Rapido 979017 OO Gauge LBSCR Diagram 8 Van BR Brown Departmental No.ES081373

The London, Brighton & South Coast Railway had a relatively modest number of covered vans within its fleet. It is speculated that this may be due to the number of open wagons that featured a sheet rail, so a substantial number of vans would have been unnecessary. Of course, it could simply have been that the region didn't have the quantity of perishable goods traffic to justify a much larger fleet.

Almost 600 covered goods vans were built by the LB&SCR and had a standardised design, this included a 9ft 9 inch wheelbase and an overall length of 18 foot 4 inches over the headstocks. Of these 600 vans, over 400 were built as Diagram 8s and were constructed between 1878 and 1915.

Though they were primarily used for general goods and perishables, one particularly intriguing example of the Dia.8s was LB&SCR No.8145. This quizzical van spent most of its life in departmental service first as a weight-testing machine, then later as a stores van for Southern, it was sadly destroyed by enemy action in 1944. The LB&SCR painted the van's sides with a unique weight-testing machine motif, which it is believed it retained throughout its Southern days too.

The Southern Railway inherited 429 Dia.8s and re-designated them as Dia.1433. They were used throughout the Southern network and beyond.

Like many of the southern-based prototypes of the pre-grouping era, several examples of the then Dia.1433 were annexed to the solitude of the Isle of Wight by the Southern Railway in 1927, and this was where they would remain right through to the mid-1960s.

During their SR days, the island-based examples were mainly used to transport passengers luggage and to transfer fish from the ports. Following complaints from people who had received rather smelly luggage it was deemed appropriate to assign some as dedicated fish vans, as such, SR added bold signage of Fish Traffic Only to the body sides.

British Railways had several examples of Dia.1433 still in service when the railways were nationalised in 1948. Most were used as Departmental vans, one of which was allocated to the Chief Mechanical Engineer at Ashford Works.

Despite their age, several examples avoided the scrap yard and made it into preservation. All three now reside at appropriately Southern locations, the Bluebell Railway, the Isle of Wight Steam Railway and Chatham Dockyard