Template:Featured picture/August 2020

Van 5 (also numbered carriage 12 during its life) was constructed as a bogie brake (luggage) van by Brown, Marshalls with no passenger accommodation. It was rebuilt at Boston Lodge between 1929-30 with a body modified to incorporate a guards compartment and passenger accommodation in 1st and 3rd class.

It was one of the two carriages first restored for use when the railway reopened. In the 1955 renumbering it became Carriage 12. In 1957 it entered the works where it was refurbished and altered. Seating was removed, a sales counter installed, and a connecting corridor put in. This enabled a corridor connection with Van 4, the first in the railway's history. The photo shows it in this condition in September 1958. The carriage has since been further rebuilt and is now longer and has lost the buffet facilities.

Photo: John Powell collection

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