Origins please...

[Railroader]

Hello, my first post and straight in with a question, a friend of mine gave me this and he told me it came off an old railway sleeper that he bought for his garden a few years ago - That is all the info I have ! Could anybody shead some light please ?

SCGD
4 GAS V
9" - 0

It's cast iron and measurements are W. 310mm x H. 200mm.
Thank you in advance for any help.

 

[ac6000cw]

I'd guess that it marked where a gas main went under the railway, presumably at a depth of 9 feet below the track.

The 'SCGD' might be 'S C Gas Department' so possibly a local authority owned gas producer - no idea where though....(years ago, most gas was produced from coal in local town and city 'gasworks', some private companies, others local council owned - there was no national pipeline network like we have now).

 

[John Webb]

I would think this indicates the location of a valve on a 4inch gas main 9ft away from the plate's location.
Not certain what the SCGD might be - GD might be Gas Department or Division.
Can't think of any UK railway company that the SO might refer to, except perhaps SOuthern Railway - but they more usually were abbreviated as SR. Or are we talking about a non-UK location?
(Looking at ac6000cw's reply, I'm uncertain that a non-railway gas main would be marked - the plate is much in the style of older UK fire hydrant and water-main signs where a valve controlling the water flow was indicated in case of need.)

 

[ac6000cw]

Good thoughts, John - if it's a railway 'gas department' it might be a pre-grouping company, given that they might be making use of gas in buildings and also for gas-lit rolling stock.

 

[eastwestdivide]

To the OP, whereabouts in the country are you? If the sleeper hadn't travelled far, this could help with the "SCGD"

 

[Railroader]

Hi Eastwestdivide, I'm located in West Yorkshire - but have no idea where the sleeper came from ! As stated in an earlier post "non UK country"? I know a lot of Russian sleepers have ended up here in the UK. Thanks for all the replies - my search continues.

 

[eastwestdivide]

If it was Russian, the lettering would be Cyrillic. And even if the timber for the sleepers came from Russia, is there much of a market for exporting second-hand ones with plates attached?
You gave the measurements in mm - I don't know whether you were accurate to the last mm, but they equate to roughly 12x8 inches, which might indicate a UK origin if the maker was thinking in round figures.
The coincidence of GD gas department and GAS V for gas valve kind of point to English abbreviations rather than languages, many of which tend to have things in a different order.