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THE GLOUCESTER RAILWAYMEN'S DIRECT COAL SUPPLY ASSOCIATION

The Gloucester Railwaymen's Direct Coal Supply Association was part of the Labour Club and Institute at Highfield House, Barton Street, Gloucester. Wagons 1 and 2 of the fleet were built by Gloucester RCW in March 1895 as 8 ton five plankers with black lettering shaded red on varnished planks with the siderail and solebar painted grey. These wagons were plated to run on the Midland Railway and survived scrapping until 1937.

Wagon 8 - another 8 ton 5 planker - was supplied by Gloucester RCW in January 1900 and was painted lead grey with white lettering shaded grey. In December 1919 a single second hand 10 ton wagon was taken on five years simple hire while a year later another of the same type was acquired. 12 ton Number 6 was the last brand new vehicle purchased.

ALBERT CROWTHER

Despite having been in business at least as early as 1908, the first reference in Kelly's Directory to Albert Crowther, coal dealer is as late as 1923. His address is given as Bristol Road, Quedgeley - close to the Hempsted Branch - but Number 1 may have been his only wagon, purchased on seven years deferred terms and with a repair contract extending for another seven years beyond November 1915. Albert Crowther ceased to appear in Kelly's Directories after 1931.

CHADBORN, SON & TAYLOR

Founded by John Chadborn, the firm of Chadborn, Son & Taylor were originally stevedores who organised dockers at Sharpness and also introduced floating steam winches to unload sailing ships. John Chadborn was born around 1828/9 in Newnham, Gloucestershire and could well be the same John Chadborn that was recorded as a coal merchant in Gloucester Docks in 1868. In 1881 he was living at Barton House, Gloucester and registered as a timber merchant. John Chadborn went into partnership with his son Harry (born 1871/2) and Jim Taylor before dying in 1892. Although listed in the Kelly's Directories of 1906 and 1935 as "steam winch proprietors" they still purchased coal wagons from The Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company, the firm that had also built their two storey wooden offices!

GLOUCESTER GAS LIGHT COMPANY

Gloucester gas works were situated in Bristol Road - near Hempsted Wharf on the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal - and served by the Midland Railway Hempsted Branch which opened in 1898. Typically for a gas works serving a City the size of Gloucester, gas coal was supplied under contract. Average consumption for the years between 1920 and 1940 was 24 000 tons, mainly sourced from Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and South Yorkshire coalfields by way of coal factors.

S.J. MORELAND AND SON

Samuel John Moreland was born in Stroud in 1828, a year after the opening of the Gloucester to Sharpness ship canal. He moved with his family to Gloucester in 1834 and followed his father into the booming timber industry. The 1851 census listed him as a lath renderer while by 1853 he was "sawing, planing, moulding and lath rendering" and 1856 - a year before his marriage - found him running a joinery works and producing "every description of building timber". He even made huts for the Britsh army during the Crimean War but it was the foundation of his match factory in 1867 - in a wooden shed that he built himself - that brought him lasting fame.

Starting with lucifer and vesta matches sold under the brand names "Arctic", "Jack Tar" and "Leopard", Samuel Moreland and his helpers were quick to use new formulas for phosphorous and usher in the era of the safety match. Just like the booming Gloucester Wagon ( later Railway Carriage and Wagon) Company across Bristol Road, Morelands had easy access to the Gloucester and Berkeley for the import of timber - including Russian aspen - and the railways to take away finished products.

Although facing competition from Russia and Poland where both labour and raw materials were cheap, Samuel Moreland thrived through strong sales promotion. The World famous "England's Glory" brand was acquired on the closure of rival matchmaker Thomas Gee in 1891 and box artwork featured the revolutionary twin turret battleship "HMS Devastation", launched in 1871 and in Royal Navy service until 1908. This was an era of British pride in both home grown technology and the expanding Empire! Harry Moreland, son of Samuel, later introduced and chose the jokes on the back of the boxes.

In 1897 the British Trade Journal noted that Morelands had two steam engines to provide power for splint and box making and hot air drying machines while by 1907 the factory was employing 640 people. Morelands survived the introduction of Match Tax and shortages of timber and chlorate of potash ( used to make match heads ) during World War One and made striker sticks for bombs between 1939 and 1945.

CHARLES P. TEAGUE

Charles Palmer Teague ( 1876 - 1971 ) continued his father's business and in addition to being a carpenter, wheelwright, farm waggon maker and builder was a part time farmer, the village undertaker and a coal dealer - keeping wagons built by the Gloucester Railway Carriage & Wagon Company at his yard at nearby Barber's Bridge station from 1906. Wagon 6 was purchased for £ 66.00 and the original seven year repair contract with GRCW was renewed in October 1913. This was followed by Wagon 7 in October 1907 - just one inch narrower than its predecessor - which was also bought for cash and to which similar repair arrangements applied. Charles Palmer Teague remained listed in local trade directories until 1931 although he did sign his wagons up to both RCH schemes in 1926 and 1933.

