Open wagons
The majority of traffic carried on the railways could, and still can, be accommodated in simple open wagons. From the 1830s railway companies provided these wagons in large numbers and only introduced specialised vehicles with roofs, special suspension, longer bodies, different doors, etc as certain traffic demanded it. Open wagons are easily referred to by the number of planks in each side. Early wagons had sides made of only one or two planks, typically each 7 inches wide, and were about fifteen feet long. In the 1880s many railways operated wagons with three or more planks for most general merchandise. By the First World War five planks had become normal, with a body length of about 16 feet, and many companies provided special bars to support tarpaulin sheets to keep rain off the goods inside. Over the next forty years the five plank wagon became more sophisticated, being lengthened to 17 feet six inches and equipped with refinements like doors sloped to wheel off barrows, vacuum brakes, better suspension, and even shock-absorbing apparatus. Longer examples were also made to carry tubes and pipes.At Foxfield the examples of true general merchandise open wagons are limited a batch of Midland Railway five plank examples, but the earlier and later development of the type can be seen through the other examples in the collection of an ingot wagon and pipe wagons:
Thos
Bolton and Sons 10 ton 1 plank open wagon no 15
MR 5plank open wagons NCB58 and 46370
BR Pipe wagons B740418, B740676 and B741715
Below: BR pipe wagon KDB 740418 seen at Caverswall
Road station in 2000
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