Kit Corner: Rebody a 21t hopper wagon
THOUSANDS of steel-bodied 21t hopper wagons were built by BR between 1949 and 1959, mostly as unfitted wagons to several different diagrams based on the LNER design.
The were the mainstay of coal traffic, although they could be found working in coke and sand traffic too.
With more than 36,000 in traffic during the 1960s, which included LNER-built wagons, the 21t hopper wagon – or HOP21 – dominated coal traffic particularly in the north east of England, South Wales and the Yorkshire coalfields.
Until the introduction of air-braked coal hopper wagons, which included the HAA family and HBA domestic coal hopper wagons, the 21t hopper wagon was common throughout the country and despite the introduction of more modern wagons, the design survived to see a programme of rebodying in the 1970s to replace worn out hoppers.
In fact, hopper wagons of various origins were rebodied fairly regularly. Not all received vacuum brakes during rebuilding, and other improvements were made including the fitting of roller bearings and different types of side buffers.
The 1970s rebodied wagons are the subject of this article, where many of them received vacuum brakes on the standard 12ft wheelbase underframe.
The last batch of rebodied wagons fitted with vacuum brakes (HTV) in the B340xxx number range received upgraded suspension springs compared to earlier rebodied wagons. Also, they were renumbered in a new sequence along with late rebodied HTOs, instead of retaining their original running numbers.
Vacuum-braked HTVs were largely painted in BR bauxite livery (photographic evidence shows this was not always the case) and fitting of
