L1324

ID/Name: L1324
Type:  Goods Wagon
Description: Sheep Wagon
Built: 1938
Status: Available for traffic

History

Dating back to 1896, they were initially constructed with gable roofs but this changed in 1925 when round roofs were introduced and remained so until the last one was built in 1953.

L1324 being constructed in 1938 is a round roof example.

Although they were used to transport sheep to the various sales yards around the State, they could also be used for pigs and goats.

Through the 1970s much live stock business was lost to the road, with the traffic finally ending on the railway in 1986.

L1324 was allocated to Seymour Railway Heritage Centre and became surplus to their needs in 2015 at which time it was transferred to Daylesford Railway by road.

It is of interest that at the onset of the Great Depression in 1930, many branchlines in Victoria were reduced to weekly services, noted as Mondays Only. The reason for Monday was that the sheep sales were on Tuesday (cattle and pigs later in the week) so trains had to run on Monday for farmers to get the live stock to market.