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[[File:Station Truck 1.jpg|thumb|300px400px|right |Map of the Station Truck's route]][[File:Station Truck 2.jpg|thumb|300px400px|right |Station Truck loading diagram]][[File:Station Truck 3.jpg|thumb|300px400px|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.
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:"The 'Station Truck' is a goods vehicle which is sent off on a journey from one defined part of the line to another to discharge and pick up goods at stations along the route. More than 600 Station Trucks operate daily.
:At [[Shrewsbury]] the Station Truck Label will be retained for reference. It may be that adjustments will be made depending on the quantity of goods being carried. A return truck from Shrewsbury to Hockley (now numbered 282B) will also run picking up goods for delivery to stations on the Severn Valley Line and for further afield by transhipment at Hockley."
The GWR’s 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 Shrewsbury 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>[[Bibliography#Other References|Atkins, & Hyde (2000)]].</ref>
The article notes that the Severn Valley’s 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 />
The station truck label from February 1935, as depicted in the article, shows that the departure from Hartlebury was at 9.30am. The [[Timetable: Severn Valley Line 1948 | BR(W) 1948 working timetable]] still included a 9.30am freight departure from Hartlebury. This was certainly a slow goods, as it did not reach [[Coton Hill Yard | Shrewsbury Coton Hill yard]] until 6.58pm. The stop at [[Cressage]] has a note in the timetable ‘To 'To deal with Cattle traffic and perform S.T. work only’only', the S.T. referring to 'Station Truck'.
Another station truck, No 752, served the [[Tenbury Branch]]. Under the system in use in 1914, this was taken from Stourbridge Goods Depot down to Amblecote Goods yard at 6.45am, returning at 8.15am to be attached to the 9.10 Class F Goods departure from Stourbridge Junction to Hereford via Kidderminster, [[Bewdley]] and [[Tenbury Wells]].<ref>[[Bibliography#Other References|Butcher (2004)]] p. 97.</ref>
