GWR Regulations and Instruction book - purchased recently- information sought (not the rule book).

[DaveF]

While I was out today I bought a few books.

 

One sadly has no cover, and the last couple of pages are missing but it is a Great Western Railway book of regulations and instuctions.   It is also somewhat delicate as the paper is quite thin.

 

It was published after 1919 as it contains references to the 1919 Order concerning the carriage of live poultry, but it cannot be much later as it also refers to limewashing the interior of cattle wagons after use.

 

The sections in it are:

 

Section 1a Additions to the standard rules

 

Section 1b Block Telegraph Regulations and matters relating to the working and maintenance of Points and Signals

 

Section II General Instructions Affecting The Working  Of Trains

 

a Passenger trains

b Passenger and freight trains

c Freight trains

 

Section III General Instructions affecting the loading and conveyance of merchandise traffic also livestock by passenger and freight trains

 

Section IV Instructions Concerning Station Work.

 

 

In all 334 pages.

 

In Section IV there are references to all manner of things, including carriage cleaning, disposal of old books and paper, securing self acting loose runaway catch points, securing and working of platform trolleys, reporting of fires (with a reference to a 1920 document). etc etc.

 

Does anyone know anything about this book?

 

David

[TheSignalEngineer]

Sounds like it could possibly be the 'General Appendix to the Book of Rules and Regulations, October 1920'

[DaveF]

Sounds like it could possibly be the 'General Appendix to the Book of Rules and Regulations, October 1920'

 

 

Many thanks.

 

 

David

[Pacific231G]

While I was out today I bought a few books.

 

One sadly has no cover, and the last couple of pages are missing but it is a Great Western Railway book of regulations and instuctions.   It is also somewhat delicate as the paper is quite thin.

 

It was published after 1919 as it contains references to the 1919 Order concerning the carriage of live poultry, but it cannot be much later as it also refers to limewashing the interior of cattle wagons after use.

 

The sections in it are:

 

Section 1a Additions to the standard rules

 

Section 1b Block Telegraph Regulations and matters relating to the working and maintenance of Points and Signals

 

Section II General Instructions Affecting The Working  Of Trains

 

a Passenger trains

b Passenger and freight trains

c Freight trains

 

Section III General Instructions affecting the loading and conveyance of merchandise traffic also livestock by passenger and freight trains

 

Section IV Instructions Concerning Station Work.

 

 

In all 334 pages.

 

In Section IV there are references to all manner of things, including carriage cleaning, disposal of old books and paper, securing self acting loose runaway catch points, securing and working of platform trolleys, reporting of fires (with a reference to a 1920 document). etc etc.

 

Does anyone know anything about this book?

 

David

Hi David

The Signal Engineer is right. It is the GWR's General Appendix to the Book of Rules and Regulations and probably the September 1920 edition. I've got a copy in front of me and it is actually 335 pages long but the last indexed entry is to page 334 "Railway Sketching" as the final page is just a drawing to illustrate that. 

 

If you had the front cover it would look something like this

 

Which pages do you think are missing from your copy? I might be able to help with that as I think mine is complete.

It is rather delicate but it's a fascinating document with, for example, a whole section on the working of slip carriages. 

 

I've also got Ian Allan's reproduction of the 1905 edition of the GWR's "Rules and Regulations for the Guidance of the Officers and Men" but these are the Railway Clearing House rules so would basically be common to all the main railways. I'm tempted to  think, typical of the GWR to have its own appendix to the rules that are about twice as long as the main rulebook, but other companies may well have had similar appendices.

[DaveF]

Hi David

The Signal Engineer is right. It is the GWR's General Appendix to the Book of Rules and Regulations and probably the September 1920 edition. I've got a copy in front of me and it is actually 335 pages long but the last indexed entry is to page 334 "Railway Sketching" as the final page is just a drawing to illustrate that. 

 

 

 

Which pages do you think are missing from your copy? I might be able to help with that as I think mine is complete.

It is rather delicate but it's a fascinating document with, for example, a whole section on the working of slip carriages. 

 

I've also got Ian Allan's reproduction of the 1905 edition of the GWR's "Rules and Regulations for the Guidance of the Officers and Men" but these are the Railway Clearing House rules so would basically be common to all the main railways. I'm tempted to  think, typical of the GWR to have its own appendix to the rules that are about twice as long as the main rulebook, but other companies may well have had similar appendices.

