I thought that quite a few of you might be interested in how a Victorian railway tender document was presented and filled in.
The Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Society has kindly put one on their website which we can read, it was for the Hoddlesden branch line from 1874.
Background:
Hoddlesden near Darwen, Lancashire had several mills, the L&Y decided they would connect the mills to the Hellifield - Blackburn - Bolton line near Darwen station (then called Over Darwen). It was only just over two miles in length, a single line and for goods only, no passenger services.
The document begins with the specification:
Specification - First we have a brief introduction, the name of the line, its starting point, terminating point, the length of it, and finally in this case the fact that it's a single line. There is then a list of contract drawing descriptions such as No. 1 Plan, 2, Section, 3 onwards lists bespoke bridges, another one for an Occupation bridge - here it states Three of this. The final drawings deal with one for culverts of different sizes, one for Permanent way, Occupation level crossings, gates and even fencing for approach roads to stations. All drawings are numbered in consecutively, 1 to N.
Next, it dives into what the company (the L&Y) will provide, the land, the permanent way (track, sleepers etc), plus what you (the contractor) must supply at your own cost, which is everything from workers, wheelbarrows, materials and so on.
Continuing, the text is broken down into groups of paragraphs which are headed at the start either on the left or right of the first paragraph with titles / descriptions. These headings are worded as Excavation, Occupation level crossing, Bridges and so on, in fact the document seems to cover all possible aspects of building any line.
We can clearly see this is a standard document (terms and conditions) which is amended with some specifics to this particular branch. For example, it mentions foundations for viaducts - this line didn't have any viaducts and so on.
There is (as you might expect), several paragraphs concerning how you will get paid:
This is calculated on a monthly basis, which states how much earth you have excavated, moved, tipped, work on bridges, materials etc. This has to be agreed with the resident engineer, who in turn passes it by Mr. Meek (the L&Y Chief Engineer) for final approval, only then will the L&Y pay you for that month's work. Basically the more you do,
the more you got paid!
Permanent way:
The L&Y are very specific about the tracks, sleepers etc. They very clearly state you are not allowed to use them except when you have laid them as per the plan. No rails used for a bit of track here and there - No!
You can only lay them when you have completed at least 500 yards of track bed, and no closer to any excavation or tipping on an embankment than 100 yards in both cases. The resident engineer of the L&Y would inform the company that you are now ready for a delivery of rails, sleepers etc. It doesn't state how much but I'd be surprised if it wasn't something like 20 chains worth at a time.
Once you have laid the rails, you are now allowed to use them for transporting earth say from a cutting to an embankment, but should any of the permanent way be damaged then it's up to you to replace it (at your own cost). You are also responsible for guarding all of the PW, in place or stored.
Padlocks:
I asked on the forum about occupation crossing gates and would they be locked, well the overwhelming response was "Yes, with padlocks", this tender documents does indeed state that no only must you supply gates but also provide padlocks for them, so it confirms that.
And so on...
Finally in this section, you are invited to fill in your total price, together with individual prices to the main office Hunt's Bank, Manchester by...... 1874.
The Tender part:
This begins with words you have to fill in (by hand) such as your name, total price in words and numbers. two names as sureties, witness name & signature along with the date.
Finally, there is a list of no less than 74 individual costs for this and for that, for reach you have to enter the price as Pounds, Shillings, and Pence.
Lastly, there is a list of 12 tradesman prices (per man, per day), Stone masons, carpenters are at 8 shillings per day, per man, down to labourers at 4 and 6. The very final price to confirm is the price of a horse and cart - here the contractor states 12 shillings per day - a great insight to who earned what in 1874! Mind you, that's only what the contractor is charging the railway company, if you could pay the workmen less then that's going to go in your pocket.
A note on contract drawings:
This document doesn't show the drawings for the Hoddlesden branch, however, as said it lists them, and describes occupation bridge (Three of these), a drawing dedicated to culverts, one for Permanent way, crossings and even fencing. Well I see the same format with the drawings I have (same railway company, from just four years before), looking back at these specific drawings it's clear that these are template drawings, all the draughtsman has to do is insert the corresponding branch name and drawing number.
Standardisation:
Another one of my questions asked on the forum, agreed by all and we can see now that the L&Y had several standard documents, drawings included, that we can say not only was there standardisation across one line, but indeed most, if not all of them. The only thing that changes are a line's specifics, bespoke bridges etc, right down to the standard tender contract.
I hope you find this of interest, and if you would like to read it yourself it's available to view on the L&Y Society website, Virtual Museum section, sub section "Infrastructure".
Question - In the list of 74 specific costings, Iron work for the bridges is included - Would you as a contractor sub contract that out?
