Bullion workings

[andrewnummelin]

Can anyone help with the following query that we have received?

Hi,
I have just obtained a 2nd hand copy of 'Rails in the Valleys' by 'James Page'. On Page 123 he talks of the 'Ghost Train', the 2.10am Radyr to Merthyr (Plymouth Road) Freight (Target Y2), which was met by the police with dogs to supervise the unloading of a bullion van. This apparently was a regular working.
As I I’m about to produce a GWR Bullion Van, I was wondering if anyone knew if this was actually a Bullion van or a secure ordinary van?

Regards,
Mike Morris
88D Models

The book makes no mention of the date that this refers to, the paragraph being in a separate box outside the main text.

[Wagonworks_andy]

I know that bullion van workings to Birmingham Snow Hill were always a passenger working. The bullion vans only had doors on one side and were marshalled so that the doors were on the correct side when shunted into a bay at the south end of the station. The attached picture shows one being attached to a south bound train for the return to London.

Birmingham Snow Hill bullion van.jpg