One of the Northern railway low-sided wagons at Geraldton in the early days of the Railway. The ends have clearly been removed to transport a special load. The livery looks as though it is grey with black iron work. The image is blown up from State Library of WA 3881B/186.

This class of mineral wagons is the earliest group of wagons owned by the W.A.G.R. They were built for the Northern Railway (Geraldton - Northampton) from 1875.

In the early days there were 22 of these wagons. In 1886 another 6 were added to the NR total (28) with a further five in 1887 (33) and a final 3 in 1888. It is not known whether the 1886-8 wagons matched the earlier type or whether they were of the type used in the early days of the Eastern Railway.

In 1891 the NR stock list shows 34 "mineral" and 10 "low side" wagons. The 1891-3 lists are known to contain errors as they were not published until 1893 and records were in a mess at the time. However it is clear that some wagons were transferred from the main system to the NR at around this time.

Wagon 16 in this photo may well be one of these former NR wagons. If so, it has acquired a set of fixed boards above the two plank dropsides. The problem with this identification is that there is no class letter so the number may be a Jetty wagon number or even belong to a private operator. The photo was taken at Kookynie in about 1900 (before reclassification/renumbering). The image is blown up from State Library of WA 000823PD.

These wagons may have been class K before 1900. They seem to be the "Mineral wagons now lying at Geraldton" listed in the 1900 reclassification as H4901, 4913, 5143, 5144, 5146 - 5161, 5163 -5171, 5173-5177 in 1900 (formerly 3, 20, 1, 2, 4-19, 21-29, 31-35).

H5159 and 5174 were sold to Broadhurst, McNeil &Co in 1901/2. The two lowest numbers were taken by new GC class opens in 1908 and the rest were re-used for new D class vans in 1909. It seems likely that they were all written off well before 1908. There is an early diagram of a 14'-1" long wagon which may represent this type. That WAGR outline diagram is shown below.