Close up of image 'lnwrlave4062' showing Great Western Railway rolling stock passing behind the GWR station on 26th May 1925. The four GWR passenger rated stock seen in the background of this photograph of Leamington are from left to right: a) Six wheeled, 27 foot 6 inch long ventilated van with a low height three centre roof (6ft 8in) built to diagram O4. These ventilated vans were designed for carrying milk traffic in churns and were given the telegraphic code Siphon. They were fitted with vacuum brakes so that they could travel at express passenger train speeds and painted in an overall brown livery with yellow lettering. The diagram O4 was the last of the non-bogie types having three double doors provided on each side to enable quicker loading and unloading of the milk churns. There were 283 of this diagram O4 van built in twenty lots between February 1896 and December 1899 with many surviving into British Railways ownership. b) Six wheeled, 27 foot 6 inch long ventilated van (Siphon) to diagram O1. These had only two double doors on each side and a low height three centre roof. The horizontal beam on the end profile is a feature of these early vehicles of which 105 were built between July 1889 and March 1893. c) Six wheeled, 29 foot long Passenger Brake Van (PBV) to diagram V8. These vans had a central brake compartment with lookouts for the guard on each side and luggage compartments (10 foot 7 inches long) on either side. These compartments had small square end windows and were accessed by window less double doors. For comparison the roof height of these vehicles was 7 foot 3 inches. d) Eight wheeled bogie, 40 foot long Passenger Brake Van (PBV). This appears to be one of the three types of 40 foot PBV (diagrams K14, K15 and K16). The table below lists all ninety:
The carriage roof board on the PBV indicates that this is a Weymouth to Wolverhampton train. Weymouth was the port used by the Great Western Railway for Channel Island goods traffic, which included not only Jersey Milk and other dairy products, but also perishable fruit and vegetables; in particular Tomatoes and New Potatoes. Servicing this market required multiple special vacuum fitted trains operating daily under C headlamp codes to quickly transfer the produce to the major conurbations. The ventilated Siphon vans and accompanied by Passenger Brake Vans were ideal for carrying this traffic and the May date would tie in with the New Potato Harvest. According to the Great Western Magazine the 1925 Seasonal traffic was unusually heavy. Robert Ferris |