LMS Route: Rugby to Wolverhampton

Hampton Station: lnwrhiaj2990

A 1931 view of the former engine shed with a number of open five plank wagons being loaded with timber planking. The ubiquitous five plank wagon handled a substantial amount of traffic on UK railways, basically anything that did not need secure package or protecting too much from the elements. Wagons were frequently sheeted in order to stop the sparks and coal embers emitted from locomotive's from burning and damaging the load. Wagons transporting material such as timber which was longer than the wagon needed to be loaded with care. First the height of the stacked timber needed to be within the confines of the railway's loading gauge, such a device normally positioned at the exit to the goods yard, and then all wagons needed to be loaded with the timber 'pointing' the same way so that one wagon's projected timber projected over its neighbour but clear of its neighbour's load. The last open wagon adjacent to the guards van would not carry a load which projected above the height of its side planking.

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