 

Thanks very much for the information,   Mine ends at page 334, so only the last page is missing, though page 333/4 has a small hole in it.

 

The first page in my copy is headed "INDEX" and is clearly the first page of the index.

 

It is indeed a fascinating document, even though my main interest is the Midland Railway a lot of the contents, especially wagon loading, will be useful.

 

If you could help with the missing page at the back and the front cover etc I would be delighted.

 

If you PM me I can give you my e mail address if you can help.

 

Regards,

 

David

 

.

[The Stationmaster]

Dave,

 

Definitely as the others have describe.  It is missing the front page - as illustrated by David - and the rear page (335 on one side with the sketching symbols and blank on the other side.  It is also missing the binding cover, this is a red material which extends for a very small distance onto the front cover page, covers the spine and the whole of the back page.  I'm not sure if it is possible to get anything equivalent to the binding nowadays - some vaguely similar material, but not identical, was available from decent stationers years ago but I've not seen anything like it for a long time.  Supplements were similarly bound although I only have one so I don't know how long that practice was continued.

 

The use of a red cover/binding cover was common to many GWR operational publications except the Rule Book and the 1930s edition of the General Appendix (the latter had a blue cover while the former had a very dark green cover - almost black).

 

BTW Does your book include the fold-out diagrams of signals between pages 2 & 3? 

[DaveF]

Dave,

 

Definitely as the others have describe.  It is missing the front page - as illustrated by David - and the rear page (335 on one side with the sketching symbols and blank on the other side.  It is also missing the binding cover, this is a red material which extends for a very small distance onto the front cover page, covers the spine and the whole of the back page.  I'm not sure if it is possible to get anything equivalent to the binding nowadays - some vaguely similar material, but not identical, was available from decent stationers years ago but I've not seen anything like it for a long time.  Supplements were similarly bound although I only have one so I don't know how long that practice was continued.

 

The use of a red cover/binding cover was common to many GWR operational publications except the Rule Book and the 1930s edition of the General Appendix (the latter had a blue cover while the former had a very dark green cover - almost black).

 

BTW Does your book include the fold-out diagrams of signals between pages 2 & 3? 

 

 

Many thanks for the information.

 

Yes,it does include the fold out signal diagrams.

 

David

[Chris Dark]

I have just come across this thread. interesting read. How rare is it to find originals like these? are they particuarly expensive?

[The Stationmaster]

I have just come across this thread. interesting read. How rare is it to find originals like these? are they particuarly expensive?

If you buy them from a dealer they can be expensive (or very expensive if in good condition) but if you find them through other channels they tend to be cheaper.  However 'cheaper' doesn't necessarily mean 'cheap' - for example my complete bound sets of GWR service timetables one set for a month in 1938, the other for a month in 1947 both cost me over £200 at auction.  I got them because I outbid the dealer who was bidding against me so you can reckon (and he is not expensive for this kind of thing compared with some others) that if had had been prepared to pay £250 for each he would be looking to have to sell them at in excess of £300 - 350 each in order to make any sort of profit and he obviously concluded that he wouldn't be able to price them at much about £300.

 

He beat me on a full set of GWR staff magazines - all nicely bound in one year volumes - and he paid £200 hammer price so the total cost would have been £238 including commission etc (I would have loved to have them but simply haven't got the space for them).  I saw them later in his shop and he had them priced at £60 per volume which would represent a gross selling on price of c.£1,800 - while this sounds horrendous, and was over the top for some of them, it was probably good value, at retail price - for some of the others and the important thing is that he had to finance his purchase costs over the time it took him to sell them on.

 

But with a bit of searching and a lot of luck you can get stuff for much less - my GW 1920 Appendix came in a box lot' with some very useful supplements and assorted other oddments for barely £15 - after I'd sold on a small cast iron notice to the chap who was bidding against me and was only interested in the notice.  Some other stuff in my collection has been acquired for even less simply because other bidders weren't interested or didn't know what it was.  Equally I've had soem excellent bargains over the years from some dealers who had priced stuff down to shift it.

 

BR period stuff tends - usually - to be much cheaper and can be found easily on the 'net but again luck can play a part, for example I've got a Woodhead route WTT from the steam/electric transition period and I could probably get at least 8 times what I paid for it should I decide to sell it.