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GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

GWR Route: North Warwickshire Line

Birmingham Snow Hill - Grouping Period Rolling Stock: gwrbsh3062

GWR four wheeled ten ton Fish Van being unloaded in Bay Platform 3 at Birmingham Snow Hill in July 1947

Great Western Railway four wheeled ten ton Fish Van (telegraphic code Bloater) No 2207 to diagram S8, seen unloaded in Bay Platform 3 at Birmingham Snow Hill in July 1947..

Seventy-five of these Fish Vans were built at Swindon Works between February 1916 and May 1919 to diagram S8 on carriage lot 1258. These diagram S8 vans and subsequent variants (S9-11) were all twenty-eight feet, six inches long with an eighteen foot wheelbase. They had three sliding double doors on each side. There were multiple slots for ventilation along the top and bottom of the sides and ends, although the amount of ventilation was gradually reduced in the later diagrams. The floor was protected initially by an asphalt layer, but after 1921 was constructed from a ‘Decolite’ fireproof composite material. The vans all had through steam pipes, vacuum brakes, screw couplings and sprung rod (diagram S8) or self-contained (diagram S9-11) buffers. The vans in lots 1259 and 1272 were initially dual braked (telegraphic code Bloater A), but the Westinghouse brake was subsequently removed between 1930 and 1935. All except the first lot had six shell vents fitted in the roof, but these were retrofitted to all the vans around 1924. The following table lists all the twenty-eight feet, six inch long Great Western Railway Fish Vans:

Lot Diagram Date completed Quantity Running numbers Comments
258 S8 May 1919 75 2139 to 2213  
1259 S8/S9 May 1920 25 2114 to 2138 Dual Braked
1271 S9 January 1922 40 2214 to 2253  
1272 S9 March 1922 14 2254 to 2267 Dual Braked
1307 S9 December 1922 50 2268 to 2288 and 2601 to 2629  
1356 S10 August 1926 50 2650 to 2699  
1381 S11 July 1926 50 2700 to 2749 Built by MC&WC

Classified as non-passenger coach ‘brown’ stock, the livery of these Fish Vans was all-over brown with yellow ochre lettering. The large ‘G’ and ‘W’ on the side panels was replaced in 1934 with the GWR totem emblem seen here. The XP mark was used to identify four wheeled vehicles that could travel in express trains. From 1935 fish traffic declined and twenty-five of these vans were converted to Parcel Vans and loaned to the Traffic Department. A further fifty of these vans were also temporarily turned over to Parcels traffic during the Second World War.

This photograph is displayed courtesy of the HMRS (Historical Model Railway Society) and copies can be ordered directly from them using the link HERE, quoting 'ABW210' (Photographer P Garland).

Robert Ferris

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