This article looks at how the LMS used its wagon stock, what kind of services it ran and what an LMS goods train looked like. But
first of all there are three general points on wagon stock.
- The LMS freight train consisted of everyone's wagons. Almost all general service wagons were common user. By 1933 the list of
NON COMMON USER wagons had been whittled down to:
- Wagons exceeding 12 tons capacity, except end door mineral and pig iron.
- All wagons belonging to Bishop's Castle Railway Felixstowe Dock and Railway Manchester Ship Canal Shropshire and
Montgomeryshire Railway
- All vacuum and Westinghouse piped and fitted wagons.
- Cask wagons, Deal wagons, Hopper wagons, Twin wagons not fitted with bolsters, Plate, Long Low and tube wagons, Coke
wagons.
- Specially constructed vehicles.
- Service vehicles.
- Double Bolster wagons (except SR) and 6 or 8 wheeled bolster wagons.
- GWR China Clay, Cattle and 20-ton end door mineral wagons.
- Gunpowder Vans, Meat Vans, Refrigeration Vans, Insulated Vans, Banana Vans.
The list is formidable but in practice the numbers involved were not great especially since the LMS and LNE had a private
arrangement making their fitted covered vans common user between themselves. As from 1st March, 1941, virtually all wagons
other than special vehicles became common user.
Apart from this non-common user wagons could still be back loaded to:
- Stations on the owning line;
- Stations beyond (but via) the owning line;
- Stations on an Intermediate company's route on a direct route home.
For all these reasons there was a good mixture of wagons on almost any LMS freight train.
- Vacuum fitted wagons were comparatively rare beasts by today's Standards. At nationalisation the relevant figures were:
Company | No. of fitted wagons |
LMS | 39,039 |
LNE | 59,964 |
GWR | 23,776 |
SR | 6,912 |
| 129,691 |
This was out of a total of 1,223,634 wagons or just about 1 in 10.
- In 1939 there were also some 583,789 requisitioned private owner wagons (plus 21,310 not requisitioned mainly tankers)
allowed to run on British Railways. Just how many would be on the LMS we do not know. The only indications available
are some returns of privately owned wagons stopped for repair. If we take these as a (very) rough guide and working back
from the 583,789 total they give:
P.O.Wagons stopped for repair | Assumed total of P.O. wagons on each railway |
| No. | % | |
GWR | 4,929 | 35 | 204,326 |
LMS | 4,159 | 29 | 169,299 |
LNE | 3,861 | 27 | 157,623 |
SR | 1,225 | 9 | 52,541 |
TOTALS | 14,174 | | 583,789 |
The repair figures are from Railway Executive Committee minutes and cover the period 8/11/39 to 28/2/40.
The average LMS freight train in 1938 consisted of 33.68 wagons, 22.98 loaded and 10.70 empty. It travelled an average of 8.88 miles
per hour including time spent in loops, under examination, waiting for paths etc.
These figures are a little misleading, put as bald statements just like that because on most lines where traffic warranted it mineral
traffic and corresponding returned empty wagons ran separately from merchandise traffic. In reality LMS freight trains could be grouped
as follows:
- Local freights, stopping freights, pick up freights and such like. A very mixed bag, also covering trip workings and inter-yard
workings these latter two being much more common than the pick-up goods so beloved of railway modellers. All could produce a very
varied assortment of stock and motive power.
- Mineral trains. The classic LMS train could load up to 70 wagons. For example, in 1938 the LMS brought 2,712,000 tons of coal into
London alone. This is about 1,000 wagons per weekday with corresponding empties. Signalled as Class 8 but empties were often
signalled as Class 5 Express Freight.
- Merchandise trains. Most LMS merchandise traffic was between large centres and was thus concentrated into through freight trains
and Express Freight trains. The various classes of merchandise freight train were -
- FF1 - No. 1 Fully fitted. No. 4 headlights. Max. 50 wagons and brake. All wagons piped at least and vacuum brake had to
operate on not less than half, all had to have screw or instanter couplings and oil boxes. In 1934 there were 40 FF1s run
daily on the LMS.
- FF2 - No. 2 Fully fitted. No. 4 headlights and could load to a maximum of 55 wagons and brake. Automatic brake must
operate on not less than ONE THIRD the wagons which must have screw or instanter couplings. All wagons must have oil axle
boxes. In 1934, the LMS ran 97 FF2s daily.
- Express freight (Maltese Cross). Class 5 headlights and signalled 2-2-3. Must have four vacuum braked vehicles connected
to the engine and all wagons had to have oil boxes. In 1934 again the LMS ran 147 Maltese Cross trains.
- Express Freight - signalled 3-2. Had to have oil boxes on all wagons. Even so, the term Express was decidedly relative.
For example, in 1946 the 6.35 p.m. Express Freight from Edge Hill to Copley Hill did not reach Edgeley Junction until
8.36 p.m. - an average of 17.5 m.p.h.!
- Through Freight. Class 5 headlights and about all one could say was that it was slower than an express freight. As an
example, again in 1946, the 4.25 p.m. through Freight train from Crewe was due at Nuneaton (T.V) at 9.56-p.m. giving an
average speed of 10.9 m.p.h.
The through freight and the express freight were really the backbone of the LMS goods service. Many lines saw nothing more important
than a sole Maltese Cross freight per day.
To give some idea of the volume of traffic on the various divisions here are the wagon mile figures for 1938 - In Millions of wagon
miles.
| Western | Central | Midland | Northern | Total |
Merchandise (Classes 7-21) | 316 | 62 | 254 | 151 | 783 |
Minerals & Merchandise (Classes 1-6) | 57 | 7 | 56 | 22 | 142 |
Coal etc. | 91 | 45 | 178 | 38 | 352 |
Empty | 196 | 58 | 261 | 79 | 594 |
TOTAL | | | | | 1,871 |
Percentage loaded | 70.30 | 66.21 | 65.18 | 72.69 | 68.24 |
Finally, it is interesting to compare the freight train performance of the various divisions. The figures for 1938 are in train miles
per train hour.
| Miles |
Western Division | 8.94 |
Central | 8.83 |
Midland | 7.71 |
Northern | 12.41 |
Overall | 8.88 |
Despite this seemingly poor performance, the LMS could still claim that ... "By 1933, 70 per cent of the freight consignments forwarded
were delivered on the day after despatch and 94 per cent by the second day."
In modern terms, the LMS freight service put up a performance equal to First Class letter post!
SUMMARY
The average LMS freight train, assuming such a thing existed would be about 30-40 wagons and brake van. It would be 0‑6‑0 or 0‑8‑0
hauled and would break few speed records. It would be either a mineral or empty mineral train or a through freight.
Finally, despite all the glamour associated with passenger services do not for one moment forget the position of freight traffic on
the LMS. In 1938 for example -
Receipts from passenger train traffic | £22,076,728 |
Receipts from goods train traffic | £36,485,663 |
Total traffic receipts | £63,562,391 |
Freight was the life blood of the LMS!