Coal traffic
There is a lot of information about wagons and collieries: this is an attempt to describe three kinds of traffic and what they actually looked like:
A - from colliery to marshalling yard B - across country between marshalling yards C - from marshalling yard to coal merchants at wayside stations.
The first leg was often called a trip working.
The second was usually a long distance through working under Class C lights. This category ran at the slowest speed and included all-coal trains (or empties). There were also Class C through goods of a more mixed variety.
The third leg was what might be called "local" pick-up goods under Class D lights.
I'm going to show examples of all three kinds and how the loads changed over the years. Many modellers seem to think that only 7-plank wagons were employed and the trains were totally uniform. I'm going to show how early coal (or "mineral") wagons were much smaller and once in service, they lasted a great many years. A high degree of uniformity was never established until after steam haulage had ended, the immediately preceding 1960s looking very uniform thanks to the steel mineral wagon. Although the more knowledgable among us can show how this type developed in the late 1930s and oh-so-many slightly different types followed. It's best to take a chronological look at the traffic
The first example is undated but my estimate would be c1923 around the Grouping. Seen near Leicester a class C train is headed by GCR-built Class 9F (later J11) No 1046 and the variety of wagons is mind-boggling. The identifiable types in the first thirteen are:
3-plank |
1 |
4-plank |
1 |
5-plank |
4 |
6-plank |
3 |
7-plank |
4 |
Yup, that's 5 different kinds! And they are a mixture of privately owned and railway company wagons. Photo: LGRP No. 16187.
This is 1927 and an Up GWR train in the Thames valley near Twyford headed by "Aberdare" 2-6-0 No 2662 and every identifiable wagon still has grease axleboxes: .
3-plank |
- |
4-plank |
- |
5-plank |
2 |
6-plank |
2 |
7-plank |
5 |
8-plank |
1 |
The huge variety of wagons is clearly visible here too and though the proportion of 7- and 8-plank wagons is higher, 40% of the wagons are still 5- and 6-plank. Photo: Maurice Earley.
Now into the late 1930s:
An LMS view from 1938 near Kenilworth with 4F No 4350 in charge of what looks like a trip working with:
3-plank |
- |
4-plank |
- |
5-plank |
5 |
6-plank |
1 |
7-plank |
4 |
8-plank |
- |
In this train, some 60% 0f the wagons are 5- or 6-plank, in other words, only about 40% are 7-plank: older wagons still dominated the traffic. It's also worth noting that the leading three wagons don't have end doors: only side doors. Photo: Gordon Coltas.
This undated picture at Rugby Central of a Class C goods hauled by ex-NER Q6 0-8-0, No 2274, I would date as 1943 when it was allocated to Neville Hill and would have been working a train from York or Neville Hill to Woodford Halse, a working usually handled by a 4-6-0. A couple of covered vans can be seen and five coal wagons, several identifiable as West Riding collieries such as Upton and Silkstone. The CWS wagon (Co-operative Wholesale Society) could have come from a colliery in the NE but was probably serving one of the society's many industrial concerns with Yorkshire coal.
At least one 6-plank wagon can be seen and several different grades of coal. Photo: AWV Mace collection.
Grades of coal
These are all BR-period views but from higher angles by which the wide variety of coal moved by rail can be seen:
This picture at Thoresby Colliery in 1955 ran in the Model Rail article and I show it again to remind modellers of two aspects:
Firstly, the sheer variety of the grades of coal. In the distance two pitheads can be seen that were clearly reaching different seams of coal, from which coal merchants could offer many varieties to suit customers' choices and their pockets, of course. Photo: BR, author's collection.
Secondly, that although the steel mineral wagon had been been introduced before WW2, it took a long time to eliminate the wooden wagons and this mid-fifties picture shows a 50/50 mixture of both kinds, among which 7- and 8-plank wagons can be seen. Look closely and you'll even see a trio of 5-plank wagons.
Note that the three 5-plank wagons have a different grade of coal to the surrounding wagons and may have been destined for one customer.
An interesting point is that all these wagons are freshly loaded and the coal in each wagon is quite high with a distinct pyramid.
Click on the image for an enlargement
The next three views illustrate what many modellers' interpretation of identical loads could benefit from!
It's April 2nd 1951 and ex-LMS Jubilee Class 4-6-0 No.45609 Gilbert and Ellis Islands is passing a coal train at Kingswood in South Gloucestershire. Different grades of coal have been loaded to well below the top edge of the wagons, except for the 6-plank merchandise wagon which is overflowing. It was not unknown for wagons like this to find themselves in coal trains and they show in many photographs. Three wagons nearest the camera are carrying what may be a rough sorted industrial variety. Intriguingly, they are relatively modern steel mineral wagons.
Unlike a right variety of old wooden wagons in the next batch, all carrying quite finely sized coal. This may have been for an industrial user, although it's fair to say such a size became more popular for home fires - previously a large size with its ability to burn in a large open grate with minimal attention had been the height of luxury. Photo: ER Morten.
After travelling some distance, the loads in each wagon have flattened out, especially the finer grades. Loads with larger lumps weren't so affected. This I would suggest is how most coal trains looked.
Click on the image for an enlargement
Another view from the early 1950s, 26th July 1952, as J83 No.68469 (St.Margarets) passes Craigleath signal box with a Class C (now Code J) short distance coal train in which all the wagons are carrying a decent quality of coal and best described as a trip working from north to south through Edinburgh. More relevant perhaps are the wagons:
5-plank |
1 |
7-plank & 8-plank |
6 |
steel mineral wagons |
2 |
The 5-plank merchandise wagon is visibly loaded with less coal than the other wagons and, in other words, there were 4 different types of wagon here of different lengths and heights - and marvellous to see. The steam railway was always a transition of old and new designs. Photo: authors collection.
Click on the image for an enlargement
An unidentified WD 2-8-0 approaches Peterborough in July 1958 with an Up coal train. The wagons nearest the camera are carrying high quality domestic coal in large lumps. Note the merchandise ex-LMS 5-plank open, and that two of the four wooden mineral wagons are 8-plank, a type rarely "seen" by modellers. The contrast with the coal in the next five wagons could not be greater for they are carrying a finely divided grade which may be destined as fuel for kilns in the many brickworks which were established nearby.
It's also striking to see how the finer grades have flattened out, but not the larger lumps - they look very different. Photo: BR, author's collection.
Click on the image for an enlargement
