A Pictorial Guide to Southern Wagons and Vans

Book excerpt: In the 1960s, Terry Gough realized that the traditional goods wagon was rapidly disappearing from British Railways, so he set out to measure, photograph, draw and eventually model as many wagons as he could find.To augment these early observations, Terry continued to gather information from the many wagons that have been preserved in the intervening years.The result is a comprehensive survey of wagons used on the Southern Region of BR that had survived from the pre- and post-grouping eras. For each wagon, there are full details, dimensions, livery details, variations and conversions together with excellent photographs of the prototypes and 4mm scale drawings produced especially for the book. Diagram numbers are also included to aid reference to previous published works on SR wagons, and where examples of wagons can still be seen on preserved lines, full location details are given. This book is not intended to replace the existing standard works on the wagons of the Southern Railway and its constituents, but builds upon those books to present a large selection of freight vehicles that could have been seen from the 1900s, through the BR years, and in many cases to the present day in preservation.