A sequel to the author's 'British Railways Goods Wagons in Colour', this volume starts with a look back to the 1960s and shows the development of British freight stock to the present day. The trains in which the wagons run, the depots they serve and the background to their introduction, plus a look at Irish freight developments and narrow gauge wagons are all included. Modellers and all interested in railway freight stock will want to add this volume to their collection.
Railways were invented to carry goods, primarily minerals. By the time of nationalisation, British Rails role as 'common carrier' whereby they were obliged to carry any type of freight traffic offered to them - had fully developed.
David Larkin is well-known for his study of British Railways goods wagons, and this new work pays particular attention to those ordered by BR in the earliest years of its existence. The Big Four pre-Nationalisation companies all had outstanding wagon orders under construction in 1948, and these continued to be delivered with their original numbers, albeit with new prefix letters. In addition, the newly-created BR acquired a fleet of wagons from the erstwhile Ministry of War Transport. These are also considered in this book, together with the early BR orders for wagons based on existing Big Four designs and on its own early standard designs in the period up to the eve of the Modernisation Plan of 1955. Profusely illustrated, this book includes Lot and Diagram details, wagon number ranges, information on the builders and livery details. The wagons featured are very diverse and include Lowfits wagons, open wagons, containers and container wagons, mineral wagons, ventilated vans, railtanks, cattle wagons and brake vans.
In the 1960s, Terry Gough realized that the traditional goods wagon was rapidly disappearing from British Railways, so he set out to measure, photograph, draw and eventually model as many wagons as he could find.To augment these early observations, Terry continued to gather information from the many wagons that have been preserved in the intervening years.The result is a comprehensive survey of wagons used on the Southern Region of BR that had survived from the pre- and post-grouping eras. For each wagon, there are full details, dimensions, livery details, variations and conversions together with excellent photographs of the prototypes and 4mm scale drawings produced especially for the book. Diagram numbers are also included to aid reference to previous published works on SR wagons, and where examples of wagons can still be seen on preserved lines, full location details are given. This book is not intended to replace the existing standard works on the wagons of the Southern Railway and its constituents, but builds upon those books to present a large selection of freight vehicles that could have been seen from the 1900s, through the BR years, and in many cases to the present day in preservation.
David Larkin continues his comprehensive survey of British Railways goods wagons by looking at the final flowering of vacuum-braked stock, and the development of air-braked stock in the final years of British Railways, such as"merry-go-round" coal hoppers and Freightliner flat wagons. The batch of vacuum-fitted prototypes that eventually led to the general fleet of air-braked opens and vans is also covered.