UK question: Mileage Siding

[Dreadnought1]

What exactly is a "mileage siding"?
I've noted a few of them in various UK station plans and they look like they're possibly some sort of interchange track but could someone confirm this?

Thanks & Cheers,
Dreadnought1

 

[Spurr]

What exactly is a "mileage siding"?
I've noted a few of them in various UK station plans and they look like they're possibly some sort of interchange track but could someone confirm this?

Thanks & Cheers,
Dreadnought1

As an ex Driver I would think they would be sidings that goods trains ran into to have the wagons/axles examined .This was done after running for a certain distance but having been retired 25 years the distance evades me.

 

[lewisner]

I've been an enthusiast for 32 years and worked on the railways fo 21 years but never heard this term before? Was it used by one railway company (e.g. LMS , LNER , GWR or SR ), and in which periodical did you see it?

 

[Dreadnought1]

I've seen the term in a number of places.

Several station/yards have a mileage siding shown on their plans - Barnstaple (Victoria Road) is one that I can think of off the top of my head but I'll have another look around for the others I saw. I've also seen the term in a couple of UK modelling magazines and at least one mention in a RAIB report.

Cheers,
Dreadnought1

 

[worthless]

This is from a contributor to RMWeb (Railway Modellers) discussing the modelling of coal sidings etc.

The 'coal' area might have included the 'mileage' siding- that being the siding where traffic was unloaded by other than railway company staff. In such cases, the rate paid for the traffic was based directly on the distance travelled by the goods, without any handling charge- such traffic was normally dealt with in a separate area to those goods unloaded by the railways themselves.

I have found several references to mileage sidings (including a modern one in a schedule to the contract between Network Rail and Chiltern Railways). All the evidence I have seen is that it was a Great Western term. I know the LMS had a different name, but I cannot remember what it was.

Peter

 

[sterrett]

All the evidence I have seen is that it was a Great Western term.

The reference to Barnstaple (Victoria Road) would fit in with this as that was originally a GWR passenger terminus.

Indeed, the bitter rivalry between the GWR and SR cost British Railways and its customers a pretty penny as ex-SR men would deliberately route goods traffic via SR interchanges whilst ex-GWR men would route goods via Taunton to ensure their former region received the revenue - never paying any attention to the speed of delivery of the goods!