Sorry this was a long read!
The Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Society has kindly put one on their website which we can read, it was for the Hoddlesden branch line from 1874.
Background:
Hoddlesden near Darwen, Lancashire had several mills, the L&Y decided they would connect the mills to the Hellifield - Blackburn - Bolton line near Darwen station (then called Over Darwen). It was only just over two miles in length, a single line and for goods only, no passenger services.
The document begins with the specification:
Specification - First we have a brief introduction, the name of the line, its starting point, terminating point, the length of it, and finally in this case the fact that it's a single line. There is then a list of contract drawing descriptions such as No. 1 Plan, 2, Section, 3 onwards lists bespoke bridges, another one for an Occupation bridge - here it states Three of this. The final drawings deal with one for culverts of different sizes, one for Permanent way, Occupation level crossings, gates and even fencing for approach roads to stations. All drawings are numbered in consecutively, 1 to N.
Next, it dives into what the company (the L&Y) will provide, the land, the permanent way (track, sleepers etc), plus what you (the contractor) must supply at your own cost, which is everything from workers, wheelbarrows, materials and so on.
Continuing, the text is broken down into groups of paragraphs which are headed at the start either on the left or right of the first paragraph with titles / descriptions. These headings are worded as Excavation, Occupation level crossing, Bridges and so on, in fact the document seems to cover all possible aspects of building any line.
We can clearly see this is a standard document (terms and conditions) which is amended with some specifics to this particular branch. For example, it mentions foundations for viaducts - this line didn't have any viaducts and so on.
There is (as you might expect), several paragraphs concerning how you will get paid:
This is calculated on a monthly basis, which states how much earth you have excavated, moved, tipped, work on bridges, materials etc. This has to be agreed with the resident engineer, who in turn passes it by Mr. Meek (the L&Y Chief Engineer) for final approval, only then will the L&Y pay you for that month's work. Basically the more you do,
the more you got paid!
Permanent way:
The L&Y are very specific about the tracks, sleepers etc. They very clearly state you are not allowed to use them except when you have laid them as per the plan. No rails used for a bit of track here and there - No!
You can only lay them when you have completed at least 500 yards of track bed, and no closer to any excavation or tipping on an embankment than 100 yards in both cases. The resident engineer of the L&Y would inform the company that you are now ready for a delivery of rails, sleepers etc. It doesn't state how much but I'd be surprised if it wasn't something like 20 chains worth at a time.
Once you have laid the rails, you are now allowed to use them for transporting earth say from a cutting to an embankment, but should any of the permanent way be damaged then it's up to you to replace it (at your own cost). You are also responsible for guarding all of the PW, in place or stored.
Padlocks:
I asked on the forum about occupation crossing gates and would they be locked, well the overwhelming response was "Yes, with padlocks", this tender documents does indeed state that no only must you supply gates but also provide padlocks for them, so it confirms that.
And so on...
Finally in this section, you are invited to fill in your total price, together with individual prices to the main office Hunt's Bank, Manchester by...... 1874.
The Tender part:
This begins with words you have to fill in (by hand) such as your name, total price in words and numbers. two names as sureties, witness name & signature along with the date.
Finally, there is a list of no less than 74 individual costs for this and for that, for reach you have to enter the price as Pounds, Shillings, and Pence.
Lastly, there is a list of 12 tradesman prices (per man, per day), Stone masons, carpenters are at 8 shillings per day, per man, down to labourers at 4 and 6. The very final price to confirm is the price of a horse and cart - here the contractor states 12 shillings per day - a great insight to who earned what in 1874! Mind you, that's only what the contractor is charging the railway company, if you could pay the workmen less then that's going to go in your pocket.
A note on contract drawings:
This document doesn't show the drawings for the Hoddlesden branch, however, as said it lists them, and describes occupation bridge (Three of these), a drawing dedicated to culverts, one for Permanent way, crossings and even fencing. Well I see the same format with the drawings I have (same railway company, from just four years before), looking back at these specific drawings it's clear that these are template drawings, all the draughtsman has to do is insert the corresponding branch name and drawing number.
Standardisation:
Another one of my questions asked on the forum, agreed by all and we can see now that the L&Y had several standard documents, drawings included, that we can say not only was there standardisation across one line, but indeed most, if not all of them. The only thing that changes are a line's specifics, bespoke bridges etc, right down to the standard tender contract.
I hope you find this of interest, and if you would like to read it yourself it's available to view on the L&Y Society website, Virtual Museum section, sub section "Infrastructure".
Question - In the list of 74 specific costings, Iron work for the bridges is included - Would you as a contractor sub contract that out?
Sorry this was a long read!
