Pre-WW2 freight van management?

[Diplodicus]

Until the outbreak of war, most freight wagons both vans and opens, were owned either by one of the railway companies or by private owners. I was wondering...

What happened with wagons less than half full with goods for a destination in another company's territory? Did half-empty vans travel round the network? If not, then how were loads consolidated?

That led me to ponder on just how many wagons were empty and on their way "home" or did the company use them to move goods from their customers on to the wagon owner's turf?

I hope that makes sufficient sense?

 

[Taunton]

Railway Clearing House sorted this out, a central organisation that also handled the split of charges. Daily reports of empty wagons standing were consolidated, and (someone/somewhere) decided whether there was a return load or it would be sent back empty to home territory. There were some rules agreed between the companies for how it worked.

This applied to railway-owned wagons. Private owner ones (eg coal) were commonly sent back empty.

I got the impression that "smalls" (ie less than wagonload) were consolidated at the start point, but not subsequently.

 

[Paul Kelly]

This book goes into much detail on the endless deliberations and arguments between the "TOCs" as they were then over this sort of thing:

The Railway Clearing House in the British Economy 1842-1922, by Philip S. Bagwell: Amazon.co.uk: Bagwell, Philip Sidney: Books

Buy The Railway Clearing House in the British Economy 1842-1922, by Philip S. Bagwell 1968 Edition. by Bagwell, Philip Sidney (ISBN: ) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.

www.amazon.co.uk

It is a good read if you are interested in how it all worked, although a little dry.

 

[Dr Hoo]

The concept of 'full' had to be somewhat elastic.

An open private-owner wagon with coal in it was usually 'full' with 10 tons or whatever in one direction and empty back to the owning colliery.

But in many cases a 'consignment' of 'smalls' traffic (not 'parcels') might not take up all of a railway owned van in terms of either weight or volume. For both speed and security's sake loads were generally left un-disturbed. Documentation commonly related to the wagon rather than trying to trace transfer or consolidation of consignments between wagons.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

There was the concept of a "road van" - to quote a real life example , Llanelly Goods to Aberaeron via Carmarthen and Lampeter - which was actually timetabled and conveyed non passenger rated light goods - which was generally marshalled in a similar position each day on a freight , and dealt with as priority by station staff on the platfroms (as opposed to going into a dedicated freight yard) - this is how Puw's Men's Hat Stores at Aberaeron got the stock in from the metropolis of London. (amongst all the other sundries to civilised life in the sticks) -an important part of logistics in those days - especially if the line had few passenger services.

I think most common user rail wagons post 1923 were pooled anyway - saving a large % of otherwise empty running back to owner territory - (if there was not , a return load in that direction) .