The coal truck alongside Settle Water Tower is a 100 years old reminder of the importance of freight to the S&C, then as now. It sits on what was Settle’s coal yard, located at the end of what were twin sidings.

The truck was a Midland Railway type of vehicle, made in Wakefield, with a massive wooden chassis. When it arrived in Settle, from the Strathspey railway in Aviemore it was something of a rotten wreck which was skilfully restored by S&C volunteer Ged Pinder. The picture shows it newly done and expertly lettered by signwriter Eddie Ralph. Settle Coal had brought the wagon here from Aviemore, involving an overnight HGV stop. They craned it into place too.

It is an end-tippler wagon, one entire end of which is top hinged, that end being indicated by the white diagonal stripe on each side. The entire contents being emptied by tilting the whole wagonload into a ship’s hold or wherever.

Once commonplace, wagons of this type were called 1923 wagons, a term dating from 1911 when the Railway Clearinghouse specified how wagons needed to be from 1923. This was in response to many wagon accidents with mainly private-owner poorly maintained wagons without brakes! This wagon has brakes but they are handbrakes operated from alongside each wagon, an exceedingly dangerous process with a moving train.

We are very grateful to Mark Rand for sharing this information together with his wonderful photo.