NEW DECEMBER 2021. This is a 48-page card-covered book issued by the British Transport Commission on 8 September 1956. It is entitled 'British Railways - Classification of Special Wagons'.

If Ian Allen had produced an ABC of Special Wagons back in 1956, this is very much the sort of thing they might have come up with. All that is missing are some photographs they would doubtless have added to illustrate a few examples.

Pages 2 to 17 in this book list the entire stock of British Railways special wagons at that date in order of their running numbers. The number is prefixed by the letter E, M, S or W to indicate its previous owning company, or by B for those wagons built since nationalisation. They ran from E30 to B920044, with huge gaps of course. The only other information given there is the telegraphic code for that wagon.

Pages 18 to 48 then provide details of each type of wagon. This includes their carrying capacity in tons, several key dimensions for the space available for the load (including the unladen height from rail level), the minimum radius curve the vehicle could cope with, the running number of every member of that class (curiously described as their ‘painted numbers’), and the total number of vehicles of that particlar sub-type possessed - which ranged from 1 to 93.

There is no additional text to explain what British Railways considered to be special wagons. They all appear to be flat or well wagons, however, both 4-wheel and bogie, intended for particular or general large or heavy items. Types are named as armour plate; boiler; flat; girder; glass; gun; machine, low ('lowmac'); machine, high ('hymac'); rectank; roll; stator; transformer; trestle plate; trolley, flat; trolley, propellor [sic]; trolley, trestle; trolley, well; and wheel.

The book is mostly shown as two-page spreads. The file is word-searchable and fully bookmarked. It will be available to download as soon as payment has been made. You go to your account and click on ‘Downloads’. New customers create an account as they place their order.