A number of London & Birmingham Railway wagons were illustrated by Samuel Brees in his 'Railway Practice' published in 1846. This wagon is not specifically attributed to the L&B, however it is presented alongside a drawing of an open goods wagon (probably by Joseph Wright) which is. Brees rather unhelpfully labels this one 'Another Wagon'.

Despite this lack of information (and the supporting text is of no further help), it does follow a reasonably standard design for early railway wagons. A period illustration of goods wagons employed on the Liverpool & Manchester Railway depicts remarkably similar stock and exemplifies the style of the late 1830s. Based on this I am confident enough that it represents a large goods and possibly livestock wagon of the London & Birmingham Railway.

Brees points out that his drawing shows the wagon 'without lining' and details of what such a lining might be can be found in Daniel Kinnear Clark's 'Railway Machinery' of 1855. In describing the construction of wagons on page 275 he writes: 'If of wood framed, the lining is usually 1-1/4 inch thick..." and he continues: 'Sheet iron lining, on wood framing, may be No.12 wire-gauge, or nearly 1/8 inch thick; when built up with riveted joints and overings, it is 3/16 inch to 1/4 inch thick, in which case the joints should be welted, to stiffen them. W. B. Adams, and Henson, employ corrugated sheet iron, and require less framing with it; but they differ in their mode of using it, Henson using corrugations 4 inches pitch, and Adams preferring narrow corrugations less than 1 inch pitch'.

It may well have been the case that these wagons were constructed without any lining for the conveyance of livestock and perhaps without the canvas tilt and roof hoops which were not always used.

Given their basic construction and the rapid pace of rolling stock development in the 1840s, the service life of these wagons was probably fairly short. The L&B amalgamated with a number of other railways in 1846 to form the LNWR. In 1848 the General Manager of the LNWR, Captain Mark Huish reported to the Board the existence of 495 cattle wagons and 117 sheep vans. Further minute books into the 1850 record improvements made to these vehicles including roofs and the planking in of the ends to provide better shelter. Perhaps these notes refer to wagons such as this?

The 4mm scale models illustrated were built from my recent cast white metal kit.