Scottish Traders’ Wagons Volume Two
Expected Late February
Traders E to M
This, the second of the three-volume series, covers Scottish traders whose business names began with the letters E to M. It describes and illustrates the wagons owned or hired by more than six-hundred businesses at over one-hundred locations from Inverness in the North all the way down to Dumfries and Berwick upon Tweed. As well as more than one-hundred coal and ironmasters, there are entries for very nearly 400 individual coal and lime merchants. In addition to these traders, wagons on the traffic of brewers and distillers, brick and earthenware goods manufacturers, quarry owners, iron founders, flour millers and grain storage, oil and chemical manufacturers, paper makers, public works contractors, textile and jute manufacturers and municipal utilities all appear, adding another 100 + entries. Some businesses were large – the Fife Coal Company grew by takeover to have a fleet of over 7,000 wagons. While generally small scale in their operation, some coal merchants were relatively large concerns too – the G&SWR approved just under 400 wagons of Logan Sons & Co. Ltd for traffic between Ayrshire collieries and Paisley stations; in 1898 R.Y. Pickering secured a 5-year contract to maintain 174 wagons currently on the traffic of Thomas Muir, Son & Patton of Dundee. Wagon hire was a significant feature. Many of the photographs in the Hurst, Nelson and Pickering collections depict wagons in liveries that only lasted a few years until they were repainted and re-lettered before going on hire to other businesses. These changes are documented and cross-referenced. While ‘brown oxide’ (like this cover) was the predominant body colour, followed by various shades of grey, examples have been found of wagons painted Midland Railway engine red, as well as green, black and blue including two wagons painted ‘three coats of best peacock blue, with white letters and vermilion shading.’
Hardback, 304 pages, black & white photographs
ISBN: 9781915069610
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Updated: 15 September 2025