Unbranded Vehicles

A Propelling Control Vehicle (PCV) is a type of British railway carriage for carrying mail. They were converted from Class 307 driving trailers and have a cab at one end. more...

Home
Action Figures
Beanies
Construction Toys & Kits
Diecast & Vehicles
Anson
Auto Art
Bang/ Box / Best
Benbros
Britains
Brooklin
Brumm
Budgie
Burago
Cararama & Hongwell
Charbens
Code 3
Collections/ Bulk Lots
Conrad/ NZG
Corgi
Crescent
Danbury Mint
Detail
Dinky
Dragon
EFE
Eligor
ERTL
Exoto
Ferrari
Franklin Mint
Gearbox
Guisval
Herpa
HotWheels
IXO
Jada
Jadi
Joal
Johnny Lightning
Kinsmart
Kyosho
Lledo
Lone Star
Magazines/ Books/...
Maisto
Majorette
Matchbox & Lesney
Maxi Car
Micro Machines
Minichamps
Muscle Machines
NASCAR
Newray
Norev
ONYX
Other Diecast & Vehicles
Oxford Diecast
Polistil
Revell
Rio
Road Champs
Road Signature
Saico
Schabak
Schuco
Shell Classic
Siku
Solido/ Verem
Spark
Sun Star
Teamsters
Tekno
Tomica
Tonka
Tri-ang
Trofeu
Unbranded Vehicles
Universal Hobbies
Vitesse/ Quartzo/ City
Welly
White Metal/ Hand-Made/...
Toys & Games
Wargames & Role-Playing

This allows mail trains to be propelled at low speed, with the locomotive at the rear of the train being driven from the PCV.

Forty-two PCVs were converted by Hunslet-Barclay in Kilmarnock from 1994 to 1996. The rebuilding work including removal of the windows and slam-doors, the fitting of roller-shutter doors, and modernisation of the cab. The vehicles were given the TOPS code NAA and numbered 94300-327 and 94331-345. The first two vehicles converted were prototypes, and were extensively tested to iron out any problems. The subsequent 40 vehicles incorporated modifications as a result of this testing. At the same time these vehicles were converted, the Class 47/7 locomotives that hauled mail trains were modified to be able to work in push-pull mode with the PCVs.

When first converted the vehicles were used by the Rail Express Systems parcels sector of British Rail. They were painted in Rail Express Systems red/grey livery with light blue flashes. PCVs were marshalled at either end of mail trains that worked into London termini, which removed the need for the locomotive to run round the train at its destination. Trains were propelled only at low speed, not for long distances.

In 1996, Rail Express Systems was sold to EWS, who continued to operate mail trains on behalf of Royal Mail. PCVs were used on trains between London and Norwich, Plymouth, Bristol, Swansea, Newcastle and Glasgow. PCVs were also used on Travelling Post Office trains from London to Plymouth, Newcastle, Norwich, Carlisle and Glasgow.

The two prototype PCVs, nos. 94300/1, were non-standard. Consequently, they were used as standard mail coaches on a new high-speed mail train from Walsall to Inverness, painted in EWS maroon/gold livery and renumbered 95300/1.

In early 2004, EWS lost the contract to transport mail. As a result, all PCVs except 95300/1 have been withdrawn from service, pending new traffic, sale or scrapping.

Fleet details

The table below shows details of the fleet, including numbering and disposition.

Read more at Wikipedia.org