NEW OCTOBER 2018.  This booklet is entitled "Instructions respecting loads to be conveyed by engines working Freight Trains in the Southend District".  It is dated 1st February 1954.

It starts by listing the engine groupings. Thus group 1F included the E4s and the D16s and several tank engines. The scale extended up to 8F, with WDs being 7F.

There follow detailed instructions on how the guard was to assess the number of wagons on a train - it was not just a matter of counting, because some wagons were reckoned as more than one depending on their size or what was loaded in them.  The trains themselves were rated from class C (whose specifications included oil axle boxes, screw couplings and vacuum brakes - though a few wagons which had through brake pipes could be included on a complex basis) right down to class K.

There then follow extensive tables of how many wagons could be included in a train over each named stretch of the line (such as Barking to Little Ilford).  This of course depended on the load group of the engine and the freight class of the train, but needless to say there were additional complications given in foot notes.

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