Following his appointment as Chief mechanical Engineer of the Southern Railway OVS Bulleid set about modernising many aspects of the companys' locomotive and rolling stock fleet. The SRs cattle wagon design was quite new, but noticable changes to the design were a change to sheet plywood ends and moving the hand brake lever to the very end of the wagon where the handle was less exposed to animal products draining through the side slats.
Cattle wagons travelled widely across the British rail network, so the added variety of this Southern wagon is a welcome addition to the range of highly detailed wagons produced by Hornby in recent years.