Vans (narrow gauge)

Vans, known as Boxcars in the US, are used all around the narrow gauge railway for carrying special goods and other things and are used to transport them to different locations.

Vans
These vans are covered wagons used for transporting goods and merchandise. They have been seen on the Skarloey Railway, Mid Sodor Railway and Blue Mountain Quarry.

The Railway Series
On one occasion, Sir Handel was pulling a special train of 4 vans down the line parallel to the site where George worked. George would not give the train enough room to pass and rammed his front roller into Sir Handel's train. The train and construction crews argued until a policeman broke them up and a barrier was built between the road and the rails.

Thomas & Friends
These vans were used on the Mid Sodor Railway prior to it's closure. On the Skarloey Railway, George once collided with Sir Handel's train, in which he was pulling 2 of these vans.

Once, Rheneas took a long goods train with 2 of these vans across the Old Trestle Bridge. But while halfway across the bridge, he ran of water and Skarloey was sent to pull Rheneas and his train to safety.

Basis
In the Railway Series, these vans are based on the Talyllyn Railway's covered van No.28 and No.29, with added buffers. While Cora, a tool van, is based on the Talyllyn Railway's No.6 van. The carriages were originally owned by the Penrhyn Quarry Railway and have since been rebuilt with roofs. Replicas of the Penrhyn Quarry Railway carriages have been built for the Old Kiln Light Railway.

In the television series, these vans are a hybrid of all 3 with added buffers.

Livery
In the Railway Series, all vans were painted blue and some vans had "S.R." written on their sides in white lettering.

Trivia

 * Cora is the only named tool van in the Railway Series. Unlike the other vans, Cora has a distinct window and chimney, and has room for a guard to be housed
 * One large scale and four small scale red vans are owned by Twitter user ThomasTankMerch.

Merchandise

 * Bachmann
 * TrackMaster (discontinued)
 * Take Along (discontinued)
 * Take-n-Play (discontinued)
 * Wooden Railway (discontinued)

Mid Sodor Railway Vans
These vans were used on the Mid Sodor Railway in the Railway Series.

Basis
The specific basis is currently unknown, the OO9 scale model was kit-built by the Reverend Wilbert Awdry. Awdry's model of Cora was built from the same kit.

Livery
These vans have been painted grey and had "M.S." written on the sides in white lettering.

Appearances
Television Series=

Specials

 * Journey Beyond Sodor
 * Big World! Big Adventures!

Music Videos

 * -|Other Media=

Trivia

 * Cora was a named van who originally belonged to the Mid Sodor Railway.
 * Other than Cora, these vans never appeared in any of the Railway Series illustrations but appeared on Awdry's model layout of the Mid Sodor Railway.
 * A model of this van was formerly on display at Reverend Teddy Boston's Cadeby Light Railway.