borderreiver
Well-known member
I have managed to buy five out of six articles from 1974 by D. Rowland contained in "Model Railways" Magazine. While they are now almost 45 years old they were compiled at a time when the period he talked about was within living memory of the adults who worked the railway. He started research because he wanted to know how he could produce a balanced layout representing the L.M.S.R. in 1938. How many locomotives, how many carriages and how many wagons. I will read them through and put some information in this thread because I think that his research is still valid for representing a time that has now been largely gone from this world for fifty years.
Rowland's findings were startling for what they revealed about the railway modellers wanted to reproduce. While the physical size and number of vehicles required was daunting for a railway modeller in 1974 the average Trainzer has nothing like the same constraints in 2018 (buying hardware and having money for assets are still their own constraints though!).
Some basic findings by Rowland:
1. 10 locomotives, 23 coaches, 8 non-passenger carrying vehicles, 19 service wagons and 714 merchandise wagons required for his notional 1938 L.M.S.R. model railway layout!
2. Of the wagons almost half were Private Owner wagons and the vast majority of private owner wagons were coal wagons, equally divided between 10 Ton and 12 Ton capacities
3. Of the railway owned wagons over half of them were in the common user pool.
4. Half of all railway owned wagons were open merchandise wagons, with two-thirds of those being of 12 ton capacity.
5. Only one in six railway owned wagons were covered vans, with two-thirds being of 12 Ton capacity. Only 1 in 10 of the total wagon population.
6. There were more loco coal wagons than there were locomotives, other service wagons being ash, coke and sand wagons.
7. Brake vans, special wagons, tank wagons, salt wagons and cattle trucks were present in much lower numbers than open wagons.
Rowland's findings were startling for what they revealed about the railway modellers wanted to reproduce. While the physical size and number of vehicles required was daunting for a railway modeller in 1974 the average Trainzer has nothing like the same constraints in 2018 (buying hardware and having money for assets are still their own constraints though!).
Some basic findings by Rowland:
1. 10 locomotives, 23 coaches, 8 non-passenger carrying vehicles, 19 service wagons and 714 merchandise wagons required for his notional 1938 L.M.S.R. model railway layout!
2. Of the wagons almost half were Private Owner wagons and the vast majority of private owner wagons were coal wagons, equally divided between 10 Ton and 12 Ton capacities
3. Of the railway owned wagons over half of them were in the common user pool.
4. Half of all railway owned wagons were open merchandise wagons, with two-thirds of those being of 12 ton capacity.
5. Only one in six railway owned wagons were covered vans, with two-thirds being of 12 Ton capacity. Only 1 in 10 of the total wagon population.
6. There were more loco coal wagons than there were locomotives, other service wagons being ash, coke and sand wagons.
7. Brake vans, special wagons, tank wagons, salt wagons and cattle trucks were present in much lower numbers than open wagons.