Quarrymen's carriages
Special quarrymen's carriages first appeared on the FR in 1867. Their primary use was in special trains that carried men to work in the quarries around Blaenau Ffestiniog, with a single fare of 6d, any distance. Though many quarrymen lived in the various communities along the FR others came from further afield, having walked from home to join the train. Initially the trains ran only on Monday mornings and Saturday afternoons as most men stayed at the quarry barracks during the week. The Saturday train was usually added to the midday Down departure from Blaenau, with spectacular results as seen in the photo on the right. During the period when only a weekly service operated the carriages were stabled in an open, lean-to, carriage shed at Duffws during the week. A regular, daily, service was introduced in 1881.
Over the years, a number of different designs of carriage were used. The earliest were little better than low-sided, unsprung, wooden wagons with planks for seats; photographs appear to show that these overhung the sides and some passengers' legs hung outside! There was no protection from the elements. In order to simplify the story this type has long been designated Type 1a.
The first improvements to quarrymen's carriages involved the erection of a crude, shed-like, covers with zinc roofs, but lacking both doors and windows, over Type 1 vehicles. These have been designated Type 1b.
Type 2 carriages appear very similar to Type 1b, but were built as covered vehicles from new. In later years they acquired doors with small windows. Their running gear was not improved, however, and they remained unsprung.
Closed carriages with glazed windows and springs, Type 3, were not introduced until 1885.
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[edit] History
The introduction of steam traction in 1863 extended opportunities for men residing along the course of the FR, and even beyond, to take employment in the slate quarries of Blaenau Ffestiniog. Special quarrymen's trains with primitive passenger vehicles were introduced in 1867. It seems likely that before then some men had ridden on the slate trucks, but the Board of Trade would not sanction this. Barrack accommodation was made available at the quarries during the week so initially the Up train ran on Monday mornings and the Down train on Saturday afternoons. In 1881, a daily service was introduced, allowing many of the men to return home daily.
A “Report of the Departmental Committee upon the Merionethshire Slate Mines” of 1895 - Promotion of Health - stated at Para.79: We are of opinion that some of the illnesses of the Festiniog men may be fairly attributed to chills contracted in the daily railway journeys to and from the mines (quarries). The men waiting for their train, sometimes in wet clothes, may often be seen sitting on the ground at one of the stations of the Narrow Gauge railway, as there is not sufficient bench-accommodation. A journey of three-quarters of an hour in damp clothes in a draughty railway carriage may easily lay the foundations of disease, and quarry men who can live within easy walking distance of their homes would, a priori, be expected to be less subject to illness than those who travel daily to and from their work by rail. On the other hand, one of the witnesses told us that, in his opinion, lower house rent at Penrhyn and a better climate more than made up for the possible risk of catching a chill when travelling. The medical men do not agree with him on this point. The stations and the carriage accommodation of the 'Narrow Gauge railway might doubtless be improved, and some effort might be made by the railway companies to run more convenient workmen's trains. [1]
The quarryman's traffic was heavy in the later 19th and early 20th century but never fully recovered following the Great War. It was probably never all that profitable, and the railway company and quarrymen were in fairly constant contention about the quality of carriages provided, and the way the vehicles were treated by their passengers. It appears that, up to the start of the 20th century, a programme of renewal meant that older vehicles were replaced on a fairly steady basis.
The 1895 notice to quarrymen reproduced here demonstrates that the FR was not always happy with the behaviour of the passengers. The men tended to have acquired or made their own private carriage keys to enable them to jump off the train before it stopped. It is interesting that English takes pride of place on the notice. One wonders if the Company's threat was an empty one.
There were 44 quarrymen's carriages in while "all 34" had been fitted with oil lighting in 1896[2][3]. This suggests that not all the 44 had been in service. In 1901 there were stated to be 36, numbered 1 to 36. By 1918, 24 were described as being in good order and 8 were at Boston Lodge for rebuilding.
Quarrymen's carriages were sometimes pressed into service in passenger trains at times of high demand for seats.
Over the years, some quarrymen's carriages were converted to vehicles with other uses. Three bodies became shelters for slate loaders at Duffws and Minffordd. Others were used as P.W. shelters along the line. Several found use as station shelters on the Welsh Highland Railway. Still other carriages became derelict and were converted to firewood at Boston Lodge after the First World War. Only one survived relatively unaltered into preservation days.
[edit] Carriage Types
Three broad types of quarrymen's carriages (officially known as "Quarry Workmen's Carriages") were built at different times.
[edit] Type 1
Type 1a - Open quarrymen's carriages built from 1867 . These vehicles were little better as conveyances than slate wagons, being small unsprung four-wheeled cars fitted with seats but with no protection from the weather. They were open two-compartment vehicles built rather reluctantly by the FR when Captain Tyler refused to allow the quarrymen to be carried in slate waggons. There were 32 of these vehicles available for use in 1871.
