The LNER Encyclopedia

i have just got a L.N.E.R plate with
21 tons
1946
DARLINGTON
274103
where do i go to check out where it came from and what it came from
thank you
carol

It's a wagon plate - these cast iron plates, usually with a curved lower edge, were fixed to the solebar on each side of the wagon to which they referred. The number is the vehicle's individual identity; "Darlington" is where it was built (Faverdale wagon works, presumably), and the year is the date of construction. I would guess that 274103 was a steel-sided coal hopper, something like this -



You can see the all-black wagon plate on the solebar above the left-hand spring in the picture.

For more information, I think I would have to wait until Peter Tatlow's Vol. 4 of "LNER Wagons" is released. His Vol.2 gives some batch details and has allowed me to identify a wagon from a number in the past. That volume is NER only though, and doesn't include any of the later LNER designs.

It is possible that the Ken Hoole Centre and/or the National Railway Museum archives have more information.


Richard

I had a rummage round Paul Bartlett's totally fantastic website and...

http://gallery6801.fotopic.net/p45866773.html

is getting pretty close to your one.. Also

http://gallery6801.fotopic.net/p45970978.html

but it has been rebodied by BR