GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Moor Street Station: gwrms2739

The General Goods Office on the 1st floor of the Moor Street Good’s Office. Here predominately female clerks undertook the duties necessary for the efficient running of the Goods Depot. Moor Street Goods Depot predominately handled inwards traffic (that is received and either stored or distributed goods). To understand what clerical work was necessary, below is an extract from Pitman’s ‘Modern Railway Operation’ by D Lamb published in 1926.

Inwards Traffic
The operations entailed in connection with the reception at the depot and delivery to consignee of inwards traffic may be thus summarized –
1. Trains arrive in yard, wagon numbers taken.
2. Loaded wagons are placed by engine on the various shed and yard roads for unloading, and subsequently drawn into position, as necessary, by capstan.
3. Transference of goods from wagon to platform or road vehicle, during which process they are checked with the entries on the invoices.
4. Goods are trucked to lorry or van, or to loading space, or are transferred to warehouse.
5. Goods are loaded on to lorry or van in district or street order.
6. Loaded vehicles are removed from side of stage by van-setters and parked ready for departure.
7. Vehicles are driven over cart weighing machine and out of depot for delivery.

Delivery Office Work
Actually, the first operation concerned with inwards traffic is a clerical one, for immediately the invoices arrive in the early morning they are passed into the delivery office, where they are given a progressive number and entered in a ‘pro book’, local and foreign invoices being separately treated.

The charges are then checked, an operation which saves time that. might otherwise have subsequently to be spent in correspondence concerning undercharges and overcharges, and which also obviates the difficulties invariably encountered when undercharges have to be collected after the delivery of the goods.

The invoices are next sorted into two batches according to whether the traffic is ‘wait order’ or ‘delivered’ traffic. The former has to be put aside pending delivery instructions, while the latter has to be immediately delivered.

Marking the Invoices
Invoices of delivered traffic are marked with a code letter, or number, indicating the delivery round or district. This information is necessary as a guide to the clerks subsequently engaged in marking out the delivery sheets, and to the checkers responsible for checking the goods as they are taken out of the wagons and barrowed to the respective lorries or loading spaces.

The items are then entered on delivery sheets, and preferably each sheet should have a single entry, while different coloured documents should be used to distinguish ‘paid’ and ‘to pay’ entries. The delivery sheets are consecutively numbered and are endorsed with a code number of the cartage delivery area or district. As the delivery sheets are completed they are placed, together with the respective invoices, in a receptacle ready for the use of the shed and cartage staff.

Discrepancies
In the event of goods being received without invoices the checker has to enter particulars on an ‘unentered’ invoice which serves as a duplicate pending the receipt of the original. On the other hand, invoices arriving without goods must have their entries transferred to a ‘goods not received’ book, the matter being reported to the sending station. It follows that such instances militate against the smooth routine which is essential to efficient handling of inwards traffic, and every endeavour should be made by dispatching stations to avoid them.

Another important aspect is the performance of the clerical duties which are first in the sequence of operations on the inwards side. A well-staffed and efficient delivery office is essential.

Robert Ferris

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