| Class RA, RAA, RAB and RAC wagons built by Oldbury |
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RA5852 G. R. Watson (RHWA collection) |
| The RA class was built in two groups. Two hundred and fifty wagons were built by Oldbury Carriage and Wagon Co in the Britain whilst 60 wagons were built by Duluth Smith McMillan & Co in America. In 1902 Oldbury Carriage and Wagon Co in the UK delivered wagons 5593 -5812 to the W.A.G.R. Unlike the American built wagons they used "Fox" type pressed steel bogies. The remainder of the batch (5813-5842) entered service in 1903. The WAGR outline diagram is shown below. |
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| The earliest casualties were 5837 written off in 1929, 5808 written off in 1931 and 5615 and 5682 written off in 1942. However, there was also a spate of conversions in 1942 as forty-one wagons had their bodies removed to form class RAA. They were reconverted later in the war. Some of the the American built wagons were also converted to RAA. |
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WAGR Official photo of RAA5673 (RHWA Collection) |
| The conversions were as follows: | |
| 1942 | 5613, 5617, 5623, 5629, 5632, 5634, 5641, 5644, 5651, 5652, 5654, 5665, 5668, 5673, 5674, 5680, 5706, 5710, 5711, 5718, 5719, 5733, 5741, 5750, 5752, 5777, 5780, 5787, 5788, 5790, 5792, 5793, 5796, 5800, 5811, 5815, 5826, 5828, 5829, 5839 and 5841 to RAA |
| 1944 | 5613, 5617, 5629, 5632, 5644, 5651, 5652, 5654, 5668, 5674, 5680, 5706, 5710, 5719, 5733, 5741, 5777, 5780, 5788, 5790, 5792, 5796, 5800, 5815 and 5829 from RAA to RA |
| 1945 | 5623, 5634, 5641, 5665, 5711, 5718, 5750, 5752, 5777, 5787, 5793, 5811, 5826, 5828, 5839, 5841 from RAA to RA |
| 1946 | 5673 from RAA to RA |
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WAGR official view of rebodied RA5803 (RHWA collection) Withdrawals started again after the war but were never made at a great rate. This was largely because a re-bodying programme was started in the 1950's and by 1957 120 of the class had been re-bodied. The new bodies were only 4 planks rather than five planks high so the rebuilt wagons are easily distinguished in photographs.
The WAGR outline diagram for the rebodied wagons is shown below.
Writing off of this class occurred as follows: |
| 1946 | 5719 written off |
| 1947 | 5598 written off
5700 to JETTY 275 |
| 1949 | 5735 to JETTY 684 |
| 1950 | 5696, 5734, 5795 written off
5751 to JETTY 786 |
| 1951 | 5648 written off |
| 1953 | 5699, 5828 written off
5617, 5687, 5701, 5721, 5725, 5727, 5821 to JETTY 883, 880, 885, 886, 884, 881, 882 |
| 1954 | 5672, 5805 written off |
| 1957 | 5695, 5769, 5776, 5783 written off
5608, 5618, 5624, 5641, 5658, 5693, 5724, 5778 to JETTY 175, 153, 207, 188, 182, 189, 185, 224 |
| 1958 | 5602, 5635, 5653, 5665, 5674, 5678, 5686, 5692, 5698, 5703, 5708, 5758, 5764, 5770, 5779, 5782, 5791, 5796, 5798, 5803, 5820, 5822, 5834 written off |
| 1959 | 5606, 5621, 5633, 5659, 5728, 5730/7, 5743, 5760, 5786, 5824 written off
5642, 5679, 5716 to JETTY 249, 250, 251 written off 5834 to JETTY 235 |
| 1960 | 5599, 5640, 5662, 5667, 5768, 5785, 5813, 5830 written off> |
| 1961 | 5720 written off. |
| 1962 | 5612, 5688, 5726 written off
written off 5720, 5813 to JETTY 170, 119 |
| 1963 | 5800 written off
written off 5783 to JETTY 199 |
| 1964 | 5609, 5650, 5676, 5677, 5704, 5705, 5707, 5714, 5767, 5774, 5811, 5814, 5815 written off
5739 to JETTY 212 |
| 1967 | 5710 written off |
| 1968 | 5694 written off
written off 5710, 5733 to JETTY 353, 354 |
| 1970 | 5596, 5663, 5689, 5741, 5806, 5817 written off |
| 1971 | 5613, 5753, 5801 written off |
| 1972 | 5616, 5772, 5833 to JETTY 39, 40, 37 |
| 1973 | 5593, 5652 written off |
| 1974 | 5610, 5668, 5670, 5680, 5775 written off |
| 1976 | 5842 written off |
| 1977 | 5594, 5646, 5797 written off |
| 1978 | 5819 written off |
| 1979 | 5604, 5794, 5838 written off |
| 1980 | 5595, 5597, 5611, 5619, 5626, 5631, 5645, 5657, 5666, 5675, 5685, 5709, 5715, 5736, 5756, 5757, 5771, 5780, 5788, 5810, 5812, 5823, 5826, 5831, 5840 written off |
| 1981 | 5654, 5781 written off
5611, 5619, 5685, 5757, 5788, 5812, 5823 written back |
| 1983 | 5600, 5601, 5603, 5605, 5607, 5611, 5614, 5619, 5620, 5622, 5623, 5625, 5627, 5628, 5629, 5630, 5632, 5634, 5636, 5637, 5638, 5639, 5643, 5644, 5647, 5649, 5651, 5655, 5656, 5660, 5661, 5664, 5669, 5671, 5673, 5681, 5683, 5684, 5685, 5690, 5691, 5692, 5697, 5702, 5708, 5711, 5712, 5713, 5717, 5718, 5722, 5723, 5729, 5731, 5732, 5738, 5740, 5742, 5744, 5745, 5746, 5747, 5748, 5749, 5750, 5752, 5754, 5755, 5757, 5759, 5761, 5762, 5763, 5765, 5766, 5773, 5777, 5784, 5787, 5788, 5789, 5790, 5792, 5793, 5799, 5802, 5804, 5807, 5809, 5812, 5818, 5823, 5825, 5827, 5829, 5832, 5835, 5836, 5839, 5841 written off |
| In addition there were some conversions during this period. In 1953 numbers 5608, 5621, 5657, 5658, 5664, 5669, 5697, 5706, 5709, 5723, 5724, 5728, 5729, 5733, 5743, 5745, 5750, 5755, 5778, 5780, 5810, 5824 ran as flat tops although they weren't this time reclassified RAA. |
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In 1954 5816 was converted into an equipment wagon for the 60 ton breakdown crane as class RAB. This wagon was written off in 1985 and replaced by a written off RA numbered 5829. This wagon was itself finally written off in 1991. The WAGR outline diagram for the RAB is shown below.
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RAC5684 G.R. Watson (RHWA collection) |
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A final conversion was the RAC class wagon, which was written off in 1983 although when 5684 was converted to class RAC is uncertain
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I have no explanation for this photo from the RHWA collection by Lynton Englund of RA5625 but it may just be in use as a jetty wagon (records of which are very incomplete).
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