Description
The North Eastern Railway had a sizeable cattle wagon fleet; 3,222 were built between 1886 and 1924 including unfitted (the majority), piped and fitted versions. All were classed under Diagram K1. At Grouping, the LNER inherited a fleet of over 2,000 wagons but by 1940 this had fallen to just 728. BR took over 213 of these.
When first built the unfitted K1 had grease axleboxes, a single brake lever and two brake shoes on one side. From 1902 Morton Duplex brakes (right and left levers) were fitted, followed by Morton cam brakes from around 1904. All these versions may be built from kit NERDK001. From c1910 oil axle boxes would have been fitted to new or repaired wagons (this kit), so very few grease axlebox wagons would have passed to the LNER. The fitted version is kit NERDK001B.
Although unfitted, these wagons often had screw couplings and 4-bolt fitted wagon buffers (51L part no. NERC028).
The photo shows a wagon with grease axleboxes.
