GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Moor Street Station: gwrms1720a

Close up of image 'gwrms1720' showing staff operating one of the three 20 ton electrically powered wagon hoists located at Moor Street. This was a diagram V12 wagon built under lot 708 in August 1912. The wagon has vacuum fitted brakes and a X braced end with two short bonnets each fitted with a shutter mechanism controlled by a vertical bar to low level handle.

All diagram V12 covered wagons were sixteen feet long over the headstocks with a nine foot wheelbase. Internally the space was 15foot, 10.5inches long, by 7foot, 8.5inches wide, with a 7foot, 6.5inch maximum height, which gave a capacity of 876 cubic feet and they were rated to carry ten tons. Either side there were a pair of framed wooden doors which hinged back externally to give a 4foot, 10.5inch clear opening. They were fitted with DC3 either side (right hand operated) brakes and initially most were vacuum fitted. Later lots included batches that were unfitted (although fitted wagons were preferred on through trains, as the improved braking allowed trains to travel faster, they made the wagons more expensive to construct and maintain, and were unnecessary in local freight trains where the connecting and disconnecting of the individual vacuum pipes took additional time and effort). All the wagons had standard OKF oil axle boxes, but the buffering arrangements changed over time (reflecting developments), initially rod buffers sprung through the drawgear were provided, but self-contained buffers later became the standard. Ventilation arrangements were also modified, with the initial twin high level louvres and shutter arrangement at each end being superseded with a simpler twin bonnet arrangement (many of the wagons with louvres also had these subsequently replaced with bonnets). Those wagons built after August 1912( lot 708) had shutters in the bonnets to control the air flow operated by a vertical bar to a low level handle. This control mechanism is thought to have been designed by Ashe & Lacey, but this feature appears to have been removed from these wagons by the 1930’s.

There were over 3,300 covered wagons allocated to diagram V12, built between 1907 and 1916. The wagons were built as both replacements and new construction lots. Those built as replacement wagons were given the running number of the wagon that they replaced and this is why these numbers were not sequential. The lots and running numbers of the known diagram V12 covered wagons are given in the table below. Note that over time some of the covered wagons were adapted for specific purposes (Fruit Vans, Meat Vans, Banana Vans, etc.) and allocated a different diagram number, while retaining their original running number.

Robert Ferris

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