Carder of Lancaster were one of the countless small- to medium-sized coal merchants to be found in every town and city in the country, back in the days when coal was the only fuel that counted. They ran a modest fleet of wagons painted up in their own distinctive livery, typical of the private-owner vehicles which were such a staple of goods traffic right across the railway network of Britain in the pre-war era. Carder would have sent their empty wagons to collieries right across the North of England, the Midlands and North Wales to be loaded up with coal for their domestic and industrial customers. Special orders might have seen a wagon or two go much further afield, maybe down to South Wales for a consignment of the soft steam coal from the Valleys. Then the full wagons would have trundled their way back over LMS metals to Carder's depot by the West Coast Main Line. Larger customers who bought their coal by the wagonload, such as factories and gasworks, would have the wagon sent on to their own private sidings, but consignments of house coal would be unloaded at the depot. Carder's coalmen would shovel 12 tons of coal by hand out of each wagon and into coal staithes, then weigh it into individual hundredweight sacks for delivery to the customer by horse and cart. Bring the good old days of grimy towns and smoky chimneys back to your layout, with one of our Carder wagons.