to
the potential savings for the railway company. Tradition, aspects of the
legislation appertaining to PO wagons and some operational advantages meant
that the PO wagon resisted all these moves. Only in the North East did the
provision of coal carrying stock favour the railway owned wagons, but this was
by virtue of the railways (notably the NER) investing in high capacity hopper
wagons and purpose built 'coal drops' to which these could be operated.
During the Second World War the government requisitioned all the PO coal
wagons and any other not particularly specialised PO rolling stock. These were
then pooled and their owners paid a set fee to offset their losses. After the
war much of this stock was seriously worn out and with the formation of British
Railways it was decided to eliminate the PO wagon from the railways (other than
for specialised stock such as rail tanks). All the PO coal wagons were bought,
including those built in the later war years and immediately after. In the
1950's all the older ex PO stock and any with grease axle boxes were hauled
away and burned to get rid of them.
For a time after the war PO wagons
then remained something of a rarity, other than for specialised traffic, one
exception being the small number of privately owned wagons operating from the
continent via the train ferry services.
Not all railway wagons in non
private livery were owned by the company who's name appeared on the side.
Before the second world war special block-loads were occasionally run usually
for seasonal goods. For example blanket firms tended to build up a stock during
the summer, these were then dispatched in a single train to the towns ready for
the Autumn. On these trains it was not unknown for a tarpaulin or board,
painted to advertise the product or its destination, to be fastened to the side
of the vans.
In the 1940's and 50's a company called Fry's had a fleet
of 150 or so British Railways wagons painted in their livery, unfortunately I
am not sure if this was Fry's chocolate or Fry's tea (the tea firm definitely
used rail transport).
More common, where a firm had railway company
wagons reserved for their use, was a simple 'Return To . . . .' notice, usually
above the standard markings in the lower left or right of the body side. On
coaching stock a common practice on these reserved vehicles was to fit simple
boards on the roof similar to the destination headboards fitted to some
passenger stock. Some vehicles with these boards also had a notice painted on
the side stating the stock was to work between the factory and a set
destination. A pre-war example of this being the GWR Siphon F's and C's used
for Harris's sausages from Colne in Lancashire to Newcastle.
BR owned
all the former railway company wagon works and tried building stock for leasing
to customers, their first effort was a fleet of chemical tank wagons, but by
this time the railways were in financial trouble, the massive government
investment had not paid off and by the later 1960's BR were actively
discouraged from buying new rolling stock. The original legislation regarding
PO stock remained on the books and private companies began to offer PO wagons
for purchase or hire.
By the early 1970's the wagon builders were
competing for this trade and the number of PO wagons types proliferated. These
wagons were however being marketed as being in some way preferable to the BR
stock, often featuring innovative designs and always built to the highest
standards to allow high speed transit. BRT converted some redundant VDA vans in
the early 1970's, fitting them with sides made up of four quarter length
sliding doors (the central pair being set out to clear the end pair) and
painting them in standard BRT blue. Campbell's Soups hired these vans and in
18981 some were rebuilt with canvass curtain sides which bore the colourful
Campbell's soup livery. I believe the Campbell's soup vans were run in standard
Speedlink services.
Fig___ Campbell's soup van
I
believe Pedigree foods (the pet food people) also had at least one rather
similar curtain sided van bearing their livery (this may have been a one-off
promotional vehicle however). Unfortunately I only have one photograph of these
(in an early 1980's BR advert) which I cannot find and so cannot attempt a
sketch. Pedigree went on to hire a fleet of bogie container flats carrying
thirty foot long swap bodies in the mid 1980's. The wagons (and possibly the
swap bodies) were commissioned by Charter Rail, by the early twenty first
century the wagons were in use on bin-liner (containerised rubbish) trains. I
asked on the uk.railway newsgroup and David A. Pritichard was kind enough to
reply as follows:
All I remember about the Pedigree petfoods train was that they were run as block trains. I believe they were originally run using long wheelbase vans in standard BR bauxite. I think the swap-body vehicles appeared in the early eighties. One odd thing to note is that this train received the highest priority (3-1-1) and was not to be delayed for any reason (hold back the passenger, run the petfood!).
A lot of companies invested heavily in PO wagons, notably the oil
companies, only to be faced in the later 1970's with the costs of the change
over from vacuum brake to air brakes. Some vacuum braked PO stock was never
altered, a notable example being the ICI limestone hoppers built in the 1930's
which soldiered on into the 1990's. These wagons operated as block trains and
were well maintained so they were able to carry on as long as a loco with a
vacuum brake was available to haul them. See Goods Rolling Stock Design -
Chassis - Brakes for a photo of the ICI wagons.
By the early 1980's BR
was competing with the wagon builders to provide rolling stock for customers.
In the mid to late 1980's BR repainted a number of their OAA open wagons in
Redland livery (to carry roofing tiles) and some OBA wagons in the livery of
Plasmor (for carrying lightweight concrete blocks). Both wagon types were
fitted with raised extensions to their ends to allow a double layer of pallets
to be carried. Both these firms are still users of rail and employ modified
stock to transport their products. For more information on these wagons see
Goods Rolling Stock Design - Air Braked PO stock. By this time the brick, tile
and concrete block traffic all fell under the Construction sector of
train-load-freight so Redland and Plasmoor traffic would have operated as block
loads.
By this time the genuine PO wagons tended to be amongst the
most modern and sophisticated stock on the system. Companies were investing in
mechanical handling equipment, particularly with regard to pallets and later
containers, and needed railway stock designed with this in mind.
Fig___ Sliding wall van being loaded with pallets
The end
of wagonload services in 1991 put paid to most PO wagon movements, only stock
operated by companies able to utilise train-load services (notably the oil
companies and aggregates (broken stone) companies) remained in regular use. In
1993 Transrail (one of the immediately pre-privatisation train-load companies,
see Historical Background) introduced a limited wagon load service under the
Enterprise banner. This service was retained by EWS although I believe most
traffic is carried in EWS stock.
Following privatisation there has
again been a tendency for the train operating companies to provide rolling
stock other than where specialised designs are required. Most of the wagon
leasing companies and smaller private wagon builders have disappeared but
existing PO stock has remained in use and the channel tunnel means that a
proportion of colourful Continental stock is still operating in the UK.
The operation of Private Owner wagons could fill a book in its own right,
the notes which follow are only a brief guide.