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LMS Route: Nuneaton to Coventry

Coventry Gas Works: misc_covgas3398

Looking towards Nuneaton with Coventry Gas Works sidings to the right of the photographer located on the up line circa 1910

Looking towards Nuneaton with Coventry Gas Works sidings to the right of the photographer located on the up line circa 1910. Most of the wagons are Private Owners, a mixture of five and six plank construction, although on the extreme right only partly seen is a five plank Midland Railway wagon. A Bagnall 0-4-0ST can just be seen in steam.

The lineup of wagons is interesting. The first two are lettered U M, which cannot be attached to any known contractor to the gasworks, whose coal contract records (incomplete) are held in the archives of the Coventry Library. That their running numbers are preceded by a zero suggests that they were hired. There are also three wagons from the Swanwick Colliery, which was located on the Midland Railway branch from Pye Bridge to Ambergate in Derbyshire. This company was not a regular supplier to the gasworks, but their presence could be explained that they were delivering a Spot Order, placed at the Birmingham Coal Exchange and which was a very frequent method of obtaining a small supply of a particular coal outside of normal contract arrangements. Further down the line are two coke wagons, apparently recently painted in a very light colour, possibly yellow, sent by a merchant to pick up coke. It is surprising how many yellow wagons existed, for many years in the twentieth century it was the standard colour of the very large fleet of the Barrow Barnsley Collieries in Yorkshire.

Keith Turton

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