S. HEALING & SONS

Borough Flour Mills were situated at Quay Pit on the River Avon to the west of Tewkesbury High Street. After 1844 it was served by a siding - always worked by horse power - off the Bristol & Gloucester Railway's Tewkesbury Branch. The mill produced both flour and animal feeds and, being worked by steam, required coal. Samuel Healing & Son hired two wagons from Gloucester RCW in November 1869 and sporadically hired and bought other wagons for the rest of the 19th Century and as recently as 1920. Grain, however, was brought upstream from Avonmouth via Gloucester along the River Severn and at one time Samuel Healing & Sons owned their own steamship and several powered barges.

JAMES TAYLOR & COMPANY

Wagon 9 is in fact very similar in markings to the Dapol model, the only major difference being the word BECKFORD ( near to Tewkesbury ) rather than TODDINGTON. Otherwise white wall tyres were fitted as new, there were two G-Plates on the solebar ( one inside the brake gear V hanger and the other to the left of it ) and diagonal side bracing and long side knees are not featured in the official September 1900 Gloucester RCW photograph. Dimensions were 14'5" x 6' 11" x 3'1". Like H. Blandford, mentioned above, this company gained high wagon utilisation by dealing in both coal and bricks.

F.H. SILVEY & COMPANY

In 1870 Thomas Silvey left his job as an inspector for the Gloucester Railway Carriage & Wagon Company to begin his own coal factoring business in St Phillips, Bristol. As well as supplying George's Brewery and the chocolate factories of Fry's, Carson's and Cadburys, the firm also delivered domestic coal and owner some ships, including the Yarrah, the last vessel to load coal at Lydney Docks late in 1960.

Thomas Silvey's company survives today as an oil delivery business but around 1900 Thomas's sons Frank and Gilbert struck out on their own, ordering wagon 191 - above - in 1905. This was registered as Midland Railway 46042, was outshopped from Bristol Road with white wall tyres and carried F.H.Silvey's own oval owners plate under the right hand side of each side door ( not featured on this model ). This oval owner's plate was to be a common feature of all future F.H. Silvey wagons.

Identical wagons - 204 and 205 - were outshopped by Gloucester RCW in January 1909 and September 1911 respectively while a 7 plank 10 ton capacity coal wagon was built for F.H. Silvey by Gloucester RCW in February 1924. This bore the fleet number 218 and was painted "dark lead" rather than the previous "chocolate" shade. However, the markings of F.H. Silvey fleet 205 have also appeared on a "dark lead" coloured Dapol five plank wagon, which is made further inaccurate by the inclusion of long side knees - not seen on the original GRCW photograph 3816 of September 1911.

CHURCHILL TANK

In July 1941 the first Churchill tanks left Bristol Road, The Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company producing 764 examples up to 1945. Weighing 45 tons and powered by a Vauxhall flat-12 engine, the Churchill began with a 2 pounder gun but was later fitted with a 75 mm artillery piece capable of firing 25 lb shells. Bridge layer and flail variants were also built at the Wagon Works.

16 TON MINERAL WAGON

In 1950 Gloucester Foundry was bought out by The Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company. the Alfred Street firm was by then making most of the brake blocks for London Transport.  By this time The Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company had produced a variant of the classic 16 ton mineral wagon for the Ministry of Supply. An all steel rivetted was supplied to British Railways Western Region[ Archive reference D4791 105 5339] and a corresponding all welded version to British Railways London Midland Region [Archive reference D4791 106 5340 and 5347]  Meanwhile the "Gloucester" and"Metalastik" designs of Chief Engineer Fred Sinclair were pushing back the frontiers of bogie technology.

PRESFLO WAGONS - BULK CEMENT AND READYMIX CONCRETE

Officially known as a Pressure Discharge Bulk Powder Wagon the "Presflo" was top loaded by gravity but emptied by air pressure through a flexible pipe – from valves on one side of the wagon - into either a storage silo or road vehicle. The prototype Presflo was built to BR Diagram 1/273 with all 1891 production vehicles – outshopped by various builders between 1955 and 1963 – conforming to Diagram 1/272.  Measuring 11’9" high and 19’11"" over buffers the production 10’6" wheelbase all-steel vehicle boasted two vacuum cylinders –located at one end of the underframe with a ladder positioned at the opposite end of the central reinforced hopper - actuating eight clasp brakes and roller bearing axle boxes for high speed running.

CEMFLO WAGON - BLUE CIRCLE

Although no Prestwins were ever built at Bristol Road the idea of the aerated baseplate was developed into a complete aerated floor for a project that was brought to GRCW by Associated Portland Cement. At this time, private operators were aiming for maximum utilisation of their assets by rapidly turning wagons round for high mileage journeys - which were now being completed in days rather than weeks. APCM thus formulated a requirement for a lightweight 4-wheeled wagon with a low tare to weight ratio with one particular working in mind: taking Blue Circle cement from their works at Cliffe, Kent – made accessible to rail vehicles late in 1961 – to Uddingston near Glasgow for onward lorry transport. As such a lightweight cement wagon would have to incorporate BR standard running gear the only suitable material it could be designed around was aluminium alloy. Although featuring steel wheels, buffers, axles and laminated leaf suspension the ‘Cemflo’ – as it was known – is now believed to be the first type of aluminium cement wagon built in Britain.