The GH's were dedicated grain hoppers converted from GY open wagons between 1979 and 1982 with 810 entering service.
There were a few variations in the GH fleet. The original design had 4 discharge doors but this arrangement released the wheat too fast for the unloading equipment to handle. In addition the four discharge doors made it difficult to access the brake equipment.
To resolve this issue it was proposed to move the brake equipment to a cutaway section at one end of the wagon. After trials with two different arrangements of the braking equipment in GH150 and GH151, the idea was dropped due to the cost, in favour of changing from four to two discharge doors. Some GHs continued to be outshopped with the cutout ends after the trial devoid of any brake equipment.
Another variation was in the top hatch design. The initial design was "in sequence flipover" lids, although some of wagons received two "barrel" hatches. Eventually a standard arrangement was adopted of one large roof hatch and two discharge doors..
In 1980, two sets of Gloucester Suspension Units were applied to vehicles GH 155 and GH 336. Test runs were conducted to 70mph (115km/hr) but the experimental wasn't extended to an other wagons in the fleet. A trial late in the conversion program was the fitting of a one piece cast fiberglass hopper top to GH800.
Block wheaties of GH's were deficient in braking power, as the conversion to a hopper had increased their tare weight and increased the ammount of grain that could be loaded into them (compared to a GY), without any improvement to the braking system. In the 1980s I was alway amazed when Ts were taken off at Warrenheip often leaving a single flattie to struggle to control a full load of GH on the downhill run to Geelong. Surely this tested the skill of the driver to maintain control the train.
Two GHs have sat partly built in box for the last couple of years. Recently I purchased a couple of GY kits to build a VOAA open wagon with the underframes allowing me to finish the GHs. GH236 is one the batch with two roof hatches, cut-out end and four discharge doors, while GH533 has a large roof hatch and two discharge doors (which was the standard arrangement of the later conversions).. .
The bodies are scratchbuilt out of styrene sheet and L angle and run on Steam Era GY underframe. I still need to add the brake wheels (when I buy some) and weather the bodies, but they will probably enter service as clean hoppers fresh out of the workshops.
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