Trustworthy, administrator
11,876
edits
Changes
m
add links
[[File:Station Truck 3.jpg|thumb|300px|right |Example of a Station Truck label]]
A '''Station Truck''', sometimes referred to as a Pick-Up Wagon, was a goods wagon normally attached to a slow goods train or on occasions to a local stopping train. Its purpose was to cater for small consignments that were individually insufficient to form a full wagon load. The April 1935 issue of the Great Western Railway magazine carried an article on Station Trucks, using the [[Severn Valley Railway]] as an example. The following text and accompanying pictures are copied from the magazine.
----
----
The GWR’s use of Station Trucks had begun as early as the 1860s, and was still in use in BR days as noted below. The [[Timetable: Severn Valley Branch 1876|1876 service timetable]] (before the opening of the [[Kidderminster Loop Line]]) refers to station trucks operating between Worcester and Shreswbury and others handling goods for the [[Tenbury Branch]]. Between around 1910 and the mid-1920s station truck workings were included in the rear pages of service timetables; thereafter separate books were produced which listed all station trucks and the trains involved in their haulage.<ref name = “Atkins”>GWR Goods Services, an Introduction, Atkins & Hyde, 2000</ref>
The article notes that the Severn Valley’s station truck originated from Hockley. The GWR’s goods operation were organised into around 14 regions (the number varied over time). Geographically, the Birmingham region included the southern end of the Severn Valley Line from [[Hartlebury]] to [[Eardington]], as well as Kidderminster, while Bridgnorth to Shrewsbury fell within the Shrewsbury region. The former region appears to have been allocated responsibility for the Station Truck serving the whole Severn Valley line. Another goods region was centred on [[Worcester]].<ref name = “Atkins” />
