The wagon was formerly a high sided coke wagon at Clyde Ironworks, Glasgow, and has been substantially reconstructed. It is currently on display, painted in the livery of the Callendar Coal Company, and has been given the number 286. In its present condition, the wagon represents a standard very basic wagon type used from the 1870s until the First World War. The dumb buffers are typical of early wagon construction.
It is fitted with grease axleboxes. This design came to the railway from road vehicles - the axlebox provided a brass bearing for the axle journal, above which was a recess which would be filled with tallow (animal fat). When a train started away, friction due to lack of lubrication caused the axlebox to heat up, so melting some of the tallow which could then flow under gravity though a cavity into the bearing. When a train was stationary, the tallow would solidify again, so this was a very economical system!
