BR's standard coal fleet

THE origins of the British Railways 24½ ton coal hoppers can be traced back to the earliest years of Nationalisation. In February 1948, the Railway Executive established an ‘Ideal Stocks Committee’ to consider the numbers and types of locomotives, carriages and wagons required by the newly formed British Railways.

When the committee’s report on the design, capacity and types of freight rolling stock appeared in March 1950, it recommended the use of 24½ ton wagons for coal traffic, this being the maximum load that could be accommodated on two axles given the prevailing 17½ ton maximum axle load.

The first prototype

An initial prototype wagon, No. B333000, was built under Lot 2504, emerging from Shildon Works in December 1952. The design, allocated diagram 1/147, was clearly based on the 21 ton hopper wagon, a type introduced by the LNER during the mid 1930s; the capacity being increased from the 845 cubic feet of the 21 tonner to the 1029 cubic feet of the new 24½ tonner by the relatively simple expedient of making the body six inches wider and eight inches taller.

The bodywork was of all-welded construction, measuring 21ft 1⅝in long by 7ft 11⅝in wide inside at the top, and reaching a height of 10ft 6in above rail. The upper part of both the sides and the ends, amounting to roughly the top two-thirds of the sides and the top half of the ends, was vertical. The sides then sloped in to pass between the inner longitudinal members of the underframe, while the ends sloped to pass through the top surface of the underframe