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[Notul]

Hi. I have recently acquired what i believe is a truck plaque. Its an original cast iron, not a replica, from a railwayman who has passed. Is the number allocated to a particular piece of rolling stock? I am not an expert and would be grateful for any information. Thanks.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

It's definitely a wagon plate - but identifying what particular type it came off will need someone with an actual list of which number series were allocated to what - and there should be someone on here who can narrow it down; 278018 would certainly be an individual wagon number.

 

[Big Jumby 74]

I believe it's a 12T van, from one of the last LNE batches built at Darlington. I have a picture of another one, NE 285714 (likely from this batch) in a book, but copyright etc, so can't post image. Can't as yet confirm the full number range for this build, but will do if I find out.

 

[Gloster]

I would think that the details would probably be in Volume 4A of Peter Tatlow’s history of LNER wagons. Unfortunately, I have only got the single volume history.

 

[Big Jumby 74]

Looking at Paul Bartlett's site, wagon pages, I think 278018 is likely to be a Diag 187 van, others of this batch being numbered 277676, 277977, 285119 etc. These were plywood sided fruit vans with diagonal strapping either side of the doors. The ends were corrugated for the lower half only, the upper half being (I presume) plywood as well.
To muddy the waters so to speak, there appears to have been a few Diag 195 vans produced within the same number range, ie; 283710, 283799, albeit these seem to have been almost identical with the exception that the ends were completely plywood.

 

[Big Jumby 74]

Can now confirm E278018 was a Diagram 187, 12T Ventilated fruit van. If the OP can avail themself of a copy of/look at David Larkin's 'The Acquired wagons of BR - Vol 4', the bottom of page 90 will tell you all.