Diagrams 44 and 44A Hopper Wagons, 15 & 16ft, 10 tons

D44 was the basic design from which the other 15ft & 16ft Hoppers, Diagrams 28, 30 & 30A were developed. The data in the table below, derived from the 1902 Wagon Stock Age Book, shows that the oldest D44 wagons still surviving at that date were the 57 built in 1879. Another source, LNWR Wagon Valuation List 1877 to 1893 suggests that Hopper wagons existed as a separate type at least 2 years earlier, but those particular vehicles did not survive until 1902.

The table above summarises the building records of D44 and D44A Hoppers over the period 1879 to 1923. Neither these records, nor the well known ‘1919 Table of LNW Goods Stock’, differentiate which were the earlier 15ft wagons and which the later 16ft D44A ones. Circumstantial evidence of similar changes amongst the LNW wagon stock in general suggests that the change is likely to have taken place between 1910 and 1915.

The 1897 Earlestown General Arrangement drawing, ETN39 [HMRS 1132], which in addition to giving the principle dimensions provides a good deal of constructional detail. Note in particular the early brake gear and the bottom door catches, which are significant features of the design. Careful examination of the original drawing, reveals a transverse beam, 4½in x 3½in across the centre of the body at the level of the top plank. Presumably this reinforcement strengthened the sides and helped prevent them bulging under the strain of 10 tons of coal being dropped into the wagon from above. In reducing the drawing to this scale some of the fine detail is lost and anyone proposing to build a model from scratch would be well advised to obtain a copy of the original drawing.

An official Earlestown photograph taken in 1909 of a D44 hopper in new condition and branded for the Cleator District is shown below.

The surviving drawing of the D44A 16ft hopper, ETN945A [HMRS1112] dated 1915, is illustrated above. It shows a number of changes from the earlier design. Firstly the length is increased to 16ft, but the width and height remain unchanged. Buffers (twin rib), axle boxes (now the third pattern bulbous oil boxes), brakes (now double on both sides, DBBS) and springs are all updated in line with contemporary Earlestown practise. The 1919 Table shows that 174 vehicles were fitted with oil boxes, so taking that distinction as an indication of the D44A type, and counting back from 1919, it would appear that the change took place around 1912.

This coincides with the increased rate of construction indicated in the Table above and leaves about 1270 wagons of the older shorter type. All wagons of both types passed to the LMS in 1923 but how long they remained in main line use thereafter is unknown to the author at present, except that a note on the drawing records the modification of 46 wagons in 1945.

One D44A wagon, listed as 227133, survived to be scrapped by BR in 1959. Notes taken by that doyen of matters L&NWR, the late J.P. Richards, record that two wagons of this type were fitted with ‘double brakes both sides’ - DBBS - and carried numbers 11762 and 17677.

To understand the register numbers carried by the D44 Hopper wagons it is necessary to consider the LNW’s stock of Chaldron wagons. It may come as a surprise to some readers that the LNW had any Chaldron wagons, which nowadays are more usually associated with railways in the North East of England. By the time the Hoppers were introduced in 1878, there was a Chaldron stock of 1656 vehicles. From that high point onwards they declined until they became extinct in 1890, which is why they are not to be found in the LNW 1903 Wagon Diagram Book. There are minute book references that some were sold to private contractors rather than scrapped. One reference dates from 1889 and orders that "the 365 still in stock to be rebuilt as follows:- 2 off 10 ton Hoppers and 1 off Open wagon for every 3 Chaldrons broken up or sold".

It is worthy of note that during this period, circa 1890, the major type of open wagons under construction were the 2-plank D2 design. The same reference contains a list of just over 400 register numbers of Chaldrons sold. Assuming that the above order applied to these wagons we can apply about 270 of these numbers to the Hopper wagons that replaced the scrapped Chaldrons. Unfortunately the data does not tell us which numbers were taken by the Hoppers and which by the Open wagons. Consequently, we cannot unequivocally identify the register numbers carried by individual Hopper wagons.

However, despite the lack of that final detail, the information enables us to understand the reason why some of the Hoppers, introduced only at the end of the 1870s, carried register numbers in the 25xxx to 27xxx range, which had been issued for the first time in the 1860s. Another group of numbers were transferred to Hoppers from the Chaldrons in the same way. A group of ‘Red Ore’ Chaldrons sold in 1889 carried register numbers in the range 42221 to 42609. Assuming the same 2 to 1 rule applied then 30 or so of these numbers would have been applied to Hopper wagons, which were built in replacement of the Chaldrons in 1890. These assertions are supported by photographs of Hopper wagons in a variety of liveries numbered in the 25xxx to 27xxx, 42xxx and 44xxx ranges. Also coal invoice records from later years contain a good sprinkling of loads of coal in wagons in these numbers ranges. See Table below: