Private owner wagons

[LC&DR]

There were approximately 600,000 privately owned wagons in service on the UK railways in 1938 owned by approximately 4,000 different traders some large with fleets of 2,000 or more, other small with one or two vehicles.

Wagons had to display the owners name and address, tare weight and carrying capacity in paint on the side and the registration number on a cast metal plate attached to the solebar.

Apart from tank wagons for which there were strict rules about the colour the wagon could be painted traders were free to paint their wagon any colour they wished.

They could write any other lettering on the wagon and most choose to display their trading name in large letters and some words describing their business. This did not need to say what was in the wagon (apart from some tank wagons or wagons carrying explosives or other dangerous goods) and well over 80% were carrying coal or coke in any case. This fuel was usually for sale, or in case of wagons owned by manufacturers to stoke their boilers in their factory.

Large well known manufacturers might use their wagons as mobile advertising hoardings, so for example soap manufacturers may write the name of their best brand on the wagon in large letters.

All this came to a halt in 1939 when all the privately owned (apart from tank wagons and a few wagons for special traffic) were requisitioned by the Government and pooled so they could be used where necessary by the Ministry of War transport. Oil tank wagons were pooled by the Petroleum Board but remained in private hands.

In 1948 all the requisitioned wagons were sold to British Railways, but a few were handed to the National Coal Board to use internally at collieries.

British Railways did not immediately repaint these wagons but changed the number to a new one recognised by a 'P' prefix. The new number was painted on a black panel in white paint at the extreme left hand bottom corner. The original paint was allowed to fade and any replacement of damaged woodwork was left unpainted. is meant the old trader livery was still visible although getting more and more scruffy as time went on.

Most of these old Private Owner wagons were pretty old and tatty by 1948 and most were broken up by the end of the 1960s.

Model manufacturers like these wagons because they are small but colourful and quite popular because of that. Some are sold in authentic liveries but a lot are in imaginary or fake schemes, Older models are particularly bad for this fakery, and a lot were in garish colours. This started with Hornby tinplate in the 1920s and can still be found today, usually on the cheaper models.

If you want authenticity you need to do a moderate amount of research. There are plenty of books about private owner wagons, and Hornby and Bachmann do sell vehicles in correct colours . Beware old Lima, and wagons by companies in the 1970s and 1980s.

Since the 1960s modern high capacity air braked private owner wagons had a revival, especially aggregate hoppers, and containers.

[General DeGaulle]

Don't you believe those naysayers, Gen'l. The prototype wagon was stuffed full of...of...current jam!

I need!

LD and CR - many thanks for your info. I suppose if I do get the odd fictitious wagon as long as it is not too garish ( or unrealistic - like Walkingthedogs fathers day example ) and seems to 'fit in' with the geography and rough time period of the layout then its probably permissable to use them.

[IanS]

Remember Rule 1 - it's your layout, do what you wish!

[Walkingthedog]

IanS is correct. Run what ever you like. If somebody doesn’t like it they can look elsewhere.

[LC&DR]

That is absolutely correct. You run whatever you want on your layout
.
Some people get pleasure from making their layout as realistic and authentic as possible, others love to ring the changes and mix it up to get as much variety as they can. It is after all your own private fantasy world.

If like me you have a wide span of interests you will want to include examples of each of them. However my approach is to have running sessions where compatible rolling stock operates for a while, and when I want to do something else the first lot goes back in its box, and the next lot comes out. There are practical reasons for this, I don't have enough track and sidings to have it all running at once.

My main themes in OO are SE&CR pre-WW1, SR 1930s, SR (1940s), BR (SR) steam, BR(SR) electric and diesel, BR (ER/LMR) 1950s heavy freight, BR Sectorisation diesel heavy freight, 1960s London Underground. Each era has appropriate locomotives, carriages and wagons. I also run gauge O and OO9 on separate layouts.

Model railways should be fun, I am not great on scenery, but I do like to watch my trains go by!

[Tony House]

Hi

One small selection of Private Goods wagons I have, I brought from the wagon restoration group on the Watercress Line which are decorated in private merchants liveries which traded along the line from Winchester to Alton including a Watercress grower''s box wagon.

[LC&DR]

Some years back the National Railway museum and Bachmann produced sets of three PO wagons grouped by Geographic area so that if you wanted some local merchants liveries you could buy them to give an authentic look to your layout.

The NRM were selling off sets that they couldn't sell and I took advantage by buying up a selection at bargain prices. Although my own particular favourite area was not included in the sale it didn't matter too much because wagons might wander all over the country depending upon who was buying coal, so now I have a good selection of wagons suitable for a pre-War goods train.

[footplate]

Growing up and playing with my trainset many years with a vast variety of different goods wagons all with different logos on. Such as Smiths crisps, weetabix just to name a few.
Back then I thought if Hornby made them then they must be real, but now you have burst my bubble saying they are fictitious.
It’s all about what you want to use, it’s your layout and have fun.

[darkscot]

...Bachmann produced sets of three PO wagons grouped by Geographic area...

I bought a set of these for Barnsley collieries, it was then I discovered my collection of lovely bright Dapol 'Dearne Valley' wagons were too blue!

[LC&DR]

Remember that wagons in service got dirty, and bashed about, so within days of being turned out new they gathered a film of dust and grime, which stayed on them and gradually got worse and worse until the wagon went in for a major overhaul. It was rare for anyone to wash a goods wagon.

Because of this owners chose colours which didn't show the dirt so much. Red, brown, black or grey were preferred to yellow, green and blue, however a few firms like to paint their wagons in their house colours and regarded them as mobile advertising hoardings. So gas companies might have a "Mr Therm" painted on the side, and Cadbury's might advertise their chocolate even though it was coal for their factory boilers in the wagon.

There were many thousands of individual wagon owners before 1939 and they all wanted to be individual and eye-catching.