WRRC Forum

Good afternoon,

I have received the following and was wondering if anyone could help.

Hello  

We have just purchased what we think is a Taff Vale Railway wagon, the reason we are saying Taff Vale is that we found a coat hook with TVR stamped on it, we originally thought it was a Guards Van but on closer inspection there is a door on  one side at the back with a belt window adjuster. The Guards Van idea came from having, 2 small windows on one end with no centre door and at the other one end a centre door  

There is no running gear and is in a poor condition   

We are wondering if one of your members could identify the wagon and may be able to say what colour scheme the wagon would have been   

If any of your members were in the Kington Herefordshire area and would like to visit it please let me know 


I have had to reduce the size of the photos to put them on the forum, if anyone wants the originals for a better look please let me know and I can email them.

Thanks,

Simon

I'd guess that it was a passenger brake van, something like https://hmrs.org.uk/4-wheeled-brake-van ... ngths.html . The guard's door would have had a droplight. The large window in the side may have been where the luggage compartment doors were. Looks like the centre of the end was cut away for a shed door!
It might be possible to deduce more (eg by reference to Mountford's book) if the dimensions were quoted.

Thanks Andrew.

Basil Stephens is in touch with them to get some dimensions. He thinks it looks too long to be a van so a passenger brake would make sense. That would also tie in with it having a coat hook in the staff compartment.

I passed the photos on to my father (thirty plus years with BR, admittedly on the Southern Region) and he said much the same and also suggested either a horsebox or a prize cattle van with a groom's compartment at one end, which would explain why there are original window frames at only one end, assuming that that is the original window configuration.