Gr.12 THE SOLE REMAINING OPERATIONAL MEMBER OF THE CLASS

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A fleet of nineteen four-wheeled covered vans for carriage of goods and livestock were delivered to the railway between its opening in 1873 and 1919, with some of the members of the class either being inherited from the Manx Northern Railway which was amalgamated in 1905 or constructed in-house in the workshops at Douglas Station, details of which appear in the relative articles below.  These versatile wagons were regularly included in rakes of service trains, the railway rarely operating dedicated goods and freight trains.

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With only three of an original nineteen remaining today (only one of which, Gr. 12, is in servicable condition) the majority of these vans were abandoned in the dwindling years of the railway's fortunes and by the time of Lord Ailsa's tenure they were surplus to requirements.  Each of the vehicles listed below has its own biography section where more can be learnt about the individual vehciles; as time progresses this area of the site will be expanded to include photographs of each van, if you have any images you would be happy for us to reproduce please contact us on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or write to the website manager whose contact details appear on the contacts page of this site:-