GE Class Wagon
The GE wagons were built by the Midland Workshops and Tomlinsons between 1945 and 1951, to replace older wagons in the G, GB and GC classes. (Westralia.UK)
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The State Records Office of WA offers a slight variation to the above information, attributing construction of the new rollingstock program solely to Tomlinson Steel Pty Ltd contractors between 1949-1950.
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The wagon on the left in Rail Heritage WA's photo, taken at the South Fremantle Power Station, is the GER class 12452. The wagon on the right, before the diesel locomotive, is difficult to identify due to a worker standing in front of the wagon's allocated number. The photo depicts workers unloading the coal by hand, due to the tippler not yet being in operation.
The GER class differed by way of wagons being fitted with ridgepoles, although many of the older GC class wagons were fitted with them and subsequently written off around the time of the initial GER manufacturing period. It appears that the sole purpose of a ridgepole was to support tarpaulin coverings.
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The GER 12452 wagon had its ridgepole removed in 1982 and was reclassified GE.
Over a five year period starting from 1985 as a result of "the end of wagon load traffic," the Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR) scrapped all remaining wagons. For the 12452 wagon, it was written off in 1989 (Westralia.UK)