Re: S trucks? How old r they? WAS: Re: what is in the 's' truck at 3801 ltd?

["Barry Campbell" <campblbm@ozemail.com.au>]

Skippy wrote in message <8o7s4q$h91$1@newsg4.svr.pol.co.uk>...
>I gathered that it had been around for ages but transfering this topic onto
>the S truck's how long has this particular 1 been around? Would it be at
>least 40 years since the 1st one ran on the NSWGR tracks????
>
S truck date back, in their final form, to at least the 1930s. ISTR there
may have been timber frame versions that went back to the 19th century. The
batch that were finally scrapped in the 1980s dated from a large order of
10,000 dating from the immediate post war period. Bear in mind that the
NSWGR were also ordering things like G wagons which were what the Yanks
would call gondolas and stacks of bogie louvre vans, hoppers and stock
waggons makes you wonder why they bothered to waste the money on the S truck
fleet. The answer to this will tell you why the railways are in the state
they are today.


Barry Campbell