An illustrated history of British Railways Hopper Wagons

Published by the Historical Model Railway Society and priced at £40 for non-members, and £27 for HMRS members, this book delivers a detailed history of the 37 specialised hopper designs built for the bulk delivery of coal and other commodities by BR through the second half of the 20th century.

The book details the history of these wagons from those built by the LNER and later BR, through to various, air-braked designs. Prototypes are illustrated with 150 photographs, mostly in black and white but with some colour.

All that would be interesting enough, but author David Monk-Steel has gone further with over 100 drawings reproduced at 7mm:1ft scale. This collection is simply breath-taking and HMRS has chosen a softback A4 format to present these to the best advantage. Despite being 248 pages long, the binding allows the book to open flat for ease of use.

The drawings are not simple reworkings of those enthusiasts may have seen in the past, but are based on measurements taken by David and his colleagues while the wagons were still in service. Many hours will have been spent crawling around yards, followed by even more turning this information into very detailed plans. As well as the expected end and side elevations, there are numerous scrap views showing important details.

Book Contents

• Chapter 1: Introduction to BR Hopper wagons
• Chapter 2: LNER Coal Hoppers
• Chapter 3: The Small Coal Hoppers
• Chapter 4: British Railways Built 21 ton Coal hopper Wagons
• Chapter 5: 24.5T Coal Hoppers, Use and Modification
• Chapter 6: Coke Hoppers
• Chapter 7: Iron Ore Hoppers
• Chapter 8: Other Traffics
• Chapter 9: Air-Braked Hopper Wagons
• Appendix 1: Summary of LNER Hopper Wagons
• Appendix 2: British Railways Wagon Building and Numbering Summaries
• Appendix 3: TOPS Codes
• Indexes

Quite simply, this is the definitive work on hopper wagons. If rolling stock interests you, a copy for the bookshelf will be essential.

For more information, visit the HMRS website.