Dear list,
I think Ken Smith has answered my question in a nut shell.
Interesting 'cos general belief that rlys made coal cheaper. That said, the
NER was an unusual railway. More than any other, it held sway over vast area
of N England, inc. major industrial & mining centres, most of that area
without competition. (The other large rlys such as Midland, LNW, GW, NB & Cal, all
had competitors (often each other) in all such important areas. In addition,
the NER, alone amongst the major rly companies, eschewed private owner
wagons, the presence of which would have materially altered the ability of the
company to operate a monopoly. (Most of the other rlys had the majority of their
coal traffic carried in POWs - the mighty GW, indeed, had hardly any coal
wagons of its own (except for loco-coal wagons)).
I had wondered if the same thing was happening in other parts of the
country, the 'South West' for instance, then it would have had an effect on steam
engine cost in Cornwall for example.
Obviously not, but I suppose that the higher haulage costs on 'North East'
coal might have helped some of the smaller coal fields to compete, or at least
maintain their profit levels. It did mean that the small coal mines in the
Yorkshire dales could keep going, although 9/10ths of their coal was for lime
kilns rather than house coal.
I don't know how long this situation lasted, but certainly through the
1860's and 1870's.
Ian Spensley
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