Chalk destinations... written on both sides of the wagon?

[Possy92]

They say the silliest question is the one you don't ask, so here goes....

 

Would "man with the chalk" write on both sides of the wagon, or just one side? I suspect it's just the one side, but I'll ask the question anyway as I haven't found the answer!

 

Kind regards

 

Possy

[Wickham Green too]

The 'official' routeing instructions would have been in the label clip so the shunter would have had to access both sides of each wagon ........... so probably chalked both sides as he ( occasionally she ) went along too - but vans which had been loaded at a platform might be chalked at platform height one side and from ground level t'other.

[The Stationmaster]

The main reason for chalking destinations on wagons was for loading purposes - so they would usually only be written on one side.  Although there might well be a previous destination,  (or destinations) chalked on the other side.  

 

The chalked names were basically irrelevant as far as Shunters were concerned - they were often too high to read from ground level and in any case difficult to see at night - but in any case the Shunter's main interest was the wagon label and the route code they carried (although I'm not sure quite how far back route codes on wagons labels went).  The most likely chalking for shunting purposes would be a number (for a particular siding) and these would be on the wagon end at low level above the headstock near one side to assist the points operator in hump and gravity yards. In a traditional flat yard the Head shunter would be two busy making the cuts to n bother with adding a piece of chalk to the shunting pole he carried in one hand and, at night, the handlamp he carried in his other hand, and he would simply shout the road numbers for each  cut to the Under Shunter.  

 

I only ever worked in places with flat yards so it was all traditional shunting and i never came across any of my shunters chalking any thing on a wagon or taking any notice of any destination  chalked on it.  But in goods and parcels depots etc I often saw the Foreman go along the wagons/vans waiting to be loaded rubbing out or crssing through any old destinations and chalking destination names he needed on them - that was the reason why some NPCCS vehicles had, at various times, blackboard black chalking panels.