British Railways 24.5T HOP24/HUO Hopper Wagon

Originally produced in 1954 in a series of twelve separate manufacturing batches, some 5,263 24.5 ton capacity hoppers were built up until 1965. Eleven of these batches were built at British Railway’s Shildon wagon works with the final batch constructed by outside suppliers Pressed Steel. When coal was still king, they were tasked predominantly with coal traffic movements hauling coal and coke from collieries and coke plants to power stations and ports throughout Britain. They displaced older open wagons on coal trains and acted as a modem forerunner to newer ‘Merry-go-Round (MGR) coal hopper stock. 24.5T HOP24/HUO Hopper Wagons ran from 1954 to 1897 with many surviving into the private power plant sector operations.

Appearing in grey and bauxite for 0 gauge railway modellers, a perfect bulk mineral traffic accompaniment that can be run with an assortment of mainline end of steam locomotives, British Railways green diesel era, and BR Blue and Grey, where under BR’s Total Operations Processing System (TOPS), they acquired their HUO classification. The 24.5T HOP24/HUO Hopper Wagons because they were not fitted with continuous vacuum or air braking operated with brake vans, and with larger rakes, on occasions with brakes at either end. They could still be seen around in the first years of rail sectorisation and, of course, they are perfect to operate with the venerable Ruston and Hornsby 88DS diesel mechanical shunters, shunters so defining British industrialised sidings and settings.