Author: Ian Pope

With over 370 illustrations plus maps and other illustrative material, this book serves as the most comprehensive study of the private owner wagons known to have worked in and out of the Forest of Dean. Chapters cover the use of wagons on the tramroads, on the broad gauge pre 1872 and all coal, stone, iron ore and bitumen wagons as well as industrial concerns known to have had wagons.

Within the section on wagons connected with the coal trade not only are Forest collieries dealt with but also the coal factors and merchants and those bringing wagons into the coalfield for loading from places such as Bridgwater and Bristol. Wherever possible a brief history of the wagons' owners has been given to enable modellers and historians to establish dates at which particular wagons could be seen in trains together. Also included are valuable insights into the business of moving coal, from the colliery, via the local docks or by rail, to the end user. This book is written by an author well known for his books on the history of the railways of the area and forms a companion to those volumes by pulling together all known facts on the ownership and use of wagons within the Dean.