Southern Railway PLV No.2186

SR Passenger Luggage Van (PLV) built in 1934.
Photo courtesy Maunsell Locomotive Society

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. Many have continued in departmental use on BR right into the 1980s and early `90s. This vehicle was one of the first batch of SR built PLVs, and is now owned by the Maunsell Locomotive Society.

Go to one of the Maunsell Locomotive Society's Web Pages which includes further details of this van.