Private Owner

Our Private Owner (P.O.) kits represent wagons used during the period 1898-1948, when privately owned stock amounted to around 500,000 wagons - about half the total of all the wagons registered during the inter-war period.

Our kits cover the body styles of a number of builders – Gloucester, Hurst Nelson and Wheeler & Gregory. However, the underframe is either RCH 1923 16' 6", or Gloucester 15'/16' type
See also: Cambrian Railways wagons on the GWR page. The 2 plank was similar to those used by contractors, and perhaps quarry owners. There were Privately Owner 4 plank wagons, with similar bodies – there is a picture of one on the Cromford & High Peak line in Derbyshire. Many wagons would have had brakes on one side only, until about 1924 (wagons with Gloucester type solebars), when a second set had to be fitted.

Some owners ran or leased thousands of wagons e.g. Rickett(s), & Cory; while small coal merchants might own as little as one wagon, although they sometimes concealed this by numbering their wagons from 100 etc. New wagons might be given the next number in sequence although earlier wagons might have been scrapped, giving the impression of a large fleet.

Large collieries & factors' wagons would run to areas far from the home base e.g. Ocean and GLM (seen in Devon & Sussex). Welsh steam coal was sent all over the country for ships' bunkering. Local coal merchants' wagons would only be found in their 'home' goods yard or en-route to, or from a colliery. Sometimes they might also be sent to a wagon works for repairs. The exception to this was during World War II when all P.O. wagons were requisitioned by the Government and pooled. This led to PO wagons being dispersed over time. They were also used for purposes for which they weren't suited – a photo (1941) shows a mixture of PO wagons being used to collect sleepers from the Van branch in mid-Wales. Getting sleepers in through the door of a coal wagon must have been a difficult task.

Following Nationalisation in 1948, PO wagons were renumbered in a "P" prefixed series and painted (if they were lucky) in Unfitted-stock Grey. There was a massive building programme of 16ton steel mineral wagons in the 1950s which made the PO wagons redundant. Some lingered on in engineers' use, and also the National Coal Board (NCB) had many as internal users. Some of the latter lasted until the 1980s, although they may rarely have moved from NCB sidings such as "Landsale Yards" e.g. near Ammanford in South Wales.

It is our policy that items will only be shown as in stock if we physically have the designated number of bagged kits or items to dispatch immediately. Continued high demand from our exhibition traders means that we are not holding as much 4mm stock as we would like. However out of stock items are available to pre-order. We are moulding new items every day and will prioritise production of pre-ordered items so that they will normally be available for dispatch within 3 days with the rest of your order. If your want to delay payment in these circumstances until you are sure that the items are ready then please use the Purchase Order option in the Checkout and we will send you an email link for payment when they are ready. We also accept orders for spare parts or part kits. Please use the contact form to make your enquiry about these or any other matters.