The British Railways 21 ton hopper can trace its lineage back to the LNER designed 20t hopper wagons of 1935. These hopper wagons kick-started a development process that would lead to over 9000 wagons being built by various wagon builders by the time nationalisation came in 1948.
BR Continued to build these wagons to a development of the design with eventually over 23000 being completed. The came under a variety of guises and names and could be referred to 21t hoppers, HOP21’s and HTO’s covering the unfitted whilst HOP21VB and HTV covering the vacuum fitted variants. It is this latter development that our model focuses on in the latest addition to our "Powering Britain" range of coal wagons.