L&Y Diagram 3 Covered Goods Wagon

This kit represents an Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Diagram 3 "Covered Goods" wagon. Diagram 3 wagons represented the L&Y's standard design of van from the late 1870s until 1904, with a significant number built in the last decade of that era. The LMS received approximately 3,500 of these wagons at the grouping, accounting for 1% of its wagon fleet.

This kit is based on the final Diagram 3 design found in drawing 3446, featuring 5' doors, an interior height of 6' 7", and a standard 9' wheelbase. 2,330 wagons were built to this specific design between 1897 and 1904, as well as 570 to the very similar drawing 3003 in 1894-96. Approximately 1,100 wagons were built to earlier designs featuring a slightly  lower roof profile.

The wagons came with a distinctive canvas flap over one of the two doors. This could be folded back to allow access via cranes in warehouses, to allow for easier loading and unloading than through the small, 5' tall doors.

Diagram 3 wagons survived into LMS use, but their small size and capacity compared to later wagon designs meant that few survived in LMS service beyond 1930. However, a few wagons survived as private owner wagons until the 1970s, particularly with chocolate manufacturers such as Cadbury's, who preferred the smaller dimensions of the wagons.

The kit comes as a simple three part assembly, consisting of the wagon underframe, the wagon roof and sides, and the floor and ends. These parts slot together easily and can then be glued in place. Assembly instructions, historical data, and livery suggestions can be found here.

The underframe has two options for brake arrangement. The "brakes same end" version places both handbrake levers at the same end of the wagon, the L&Y's initial response to a requirement for two hand brake levers per wagon. The "brakes right hand end" has a post-1903 arrangement, meeting the new requirement that handbrake levers were always at the right hand side. Most Diagram 3 wagons were built with "same end" brakes, although some were retrofitted at various dates. Occasional retrofitting of vacuum pipes and brakes is also known to have occurred, but fittings for these are not included in the kit.

The underframe also has two variants for the W iron/axlebox arrangement. The "attached" option is ready-to-run with standard pin-point axles - 14.3mm length in N, 26mm length for OO/EM/P4. The "separate" option caters for modellers who wish to provide their own brass W irons, with a cosmetic piece consisting of the axle box and springing provided.

These wagons ran with 8 spoke wheels throughout their life, and should work with widely available ~6mm diameter wheels in N and ~12mm in OO.

Axles and transfers are not included with this kit. L&Y and LMS liveries would be appropriate, depending on the era being modelled.

Optional coupler pockets are provided. In N, standard NEM 355 pockets, in addition to NEM 356/357 couplers. In OO, standard NEM 362 pockets are provided, without couplers.

Historic details for the Diagram 3 wagon are taken from Lancashire and Yorkshire Wagons Volume 2, N. Coates, Wild Swan Publications, and information provided via the L&Y Society website.