Comments left about this photograph:
From Paul at 2005-03-17 20:18:18 : BR were still rebodying 21t hoppers when I started my railway service as a wagon oiler in June 1977. As originally built the BR build 21t hoppers were fitted with either 7 plate or 8 plate side bearing springs - I changed enough when I became a repairer. The original rebodies retained these. The renumbered wagons to my knowledge all had 10 plate side bearing springs fitted at rebody - this also entailed repositioning of the spring shoes. Carrying capacity at the same time was upped to 25.5 tonnes. Some of your photos show this carrying capacity while others show it having been changed back to 21.5 tonnes. Some wagons though never received this capacity change. Unfortunately I do not know of the background to the spring change or why the wagons remained branded HTV / HTO when technically due to higher capacity and different springs they were not. Of note is that I have only ever encountered Topes, Rudds and Clams with the original suspension arrangement, the resprung wagons seem to have been left out of those programmes.