Cattle wagons were once common in general merchandise trains but declined rapidly from the early 1960s as livestock traffic moved to road. For most BR-era layouts, moderate use is usually more realistic than heavy block formations.
Many types remained in service well into BR days, so pre-nationalisation designs are entirely appropriate on 1950s layouts.
When the LNER was established in 1923, it inherited nearly 7,000 cattle trucks of varying sizes—small, medium, and large. Many of these were in poor condition, evidenced by the scrapping of about 2,000 by 1930, with 2,235 new ones being built. The large truck with a movable partition became the standard model. Despite maintaining the fleet’s size during the 1920s, declining demand for cattle trucks led to a gradual reduction. Throughout the 1930s, an additional 2,500 pre-Group trucks were scrapped, with only 700 replacements made.