Private Owner Specification for 15 Ton Wagons

Specification for 15 ton private owner wagons produced by the Railway Clearing House. Bound set of drawings with leather cover, December 1907.

The Railway Clearing House was an organisation setup in 1842 to apportion the revenue from ticket sales and goods rates where they involved travelling on the networks of more than one railway company. The RCH also took on the role of promoting standardisation across the railways to enable easier movement of goods and passengers. This included standardisation of freight wagons, for which numerous specifications were produced alongside associated drawings. These set a minimum standard for wagons owned by railway companies and by private owners.

Private owners were usually businesses that regularly used the railways to transport their goods, and did so regularly enough and in large enough volumes that they preferred to own their own wagons rather than use those owned by the railway companies. Such wagons could be used to transport goods around their own railway systems (many companies like mines, ironworks and factories had their own extensive internal networks of railways and sidings) and the wagons could be kept on hand to be filled and emptied of goods at a convenient time. The wagons could then be attached to a freight train when they were ready to be sent elsewhere and instructions were painted onto the wagon to show where the wagon needed to be returned to after its journey.

In order to travel on the railway network, the wagons needed to be compatible with other rolling stock so that they could be coupled to trains. Hence why specifications were produced for standardising the wagons. There was also a requirement for wagons to meet a minimum standard for safety, and this was especially important where the wagons were used to carry hazardous substances. Private owners were also responsible for maintaining the wagons themselves to ensure they were safe whilst the railway companies were responsible for inspecting the wagons to check that they in a safe condition. A regime of inspections was developed in response to accidents caused by defective private owner wagons.