Classes WMC, WMD and WME hopper wagons. |
The Western Mining Corporation acquired forty-four WMC class hopper wagons in 1965/6 from Tomlinson steel. They were numbered 11-30 (1965) and 31-54 (1966). In 1969 eleven of them were written off (14, 17, 20, 22, 27, 30, 33, 35, 36, 37, 47) and eleven more issued as new stock (55-65)! The WAGR outline diagram is shown below. In 1971 numbers 41 and 49 were written off and in 1975 the remaining wagons (11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 18, 19, 21, 23-26, 28, 29, 31, 32, 34, 38, 39, 40, 42-46, 48, 50-65) were rebuilt to WMD standard with side extensions for wheat traffic as shown below. In 1987 13, 15, 16, 42, 50, 52 and 53 were converted to class WME. |
WAGR official photo of WME52H (RHWA collection) In 1995 WMD 11, 12, 19, 23, 29, 32, 34, 38, 39, 40, 55, 59, 61, 62, 65 were written off leaving twenty WMD remaining at that point still owned by WMC although WAGR hire charges had been waived since 1980. Some of these wagons at least were sold to Chile. In 2014 there were 24 former WMD/E's (by now coded AHMF 13, 15, 16, 18, 21, 24, 25, 26, 28, 31, 42, 43, 46, 48, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 56, 58, 60, 63, 64) which were all listed for scrapping. |