Locomotive Acts
The Locomotive Acts were a series of Acts of Parliament in the United Kingdom regulating the use of mechanically propelled vehicles on public highways in Britain during the latter part of the 19th century. One of them, the Locomotives Act 1865 is known as the Red Flag Act.
The first three, the Locomotive Act 1861, the Locomotives Act 1865 and Highways and Locomotives Act 1878, regulated the use of locomotives and restricted their speed and operation. The second also reorganised the highway districts of the Highways Act 1835 as highway boards and vested in them former turnpike roads in their area and those which subsequently disturnpiked. The final act, the Locomotives Act 1898, required locomotives which were used on highways in a county to be licensed by that county and other locomotives to be registered. All locomotives were to carry plates showing their licence or registration.
The regulated the use of locomotives on turnpike and other public roads. It limited the maximum size and weight of locomotives and set the rates of toll which turnpikes could charge. Locomotives needed a crew of two, with a third man if there were more than two waggons.
Locomotives were subject to a speed limit of 5 mph in towns and 10 mph in the country. They were banned from suspension bridges and required consent to use other bridges on which notices had been placed that the bridge was only for the ordinary traffic of the district.
The Locomotives Act 1865 imposed on road locomotives a speed limit of 2 mph in towns and 4 mph in the country. It increased the crew to three, of which one was to walk 60 yards ahead carrying a red flag.
The repealed the requirement for the man to carry a red flag, instead requiring him to walk at least twenty yards ahead to assist approaching horses and carriages. It retained the speed limits of the 1865 Act. County authorities could pass byelaws to regulate the use of locomotives on their roads and charge up to £10 a year license fee.
The Locomotives on Highways Act 1896 defined a new class of light locomotives weighing less than 3 tons, to which the 1861, 1865 and 1878 Locomotive Acts did not apply. This removed from such vehicles the requirement for a crew of three with one man walking ahead, the speed limits and the bridge restrictions. It defined such vehicles as carriages and subject to the laws relating to them. It specified a speed limit of 14 mph with local authorities able to impose lower ones. This allowed the automotive industry in the United Kingdom to develop soon after the development of the first practical automobile.
While the Locomotives Act 1898 was nominally about regulating the weight of locomotives and waggons, section 6 allowed counties or boroughs with a population greater than 10,000 to pass byelaws restricting the use of highways by locomotives on their roads. Some authorities, notably in South Wales and Middlesex, used this to curtail the use of hundreds of roads by all locomotives.
Background
The Highway Act 1835 and subsequent acts attempted to find satisfactory methods of maintaining roads since the UK turnpike trust system had failed following the UK railway boom.New steam powered road locomotives, some up to 9 feet wide and weighing 14 tons, were alleged to damage the highway while they were being propelled at "high speeds" of up to.
However, there is evidence that the steam carriages' brakes and their wide tyres caused less damage to the roads than horse-drawn carriages because of the absence of horses' hooves striking the road and wheels which did not lock and drag. It has been claimed that the restrictions in the earlier act were advocated by those with interests in the UK railway industry and horse-drawn carriages.
In addition to any concerns about the state of the roads, by the 1860s, there was concern that the widespread use of traction engines, such as road locomotives and agricultural engines, would endanger the safety of the public. It was feared that engines and their trailers might cause fatal accidents, scare horses, block narrow lanes, and disturb the locals by operating at night. Although all of these fears were justified and were soon realized, there was a gradual acceptance of the machines as they became more common in commerce.
Similar 'Red Flag' legislation was enacted in some states in the United States.
