BBW Ballast Wagon

A rivetted BBW under construction in the late 1920’s. SRA photo

These hoppers became the standard ballast hoppers for over 60 years. Initially of riveted construction, later versions entering service after WW2 were welded. The design, proved to be very successful and varied little in later batches. The door opening method was by the use of 3 hand-wheels, which were screw-wound to open or close the doors with a degree of fine control.

Builders:

- Ritchie Brothers built the first batch of xx riveted hoppers in 1928.

- Railway Workshops built xx welded hoppers in the late 1950’s.

Other Running Numbers: Allocated to the Way & Work department and given W prefix numbering.

Length: 11.8m Tare: 20t Capacity: 41t Gross: 61t Equiv Length: 1.8

Bogies: Originally diamond-frame bogies fitted. They were later upgraded with 2BN bogies and then with roller bearing type bogies of various designs (XCG, XCF, XCL)

Coding:

- As introduced, they were coded BBW and also carried the W ‘Way and Works’ rollingstock numbering.

- After 1979, they were recoded NHWA for plain bearing, or NHWF for roller bearing fitted wagons.

Colour Scheme:

- As introduced and thru to the mid 1970’s, they were painted gunmetal grey with white lettering and control levers.

- In the 70’s, it is unknown of any received the PTC blue livery, but some welded versions were painted yellow.

- During the 80’s, some were painted SRA red,

- And in the 90’s, some were painted in FreightRail blue.

Modifications: Apart from bogie upgrades, buffer removal, the fitting of load-compensating and grade control systems, neither type of BBW had any major modifications made.

Similar Vehicles: Southern Portland Cement near Berrima, had 20 or so BBW copies built for their limestone operations. They were fitted at some stage with 3ft high welded ‘hungry boards’. They were seen regularly in use between Berrima and South Marulan Quarry until the early 80’s. Three (SPC 1, 2 and 9) were noted stored near the terminus of the Medway Colliery line in the late 1980’s. These 3 were later moved to BHP at Port Kembla and are stored adjacent to Five Islands Rd near Pt Kembla North station.

Period of Service: November 1928 – 1997. BBW W1 was condemned in May 1966.

Operation:

These wagons were used fairly exclusively on ballasting tasks. They were marshalled with either one or two BBP plough vans as required, where required. Loading was done at the railway quarries at Martins Ck, Ardglen and Bombo or at country loading sites such as Talbragar (near Dubbo) and Cootamundra. Once loaded, they could then be seen singularly or in blocks on any section of the railway system. They were superceded by the NHBF and NDFF ballast hoppers.

Modelling:

- Rails North produced a HO scale kit of the riveted version but is no longer available.

- AR Kits have a HO scale kit of the welded version available.

- IDR Models released a HO scale RTR model in 2021

Further Information:

- Byways of Steam Vol.11, has an excellent article on the Martin’s Creek Ballast Quarry.

- ARDP CD No.3 has detail photographs of these hoppers.

- PLAN for rivetted wagon.

- PLAN for welded version.

Rivetted BBW 340 at Albury Yard in 1978. Showing its ‘CUL’ for Culcairn,

where the rake was based at the time. Rob O’Regan

Welded NHWF 371C with ‘CUL’ lettering. Photographer unknown

SRA red riveted NHWF at Clyde Yard. David Low photo

FreightRail blue rivetted BBW (NHWF 602W) at Goulburn in 1997. Norm Bray photo

FBW W761 hard at work in 1978 at Westmead. John Miller photo

SRA red welded NHWF 1191 at Enfield in 1996. Casula Hobbies Collection

Welded and Yellow NHWF W765 at Cylde in 1993. Norm Bray photo

FreightRail blue NHWF 759R at Eveleigh. Casula Hobbies Collection

SPC No.12 builder’s photo, these are near-identical copies of the NSWGR BBWs, and were used

by SPC on Marulan limestone and Medway Colliery coal traffic serving the BCSC plant at Berrima.

SPC No.6 (nearest), showing its ‘hungry boards’at Waters Siding, Port Kembla. Brad Peadon photo

A pair of survivors! These pair are owned by South Maitland Railway Pty Ltd and are based at East Greta Junction.

Shown here in 2020 after some TLC and reactivation. Brad Coulter Jnr photo