Agricultural produce by rail - what did farmers import (particularly on the W&U Tramway)?

[Dungrange]

34 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

By the way, I be surprised if a good portion of fruit traffic off the GE at Peterborough for the Midlands, Lancashire, etc. wasn't routed via the Midland rather than the LNW?  

 

I'd assume that the GER would route Lancashire traffic via the GN/GE Joint line and then the Dearne Valley to Lancashire and Yorkshire railway territory, but I suppose they could also have handed over the Great Central Railway at Lincoln.  However, as you say, traffic may also have been routed via the Midland.  However, I think all of these companies used vacuum brakes, so the challenge would be the same.

 

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

It wasn't necessary for a vehicle to be dual braked but to be able to roam anywhere it needed to be at least dual piped

3 hours ago, Annie said:

And just as a point of information a number of them were either dual braked or piped through for the vacuum brake due to the GNR refusing to accept fruit vans without the vacuum brake.

 

Oh the challenges in conveying goods over significant distances.  I suppose that means it doesn't matter whether the wagons were Westinghouse fitted with a through Vacuum pipe or Vacuum fitted with a through Westinghouse pipe, which means that it would obviously have been conceivable to hire in foreign vacuum stock for periods of peak demand.

[Dungrange]

Not really related to my initial question, but the topic of horseboxes for officers horses and prize cattle trucks for certain bulls, where were such livestock movements accounted for in the company accounts?

 

'Livestock' is listed in tables titled 'Goods Traffic and Receipts' and 'Number of Livestock carried in Goods Trains'.  I'm therefore assuming that this is just livestock movements at goods rates (ie animals conveyed in cattle wagons).  For whatever is conveyed in passenger trains, livestock isn't mentioned.

 

From the GER accounts for the year ended 31 December 1922 we have:

 

Total receipts from passengers                                          £5,233,626   9s  10d

Mails                                                                                        £     53,921 17s    3d

Parcels up to 2 cwt, Parcels Post, and Excess Luggage  £   588,768  10s   4d

Other Merchandise by Passenger Train                            £  317,278  10s    0d

Less expenses of Collection and Delivery                       (£     73,156  12s   3d)

Total Passenger Train Receipts                                          £6,120,438  15s   2d

 

Would I be correct to assume that prized animals would simply be accounted for within the 'Other Merchandise' by Passenger Train category and that this would also include fish traffic, fruit traffic, cut flowers, etc?  Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be any further breakdown of that figure.  It doesn't sound a lot, but the Total Goods Train Receipts for the same period were only £4,908,410  17s  11d net of collection and delivery expenses, so it's around 6% of the goods train receipts.

[billbedford]

What exactly do these figures represent? For instance, is the freight earned from goods carried in GER vehicles or earned by all vehicles using GER lines?

 

It's known that fish wholesalers hired vans from several different companies, as well as horse boxes being hired. I suspect similar arrangements were made for perishables like fruit. I've not seen the financial details, so I can't comment on how they were reported. You may have to look at the RCH records to get an answer.  

[Compound2632]

54 minutes ago, billbedford said:

What exactly do these figures represent? For instance, is the freight earned from goods carried in GER vehicles or earned by all vehicles using GER lines?

 

What it says on the tin: revenue from that particular category of traffic. For passengers or consignments that have travelled over the lines of more than one company, this will be the GER's share as calculated by the RCH, irrespective of the owning company of the vehicle. (Though with some adjustment for vehicle hire by mileage rate, I think.)

 

2 hours ago, Dungrange said:

Would I be correct to assume that prized animals would simply be accounted for within the 'Other Merchandise' by Passenger Train category and that this would also include fish traffic, fruit traffic, cut flowers, etc?  

 

Yes, I think so. There was a scale of charges for hire of horesboxes and prize cattle vans, based on a mileage charge per horse. subject to a minimum fee. Small animals might go as parcels, with a scale of charges based on the dog mileage rate.

[Tom Burnham]

As far as horses by passenger train goes, Siegfried Sassoon's "Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man" is set just before WW1 and describes travelling to hunts in Kent and East Sussex.  The nearest station to his fictional village is a thinly disguised Paddock Wood, and it would seem that horseboxes could be attached to trains at relatively short notice and if necessary transferred to other routes, and even to the Brighton line, presumably via Tunbridge Wells. I can't recall seeing arrangements for this sort of movement described in special traffic notices of the period so presumably the workings were set up ad hoc by stationmasters and inspectors.

[Compound2632]

2 hours ago, Tom Burnham said:

I can't recall seeing arrangements for this sort of movement described in special traffic notices of the period so presumably the workings were set up ad hoc by stationmasters and inspectors.

 

Th Midland Railway public timetable book for July, August, and September 1903 (Ian Allan reprint, 1969) states, p. 178:

 

"Horses and private carriages are not conveyed by the trains marked H.C. except as notified on the various pages of the time tables, or by special arrangement under exceptional circumstances."

 

"Horses and private carriages are conveyed by most of the local stopping trains, but application should be made beforehand to the station-masters at the forwarding stations to avoid any disappointment."

 

"Horses and private carriages should, in all cases, be at the station from which they are to be forwarded at least twenty minutes prior to the departure of the train by which it is intended to send them."

 

"Carriage trucks and horse boxes are kept at all the principal stations on the line; but to prevent the possibility of disappointment, it is recommended that one day's notice be given at the stations when they are required."

 

So it was all routine traffic, not in general requiring STNs. 

 

However:

 

"Horses and carriages will not be conveyed in through vehicles to stations south of the Thames on the days named below" [Bank Holidays and the days preceding Bank Holidays].