The emerging UK automotive industry advocated very effectively for the 1896 Act during the preceding year. Coventry manufacturer Harry J. Lawson, who had purchased the British Daimler engine patents in 1895 and later was to form The Daimler Motor Company, was very influential. Sir David Salomons, the founder of the Self-Propelled Traffic Association spent many hours advising Government officials as to what the law should be
The Acts
Locomotive Act 1861
The Locomotives on Highways Act 1861 recognised that the use of "powered locomotives" on turnpikes and other roads would become commonplace, and that many existing laws did not contain any provision for regulation or tolling of such vehicles.The act contained sections on:
- Toll fees of locomotives and their wagons: to be tolled at every 2 tons of vehicle weight, and equal to the respective tolls charged for horse-drawn vehicles. Vehicles with non-cylindrical wheels were to be charged 50% more.
- Regulations on the minimum width of wheels of vehicles over 3 tons: and on maximum loads per wheel, and restrictions on vehicles thought to be damaging to roads.
- Regulations, restrictions, and procedures for compensation to trustees on the passage of locomotives over bridges and other structures for any damage caused thereon.
- Requirement for the vehicle to consume its own smoke
- Requirement for a road locomotive to be manned by at least two persons, with additional persons in charge of trains of wagons, as well as requirements for the vehicle to carry functional lights during night-time.
- A speed limit of 10 mph on open roads, or 5 mph in inhabited areas.
- Requirement for the owners name, and the weight of the vehicle to be clearly displayed on the vehicle.
Locomotives Act 1865 (Red Flag Act)
The Locomotive Act 1865 :- Stipulated that self-propelled vehicles should be accompanied by a crew of three; if the vehicle was attached to two or more vehicles an additional person was to accompany the vehicles; a man with a red flag was to walk at least ahead of each vehicle, who was also required to assist with the passage of horses and carriages. The vehicle was required to stop at the signal of the flagbearer.
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- Additionally vehicles were required to have functional lights, and not sound whistles or blow off steam whilst on the road.
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- A speed limit of 4 mph was imposed for road locomotives, with a fine of £10 for contravention.
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- The restricted road locomotive vehicles to 14 tons, and 9 ft in width, as well as requiring the vehicle to have wheels meeting the requirements of the 1861 act.
Highways and Locomotives (Amendment) Act 1878
- Arrangements regarding the formation of 'highway districts'; stipulating that they should roughly correspond with rural sanitary districts, and allowing the sanitary authority to apply to manage the highway districts, taking over property, debts and liabilities relating to the highway.
- De-turnpiked roads to become 'main roads' and half their maintenance cost paid through county rates.
- Gave the highway authority powers to request that roads between towns, and roads to railway stations be classified as 'main roads'
- Allow the county authority to contribute to the maintenance of bridges
- Provisions to recover maintenance costs from road users operating heavy traffic and causing excess road wear.
- Set out procedures for the highway authority to discontinue any unneeded roads.
- Allowing the repeal and issue of bylaws relating to animal-drawn vehicles that might cause damage to the road; as well as regulations on gates and regulations on bicycles, and allowing the issue of fines relating to such byelaws.
- Section 3 of the 1861 act and section 5 of the Locomotive Act 1865 – clauses relating to the weight, length, and width of tyre of road locomotives
- Section 8 of the 1861 act, requiring road locomotives to consume their own smoke was repealed and amended.
Locomotives on Highways Act 1896
Locomotives Act 1898
The Locomotives Act 1898 required road users to affix signs displaying the weight of wagons; limited length of hauled road trains to three wagons without permission, and gave powers to road authorities to operate weighing machines for the weighing of road vehicles, as well as allowing fines for the contravention of the regulations, and allowed for compensation relating to delay caused by the weighing process.The act also contained sections on:
- Regulations relating to number of persons in attendance to road locomotives, assistance to passing horses or carriages, and the requirement for and proper form of illuminating lights
- Allowing councils to restrict the passage on road locomotives and their wagons on crowded highways, and bridges, whilst allowing bridge restrictions to be lifted on the payment of costs relating to bridge strengthening
- Gave the right of appeal to road locomotives operators on restrictions under the act of the 1861 act.
- Restricted passing of locomotives on bridges
- Required road locomotives used for haulage to be licensed by the county council, and set out the requirement for display of a license plate