Carriage Policy during the Kirtley-Clayton Interregnum

	Near the beginning of my article in Kirtley carriages in the [Midland Record] Preview issue, I alluded to bogie carriage designs being referred to the Board by the Traffic Committee on the 5th of November 1872.  Since then, as part of my researches into the early Midland experiments on continuous brakes (which will be the subject of a separate article), something approaching the full story has been unearthed, courtesy of the various Minute Books held at the Public Record Office.

	The whole affair seems to be tied in with the Pullman cars.  Traffic Committee Minute 18355, of February the 18th 1873, records the approval and Seal of the agreement with the Pullman Palace Car Company.  This implies that the negotiations with Pullmans had been going on since an indeterminate time in 1872 (if not before), firmly placing the decisions to run the vehicles towards the end of the Kirtley era and rather earlier than is generally realised.

	Traffic Committee Minute 18345, of the same date, records the arrangements to be made for using Pullman Palace Cars.  It was explained that the ordinary carriages attached to the trains with which the Palace Cars would have to be the same construction and size as the Palace Cars.  It was resolved that one Van and one Carriage be constructed for each train, the bogies and underframes being the same as the Palace Cars, but the interior arrangements to be similar to the Company's ordinary carriages.  One can only assume that preliminary sketches for these vehicles were what was considered at the November 1872 meeting.

	This implies that, at this date, complete trains of large (even by current standards) bogie carriages were being contemplated.  At the very least, drawing upon a reference in the early part of Chapter 3 of Lacy & Dow, three-carriage Van-Pullman -Carriage (Composite?) sets were intended to be run at this time.  Further examination of the Minutes for this period failed to turn up any references to the fitting of Midland engines with American couplings, as was later done.

	The author strongly suspects that the latter solution was adopted in a hurry when the Midland's management found that the existing express locomotive designs would be unable to haul the intended trains.  The most intriguing possibility is that, having designed heavy trains, the Derby drawing office was working on suitably powerful locomotives (4-4-0s?) when Matthew Kirtley suddenly suffered what became his final illness in February 1873.  Given the existing photographs of the final Kirtley 2-4-0 designs, perhaps the locomotive historians may care to speculate on the appearance of an 1873-period Kirtley Midland 4-4-0?

	While further examining the Traffic Committee Minutes, the author was intrigued to come across Minute 18661, of September the 2nd 1873, which recorded the submission of a sketch of a slip carriage, which was recommended to be provided, as more such were needed.  It was resolved that the Carriage & Wagon Committee be requested to have 20 slip carriages provided as per sketch.  This appears to explain why the slip carriages of 1874 were the only new 
(see below) carriages of Kirtley design produced during the Clayton era.  Presumably, the drawings had been produced while Clayton was getting to grips with his new job, and may even been on the drawing board when he took over.

	Indeed, Midland carriage policy seems to have been in a considerable ferment during the first year of the Clayton regime.  For example, Carriage & Wagon Committee Minute 55, of the 18th of November 1873, records that no additional carriages would be required by the Midland during 1874.  We then find that Traffic Committee Minute 18957, of February the 3rd 1874, resolved that the Carriage & Wagon Committee be requested to provide 30 additional Composites and 100 additional Thirds.  It was intended that 20 of the Composites would have two First, one Second and one Third compartments, along with a Luggage compartment.  The other 10 Composites would have two First, two Second and one Luggage compartments.  The Thirds were recorded as having the division of each compartment carried up to the roof, apparently the first time this feature was to be incorporated into Third Class carriages.

	The reply to this was contained in Carriage & Wagon Committee Minute 85, of February 17th 1874, which stated that it was impossible to obtain new carriages in time for the 1874 Summer season - so the request for 130 new carriages could not be fulfilled.

	Evidently the decision-making process was in a state of flux along with carriage policy.

	Returning to the subject of slip carriages, Carriage & Wagon Minute 69, of December the 16th 1873, records the submission of a Slip Carriage Drawing, 20 of which were to be built at a cost of £574 each.  This was the result of a Traffic Committee Minute of September the 2nd 1873 (see above).  Minute 91, of the 17th of March 1874, records the acceptance of the Metropolitan tender for 20 slip carriages: six with 1 First, 1 Second, 2 Third and one Luggage compartments (œ370/15/- each) and fourteen with 2 First, 1 Second and 1 Luggage compartments (œ401/15/- each).  Delivery was to be by the end of September 1874.

	Having rejected the ordering of 130 carriages in time for the Summer 1874 season, the Carriage & Wagon Committee temporised by recommending the ordering of 50 composite carriages from Contractors, under Minute 74 of the 6th of January 1874, as Derby works could not then cope with both carriage renewals and repairs.  The implication is that these Composites were to be ordered as replacements for Kirtley carriages due for scrapping.  It would appear that Clayton had managed to prepare his own designs and that this statement set in motion the ordering of the first Clayton-design carriages - see Chapter 3 of Lacy & Dow for details.

	Incidentally, it appears that the building of Kirtley-design carriages did not altogether cease with the change of regime.  The monthly stock-building statements in fact carried over into the Carriage & Wagon Committee Minutes for a few months, the following renewals (over and above repairs) being recorded:-

		July 1873      :        1 First
				       1 Composite
				       4 Thirds
		August 1873    :     3 Thirds
				       3 Passenger Vans
		September 1873 : 1  First
			                  1 Composite
				       3 Thirds
				       1 Passenger Van
		October 1873   :   1 Third
		November 1873  : None

It therefore appears that Clayton's edit to stop building carriages at Derby took effect during the first week of October 1873, assuming a previous rate of six carriages renewed a month.  The last Kirtley-design carriage completed was a renewal of a Third in October 1873.  Thereafter, apart from the 1874 Metropolitan slip carriages (which were in fact an 1873 design) Clayton's designs were used.