Does anyone know if KPA wagons are still registered? From a quick Google I found that 8 remained on TOPS in 2008 and some went for storage in 2020:
There are no KPA wagons still registered on TOPS. After a bit of delving, I've figured out that the last nine ended up stored at Kellingley:
7069050330, 7069050264, 7069050033, 7069050017, 7069050009, 7069050181, 7069050355, 7069050447, 7069050306
Eight of them were on that 6E26 Wembley - Scunthorpe move on 01/02/20. They had been stored at Wembley for a while, and before that had been in use on sand traffic from Angerstein Wharf.
Those 8 wagons moved to Milford Sidings on a 6N12 on 06/02/20, then to Kellingley as a 6G04 on 13/02/20.
6G04 is seen at Kellingley behind 66177:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dbs60100/49530660042/ (Photo: DBS 60100)
The ninth wagon (7069050306) had been stuck at Luton Limbury Road for some time when it was made fit to travel and attached to the front of 6H76 to Peak Forest on 01/10/20.
On 28/12/20 it joined the others at Kellingley, moving as 6Z52 from Doncaster Belmont with 66067.
6Z52 is seen here before departure from Belmont:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dbs60100/50772062252/ (Photo: DBS 60100)
The 9 KPA wagons were noted as being stored at Kellingley in a TOPS enquiry dated 09/11/21. They have subsequently been removed from TOPS and I suspect they were either scrapped on site or made one final journey somewhere for cutting up.
There are a couple of numerically similar JRA hoppers still left on TOPS, with 7069050538 and 7069050710 shown at Long Marston. These had been retired from use at Bardon Hill in summer 2020, with the last workings being in August 2020 to places including Tinsley, Neasden, and Angerstein. I'd never really noticed before but these JRA hoppers have a very different body profile designed for regular hopper discharge, while the KPAs had much higher clearance under the hopper to allow discharge onto the type of mobile conveyor used on the Marcon trains.
These two JRAs were included in the consist of a 6Z42 from Coalville Mantle Lane on 17/09/20:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/warspite14/50362232251/ (Photo: Roger Cutts)
Another 20 JRAs had moved on another 6Z42 Coalville Mantle Lane - Long Marston working on 25/08/20:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/warspite14/50266827791/ (Photo: Roger Cutts)
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Some of the last KPAs in use are seen mixed with HLAs working from Luton to Angerstein in September 2017:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/189353827@N04/50124659088/ (Peter Moss)
There are also some photos of the KPAs in on a Moreton-On-Lugg to Radlett working on 27/04/18:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dan700/41159212885/ (Photo: Dan Adkins)
There were some very mixed rakes in use around this time - for example 6L38 Wembley - Marks Tey empties on 13/02/18 was formed of 9 IIAs (706955xxx), 6 HOAs (320xxx), a PGA (REDA 14755), a JGA (RMC 13711), and KPA 7069050017.
I would guess the KPAs were taken out of use around May 2019 - this is the most recent photo I can find of them in active service:
I count 8 KPAs on this Hither Green to Angerstein working on 30/04/19:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/locohunter/32822046747/ (Photo: Ian Cuthbertson)
7069050330 (one of the KPAs moved from Wembley to Scunthorpe on 01/02/20) reached Wembley on a 4M59 from Hither Green (Bramdean Sidings) on 06/08/19, a movement which probably included all 8 of the KPAs which ended up moving to Kellingley via Scunthorpe. Around April / May 2019 there were new JNA box wagons appearing on the Angerstein workings to places like Park Royal and Battersea which formerly used the KPAs / HLAs. Terminals with conventional hopper discharge (like St Pancras) were being served by newly-converted HRAs around the same time.
