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Southern Railway - No. 1788
4w PLV (Passenger Luggage Van, built in 1942) at Kingscote
Jonathan Hall

The general purpose PLVs were used for the carriage of parcels, newspapers, and many other forms of general merchandise. The SECR design became the standard for the Southern Railway, and 979 such vans were built to essentially the same design, the last in the early days of British Railways in 1951, by then known as PMVs or Parcels and Miscellaneous Vans. They were rated to run in passenger trains, and were frequently used as extra luggage vans on longer distance trains.

Of very simple design, with the metal framing exposed, and planked on the inside, they are easy to maintain. This particular van was one of a batch of 120 built at Lancing, unusually having U-section steelwork, with an extra piece of wood bolted to it. Many have continued in departmental use on BR right into the 1980s and early `90s.

This vehicle was purchased by the Bluebell's Civil Engineering department in memory of John Payne, a member who died in a car accident. It has seen use as the Bluebell's outpost prior to the arrival of trackwork during various stages of the construction of the extension.