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London North Western
Railway:
Midland
Railway:
Stratford
Midland Junction Railway
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LMS Route: Nuneaton to Leamington
Old Milverton Lineside Views: lnwr_oldmil1445b
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In this close up of image of 'lnwr_oldmil1445' the photograph
has been rotated 90° to show more clearly the 'Victoria Colliery' wagons.
The buffers were in essence extensions of the sole plate, in this case made of
timber, and because they were solid/unsprung were described as 'dumb buffers'.
Robert Ferris writes, 'In 1903 it was identified that 333 accidents had been
caused by dumb (or dead) buffers and at a meeting of the Railway Clearing House
(RCH) on 21st November 1903, it was agreed to ban wagons with 'dead buffers' on
public railways from 1st January 1910, but following protests by wagon owners
who claimed it would be impossible to alter the existing 200,000 wagons by that
date, the RCH granted an extension to 31st December 1913 and then again to 31st
December 1914. In November 1914 the Association of Private Owners of Railway
Rolling Stock requested a further twelve months extension (citing the existing
trade conditions caused by the start of the first world war), but the RCH
refused. The full name of 'Colliery' had been shortened to 'Colly' to fit
into the available space on the wagon's side. The only other markings to be
seen is a set of three numbers thought to be 4-5-2 which translated meant the
empty weight 'Tare' of the Wagon carrying capacity was 4 Tons, 5 cwt (Hundred
Weight) and 2 Stone. A cwt was equivalent to 112 lbs (pounds) and a stone was
the equivalent to 14 lbs (pounds).
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