Type 1b - From 1873, it appears that many were fitted with a timber upper superstructure providing doorways but no doors or windows. These are referred to as Type 1b. The evidence suggests that they had all gone, or at least had ceased to be used as quarrymen's cars, by 1887. None of these vehicles survive. The second vehicle in the photograph is a Type 2a carriage (see below).
[edit] Type 2
Type 2a - Closed windowless quarrymen's carriages two-compartment vehicles built from the mid 1870s. They were unsprung and resembled dog kennels on wheels even more than Type 1b, with open doorways but no doors. The photograph below shows one carrying numberplate 41 and there were 44 of them in 1876[4]. The transverse benches were so close together that the passengers had to interlock their knees, hence their name of 'zip-fasteners'. Part of one survives in the Museum Store. Construction of a replica of this type by the FR Heritage Group was started in late 2008 in the London area and by mid May 2009 the basic body frame was virtually complete. It was then dismantled and moved to the FR in time for Kid's Training Week. The Kids were able to assemble it, fit the outer cladding and paint the outside. Outstanding work requires the door openings to be finished, the seats to be installed and the roof to be made and fitted. New inside journal bearings will have to be cast before the wheels can be fitted.
From the introduction of daily trains in 1881, a programme of conversions to fit doors containing small windows was commenced. The resulting carriages have been referred to as Type 2b.
With the introduction of Type 3 (see below), some were dispensed with. It was thought for a long time that the Hearse van was converted from a Type 2 but close examination has revealed there are significant differences in the construction. By 1887 there were 15 Type 2 in service numbered 19 to 33, which means that some renumbering had occurred, and it appears that the last of the unconverted Type 2s was eliminated in 1889.
One body fitted with doors and windows survived into the preservation area as a shelter at Llechwedd Coed. It was subsequently moved to the Maenofferen Bach shed at Minffordd.
[edit] Type 3
Type 3 - Closed glazed quarrymen's carriages built from 1885 . They had springs and seated up to 16 in a single compartment on perimeter seats. There was also a 'mule' or seat on top of the vacuum brake cylinder set in the middle of the floor, a seat traditionally occupied by the most junior person present - usually a Quarryman's Lad. Otherwise it might be used as a card table, but players needed to be accurate in dealing onto the mule. In other carriages there were Bible study groups, choir practices, self-improvement classes, trade union branch meetings and so on.
There was a central door on each side with a droplight window, flanked by another droplight on each side of the door. Should extra light be required, a quarry candle was stuck to the wall with a bit of clay. From 1885 to 1887, eighteen of these carriages were built at Boston Lodge and were numbered 1 to 18. Subsequently, more were built to replace Type 2 vehicles, for example three in 1890 and others in 1897. Only Carriage 8 has survived in comparatively unaltered form and forms part of the passenger fleet. However, a number of them were converted for other uses:
- FR goods and parcel van number 1. This was fitted with sliding doors and there was supposedly another similar one (possibly one of the otherwise unknown numbers 2 and 3). This seems to be the same vehicle used as a meat van on the WHR. It had disintegrated by 1950.
- WHR brake van number 4 from 1922. Fitted with dual brakes. No longer in existence.
- FR single balcony goods brakevan number 5, converted for use on Brookes' Quarry traffic from 1908. It was later fitted with dual brakes for use on the WHR. From 1940 to 1954 it carried number 8. In the preservation era it initially carried number 2 but is now Van 6.
- Old Company goods brakevan number 6, rebodied in 1908 with two balconies. It formed part of the last train in 1946 and spent the years of closure in the Loco Yard at Boston Lodge. Initially numbered 1 in the preservation era. Following withdrawal from service in 1963, the body ended its days as a shelter at the Rhoslyn Bridge end of Dduallt Station. As it was beyond redemption by this time, a replica vehicle, Van 7, was built in 1998.
- FR goods brakevan number 7, rebodied in 1910. It spent the years of closure in a damaged condition in the Top Yard at Boston Lodge and is no longer in existence.
[edit] References
- ^ Copy of the Merionethshire Slate Mines Report
- ^ Boyd, James I.C. (1975 / 2002). The Festiniog Railway 1800 - 1974; Vol. 1 - History and Route. Blandford: The Oakwood Press. ISBN 0-8536-1167-X. OCLC 2074549.
- ^ Boyd, James I.C. (1975 / 2002). The Festiniog Railway 1800 - 1974; Vol. 2 Locomotive and Rolling Stock and Quarry Feeders. Blandford: The Oakwood Press. ISBN 085361-168-8.
- ^ FR Heritage Group Journal 84, article by Adrian Gray
