Covered Merchandise

Since the start of the Railways the popularity of the Covered Van for general merchandise steadily increased, so much so that in the early 1970s the number of vans exceeded that of the open wagon for the same use. One of the main reasons is the high labour cost when having to sheet loads in Open Wagons.

There were many types of vans varying in age and manufacturer. The majority of ours represents the pinnacle of the vacuum braked 10ft wheelbase vans built by British Railways. These are mostly ventilated vans, which allow air to circulate within the vehicle whilst on the move improving the air quality within the van for the benefit of the load.

With the mechanization of the Railways and the switch from manually loading vehicles to palletised loads the traditional “Cupboard” door was too narrow. This developed into the Palvan, with a single sliding door at one end. We have two examples, but if access to one side could not be achieved then with the weight confined to one end the Palvan had a tendency to derail. This led to the final incarnation of the 10ft van the Vanwide. These had wide double sliding doors in the middle of the vehicle and if there were only provision for one-sided access there was more than enough room to enter the van and distribute the load evenly, unfortunately, we do not have an example of this type of van.

Most of our fleet is made up of ventilated vans from the British Sugar works in Spalding.

BR Vans