Description
Choosing an eight plank design set the Southern apart from most other railway companies. However, the standard body, with its large, lower drop door with and smaller ‘cupboard’ doors, was used for several different diagrams of wagon. Rapido Trains UK has produced two of these diagrams, the 1379 and the 1400.
The Diagram 1379 was the first eight-plank design to be introduced and 7,950 were built between 1926 and 1933. This made the Dia.1379 the most numerous SR wagon.
They featured a standard RCH underframe with 9ft wheelbase and, originally, all were unfitted. The first 3,000 were built with Morton brakes but this was subsequently changed to what the SR called ‘Freighter’ brakes.
In 1935, the SR increased the wheelbase to 10ft. The first wagons with this wheelbase were fitted with vacuum brakes. However, two batches of unfitted 10ft wagons were built during 1936 and 1937. These 1,400 vehicles were, fittingly, given the diagram number 1400. They re-used old wheelsets but the chassis and bodies were new and they were fitted with Freighter brakes.
