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Southern Railway - 404
Van C (BY) (built in 1937)
Tony Pearce

This Southern Railway 4-wheeled guards brake van is used regularly in our vintage branch line train. The orange panels indicate that the van was one fitted with a stove for heating when not attached to a steam-heated passenger train. Consequently the few stove-fitted Van Cs frequently saw service as guards vans on goods trains during the war.

Type: Van C (Passenger Brake Van) - BR classification: BY
Built: 1937, underframe at Ashford, body at Eastleigh
Original No: 404
Other No: S404S
Length: 36'
Weight: 16 Tons
Withdrawn: 1971
Preserved: c1972
To Bluebell: 10/5/1978

The Van Cs were used for the carriage of parcels, newspapers, and many other forms of general merchandise. Equipped with facilities for a guard, including a hand brake, two periscopes to provide a view forward and, in this vehicle, a stove, they were rated to run in passenger trains, but were also used on parcels trains.

Of very simple design, with the metal framing exposed, and planked on the inside, they are easy to maintain. A total of 250 were built between 1936 and 1941. Most of them were withdrawn from service between 1966 and 1978, but a few continued in departmental use on BR right into the 1980s and early `90s. No.404 is owned by the Southern Coach Preservation Group, and was originally preserved at Ashford as a workshop for Bulleid Pacific Clan Line.

A web page is available showing photos of the interior of the small (4' 6" wide) guard's compartment, complete with its coal-fired stove, periscopes, etc.