Z The RCH 1923 Wagon

1923 marked a major change to the organisation of Britains railways. By an Act of Parliamanet, The Railways Act of 1921, four large regional railway companies were formed by the 'grouping' of the many small local railways into larger networks. The intent was to move away from local competition between railway companies and reduce duplication of lines and services in order to make the railways better able to compete with the road carriers which had been established using 'war surplus' lorries. Full nationalisation had been considered, but Sir Eric Geddes, a highly experienced railway manager and former Deputy General Manager of the North Eastern Railway, then serving as Minister of Transport foresaw problems with government control, particularly with politcial inteference and the potential that the loss of market pressure would lead to poor or lax management control.

In terms of wagons the year also marked the major overhaul of the design ands construction rules for railway wagons, as issued by the Railways Clearing House.

In 1923 a major update to the RCH wagon specifications was published. This covered all types of wagons and generally represented an updating of the rules to incorporate new techniques and push wagon builders and owners to steadily improve their wagon fleets. The 1923 specification was to be the last major revision issued, however many revisions were made through the 1930s as new wagon designs and construction methods (eg. welding) emerged.

The preceding 1907/1909 design which had started along the path to all builders using major components of standardised or compatible design and fitting, so a broken component could more easily be replaced with an equivalent part from another builder. This greatly simplified 'on the road' repairs so wagons spent less time awaiting parts and more time earning revenue for their owners. The 1907 design also required continuous or through drawgear, a system whereby the drawbar behind each hook was extended into the central box of the underframe, so pulling forces were transmitted through the iron or steel drawbars instead of being transferred to the wood frames of the wagons. The design of many of the components was also started along the route to standardisation in design and fitting, allowing wagons to be repaired from a smaller range of RCH fittings in place of parts to the original builder's unique design.

The new 1923 wagon continued along this route with the majority of components now becoming interchangeable 'RCH standard' parts. The through drawgear was toughened up, with two steel rods running the length of each wagon between the coupling hook base plates in addition to the extended drawbars.
The new mineral wagon designs were larger than previously with the smallest 8 ton type of the 1907 specifications was eliminated from the standard lists (though still allowed in the 'small print') and more variants were made available, including a taller 8 plank body design and larger 16 and 20 ton capacity wagons, some proving more successful than others!
The basic wagon length was increased to 16ft6in over headstocks, verses the 15ft length of the 1907 design. Widths remained almost the same as these were governed by clearances of mechanical handling plant already installed to suit the earlier standards. Width over headstocks was a nominal 7ft11in (these could be tapered at the ends) with a maximum overall width of 8ft6in, however wagons to 'Bristol Channel Ports' (mostly the South Wales coal shipping ports) were restricted to a maximum width of 8ft3in. Wood or steel could be used to construct the underframes, with wood remaining popular for private owner and mineral wagons, but the more durable iron and steel underframe was to become a more frequent choice through the 1930s and with the railway companys themselves.

One major technical change implemented was the specification of oil lubricated axleboxes as standard, this being the result of successful designs of spill-proof axleboxes being commercial available, Oil lubricated axleboxes added cost, but ran much more freely and needed much less maintenance than the grease lubricated design, but previously the oil could have been lost when wagons were emptied by tipping, resulting in damage to both bearings and axle journals.

The standard lower capacity for the 1923 wagon was now 10 tons for a 5 plank wagon and 12 tons for 7 or 8 plank height. Later many of these wagons were uprated to 13 tons load capacity. In addtion to prvate owner wagons the proven RCH designs were adopted by several of the new, large railway companies for their mineral wagon fleets. The LMS and LNER both selected the RCH 1923 7 plank design as their standard mineral wagon, building many thousands, with the SR ordering a small number for their requirements in the much smaller Kent coal field.

Outside of the common 7 plank coal wagon design the RCH had authorised a wagon of 17ft6in length for coke traffic and this length was now made a standard for a 16 ton capacity wagon with 9ft wheelbase wood frame. This design proved less than satisfactory however, both LNER and Gloucester built wagons quickly developing hogged backs, though similar LMS built wagons did not seem to suffer this fate.

The 17ft6in underframe was widely adopted by the four railway companies after 1923 for their merchandise wagon fleets, with most companies opting for steel construction. A number of changes and developments were to be incorporated through the 1920s and 30s, including the change to 10ft wheelbase for merchandise wagons, this being better suited for running in fast goods trains.
The success of the RCH 1923 wagon design is evidenced in the longevity of its' basic design. In the 1950s British Railways selected the 17ft6in length 10ft wheelbase RCH steel underframe as the basis for their standard wagon fleet, while around 250,000 16 ton capacity steel bodied mineral wagons were built on the 16ft6in length 9ft wheelbase steel frame originating with the 1923 RCH specification.

