C2025 LMS 42ft GUV Parcels Van BR Departmental Yellow ADB975241

Description

C2025 (BR Departmental Yellow)Vehicle no. ADB975241. This is the same vehicle as C2023; it was repainted into Departmental yellow at the end of the 1970s and used as a breakdown train support vehicle for several years. It was later preserved at the Doon Valley Railway (Ayrshire).

Specifications

Die-cast chassisDetailed weighted bogiesEasy conversion to EM/P4Sprung buffersUltraflex vac and air pipesFully detailed undersideSeparately fitted grab rails and stepsSeparately fitted roof detailsMultiple body & bogie toolingsRemovable NEM pockets

Brass axle bearings

A Touch of History

The LMS constructed 240 42ft bogie parcels vans between 1933 and 1937, at both Derby and Wolverton works. Classified as Non Passenger Coaching Stock, they were known as Covered Carriage Trucks (CCT) at the time and were designed to carry parcels and luggage alongside other general goods. They often ran in dedicated parcels trains but were sometimes included in passenger services, where their coach-like profile ensured they blended in well.All vehicles wore LMS crimson lake livery when new, with those built in 1933/34 treated to bodyside lining, which was abandoned for non-passenger stock thereafter. Aluminium roofs gave them a rather dashing appearance; this lasted for a few weeks, whenin common with most of the railway landscape of the erasilver turned to soot!The CCTs became known as General Utility Vans (GUV) when absorbed into British Railways after 1948 and are generally referred to as such today. Crimson became maroon and then blue, with many of these well-built, compact and useful vans frequenting the main line well into the 1970s. Some took up Departmental duties (including work in breakdown trains and with steam cranes) while others became permanent fixtures in sidings, yards and stations as stores vehicles. Three 42ft GUVs have been preserved, all of them in Scotland.