Yarwoods order 397

[mykaskin]

More pedentry on length, most full length narrow boats seem to be have been built to 70 ft 6 inch, but GU boats (and it seems some others if above is correct) were maxed out at 71 ft 6 inch, probably because their normal work was on more generous waterways like the GU.

 

I'm obviously not including specialist boats like the 'amptons.

[Heartland]

Just to remind those reading this post the Station boat is a term applicable to the West Midlands working throughout the system where railway interchange depots existed and along waterways to collection points that were called boatage depots. It generally applies to the BCN, Worcester & Birmingham (Lifford), Stourbridge Canal and the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canals and began with craft that served the GWR, LNWR and MR interchange. It is often associated with the boats that served the LNWR/MR which became the LMS in 1923. But the GWR/Bantock craft were also part of that trade. From 1948 all of the working boats were merged together under a common ownership and the remainder disposed of in 1954.

 

The problem of talking about railway boats in general, is that a railway company might own and operate craft elsewhere. Most notable in this case were the craft owned by the North Staffordshire Railway and carried the Staffordshire Knot symbol. They were both maintenance and also acted, in part, at the interchange depots in the Potteries, although this latter use deserves a better understanding. Tom Foxon has raised in the past the subject of a Furness Railway boat registered on the BCN which may have been used for carrying iron ore to the ironworks from Furness Railway waggons delivered to an interchange wharf.

 

Another aspect were the craft hired or used by the Shrewsbury & Birmingham Railway that started the service from the Hay Basin to the Crescent Wharf when the SBR service by canal was introduced from their temporary station at Railway Street, Wolverhampton.