The first freight wagons for the railway were open wagons. Initially, as the tractive effort of the locomotives was relatively low, these wagons were generally low sided with only one or two planks acting as sides and carrying capacity of just a couple of tons.
As the technology progressed, so did demand for rail freight and with the increased power of the steam engines came bigger wagons. The 5 plank wagon was perhaps the most common general goods wagon with tens of thousands being built by all the rail companies between 1910 and the early 1930s.