Wagons (3)

L&Y goods vehicles were built to last about 35 years and their design was based on practicality, any faults which showed up or places where they didn’t meet needs would result in the next order being revised.

Around 1913 there were ten new vehicles built at Newton Heath each working day, about the same rolled out after general repair and countless more minor repairs elsewhere on the system. In 1920 the wagon stock was valued at £3,120,000 (about £73 million at today’s prices).

The LMS valued the vacuum fitted vehicles and kept them and the younger single plank opens running. One estimate is that about 5,000 L&Y wagons made it through to BR days.

There are several L&Y goods vehicles still in existence today, largely because a lot of the vacuum fitted covered goods built 1910-14 were taken into Army service during World War II and were only ‘demobbed’ in the later 1980s, the better ones going to various railways for potential use in period goods trains.

Diagram 1 9’ 0’’ w/base Built 1870-1922 9000 built