New 2020 Range Product pricing.

[LCDR]

Colourful private owner liveries were all the rage before World War 2 . The owners of the wagons would paint them in bright colours and sign write them with the name of the firm, and all sorts of advertising slogans. Some also included pictorial matter, and were undoubtedly  extremely colourful and attractive. A few companies also paid the railway companies to decorate railway owned wagons with advertising material. The majority of these were short wagons less than 17 feet long with a 9 foot wheelbase. The wooden box bodied mineral wagon was the most common with over 600,000 examples throughout the railway network. 

 

The outbreak of the War put an end to this. Privately owned general merchandise and coal and mineral wagons were requisitioned by the Ministry of War Transport. When overhaul and repainting became due the former ownership details were reduced in size and generally speaking any new woodwork was left unpainted. After the War the wagons were not returned to their former owners and in 1948 the railways were Nationalised and the former owners were compensated, the wagons passing into British Railways stock. A few specialist wagons were exempted from this, but these were very much in the minority. Tank wagons were pooled under the control of the Petroleum Board during the War but did return to private ownership when the War ended. Many extra tank wagons were built for the movement of aviation fuel during the War, and these were eventually passed to the petroleum companies.

 

After Nationalisation the original private owner liveries which had survived, were neglected but could still be made out faintly under layers of grime. A few dedicated railway enthusiasts visited goods yards with chalks and tried to highlight the original lettering, taking pictures, making sketches and notes. Eventually British Railways painted the surviving wagons, especially those with steel bodywork, with grey paint. By 1964 all the former pre-War private owner wagons had gone.

 

In the 1960s the non-tank Private Owner wagon made a comeback with modern long wheelbase air braked high capacity designs. The 1990s were the heyday of modern private owner wagons, with box wagons, aggregate hoppers, covered vans, and tank wagons being most numerous, 

[96RAF]

If Cadbury was such a low key figure in industry why did they build a whole village for its workers and arrange complete trains to get them to work. Iam surprised there are so few wagon variants to choose from. By the way the owner was also a strict Methodist (I think) and there was definitely no pub in the village.

Google the history of Cadbury as it makes an interesting read. My aged aunt used to work at their factory in York and brought home bags of reject Smarties which we kids devoured like - smarties - doh.

[walkingthedog]

It was Rowntrees who made Smarties in York not Cadbury. 

[LCDR]

Nestle is the successor to Rowntrees, they bought the company in 1988.

 

There has been a huge factory in York just north of the city since 1890. The company had a siding connected to the York - Scarborough line (actually off the Foss Islands Goods Branch which also connected to the Derwent Valley Light Railway). From this connection they sent van loads of confectionery all over the country, and were still using VDA type wagons well into the 1980s. The wagons were given special white roofs to reduce the temperature in sunshine and stop the load melting. Rowntrees also had a factory at Fawdon opened in the 1950s to expand production. 

 

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York has a tradition of chocolate making. Another big manufacurer was Terrys, who were taken over by Kraft Foods. Sadly they have moved production overseas in recent years and the factory closed and is being turned into luxury flats. There are, or were, other small companies locally. Sugar Beet was important, there used to be a huge sugar works near here in the north west of York, and the smell of the cooking beet could be quite horrible.  The factory which had its own internal railway to bring the beet in was closed in 2006.