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The Railways Clearing House

The Railways Clearing House (RCH) was formed in 1842 by nine of Britain's railway companies to provide a common body for the apportionment of costs and revenue for journeys and shipments travelling over more than one company's tracks. The clearing arrangements also allowed for the use of goods wagons from the originating company to be used throughout a journey, eliminating the costly and time consuming practices of transloading goods and rebooking passengers at junction stations. The establishment of the RCH led to the widespread availability of through ticketing arrangements and setting of goods carriage rates from origin to destination across multiple railway companies. A customer now booked their journey or shipment with one company and paid one invoice, payments to the other companies involved with the journey being apportioned through the RCH, usually on a mileage basis.

The clearing operations began on January 2nd 1842 with offices owned by the London and Birmingham Railway at 111 Drummond Street, opposite Euston station. The founding member companies represented at the first meeting of the RCH on April 26th were the London & Birmingham, Midland Counties, Birmingham & Derby , North Midland, Manchester & Leeds, Leeds & Selby, Hull & Selby, York & North Midland and Great North of England. The meeting agreed on the funding and operating cost apportionment methods to provide the RCHs services. The RCH was quickly seen to be an effective organisation and by the end of 1845 more companies from the Midlands and Northern England had joined and by 1851 the major Scottish railway companies had joined and the RCH scheme covered almost 56% of the British railway mileage.

Many of the names above will be unfamiliar as these are the predecessor companies to the better known London & North Western, North Eastern and Midland railways. Britain's railway network was still growing at this period and some railways declined to join, at least initially, for various reasons. For example the Liverpool & Manchester Railway saw no need to be a member of the RCH as it was still physically isolated from the rest of the network! Most of the railways in the South of England are also missing, notably the Great Western whose broad gauge tracks remained an obstacle to through traffic.

The RCH relocated in 1849 to purpose-built offices in Seymour Street and in 1850 the RCH was given legal status itself by the parliamentary Railway Clearing Act of 25th June 1850. This legally separated the RCH and the member railway companies, defining the role of the RCH and reducing the appearance of the RCH as a railway cartel, particularly since competing routes were being created and rates were often based on the length of the earliest route. The RCH was further established as an independent corporate body in 1897, continuing as the arbiter and distributor of receipts between the railway companies until nationalisation.

Although established to provide a mutual financial service to the railway companies the RCH also provided a useful neutral forum for railway managers and engineers to meet, discuss and agree common standards and practices. This covered both practical matters, like the setting a standard height and spacing for couplings and buffers so all trains would couple together irrespective of builder or owner to the adoption of Greenwich Mean Time as standard 'Railway Time' across the country. Later the RCH steadily progressed from agreeing the terms of use for a 'foreign' wagon (a wagon from another company) for an entire journey without reloading being needed through the use of an empty 'foreign' wagon for a return load to one of its' 'home' company stations to the national pooling of merchandise open wagons and box vans.

In response to the need for the regulation of construction and maintenance of goods wagons following a couple of serious accidents the RCH produced in 1887 its first specifications for a railway wagon. These specification covered the materials and minimum sizes to be used in the construction of wagons and required the use of iron or steel parts, particularly for the couplings and drawgear, to relieve some of the loadings on wood structural joints. The standards also defined the sizes and fittings of many key components, easing the maintenance of wagons by starting the standardisation of the fittings. Use of standard parts allowed wagons to be repaired and returned to service more quickly than when new components of a particular private company's design had to be ordered.
Key to the use of 'standard' wagons was that all of the RCH member railway companies agreed that once one company had inspected and certified a wagon as meeting the RCH standard than all companies would accept it.

Nationalisation and Privatisation

The railways were combined into British Railways from the 1st of January 1948 and the relevant statuary powers of the Railways Clearing House were effectively transferred to the British Transport Commission, however the RCH was continued through the clearing up of the nationalisation process. The property, rights, powers and liabilities of the RCH were not formally transferred to the BTC until the 24th of May 1854 and the RCH was wound up as an independent organisation on April 8th 1955. However the BTC maintained the Railway Clearing House title for many of the former RCH functions with respect to rate setting, dispute arbitration, standards, maps and publications until the 31st of March 1963.

And there the story might well have ended... Until the return to the private sector under the Railways Act of 1993.
Britain's railways are again operated by several companies and the role of the RCH is today reflected in several bodies. Closest to the origins of the RCH is the the Rail Settlement Plan division formed by the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) to arrange and apportion open (valid for any operator) ticket receipts between operators covering the tickets valid routes, thus continuing to facilitate the sale of through tickets between railway companies.

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