Privately Owned Trucks.

The problem of the private owner's wagon continues one of concern for the Home railways. There are, in Britain, approximately 700,000 coal wagons, of which over half a million are owned by colliery proprietors or coal merchants. In addition, a number of wagons which are privately owned are employed for the conveyance of miscellaneous freight traffic. It is in the case of the privately owned coal trucks that greatest difficulty is experienced. All the privately owned trucks have to be returned empty to the point from which they commenced their journey loaded, and the confusion and congestion, to say nothing of waste haulage, which thereby results, may readily be imagined.

Not long ago the Great Western Railway, following the lead set some years back by the North Eastern line, introduced into the South Wales coal trade a number of 20-ton high-capacity coal trucks. These trucks have proved of real service to the trade, and their utilisation has materially simplified the operation of coal trains to and from South Wales. As yet, however, the collieries and merchants fight shy of the high capacity wagon, but by degrees, new equipment is being installed at the pit-heads rendering the use of 20-ton wagons practicable. On the Continent, the use of 20-ton wagons for coal traffic is common in France and Germany, while in the latter country coal and mineral trucks of as high a capacity as 60-tons have found marked favour. As the years proceed, there will, no doubt, be witnessed a steady growth in wagon capacity, and this tendency will be welcomed by all concerned in the movement of traffic.

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