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Original Text (Annotation: EPW053650 / 1022199)
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A wagon loaded with wood from lighter is standing on a wagon turntable ready to be turned to join its mates on the siding to the left. The imported timber would have been unloaded from a ship docked to the east of London Bridge and brought up steam by a tug to be transferred here. All apart of the "highly efficient" way that London's Docks were operated, and sort of reason that 20 years later was to be the cause of their almost complete decline. By 40 years later (1977) there was almost no significant commercial traffic on the river west of Tilbury.
So often the decline of the docks is blamed on the workers. Perhaps a more critical eye should be cast over the low levels of infrastructure investment and the hanging on to traditional ways of working controlled by the management and based of large amounts of poorly paid labour that could be 'switched' on and off depending on work being available. Limited hours contracts with no contract!
Wonderful how a picture of a railway wagon, with a load of timber, can illustrate a social and economic condition. '