The original specification for these vans on the drawings submitted to the Railway Company for approval by the Metropolitan Carriage & Wagon Co., Ltd., states that they be "covered goods vans capable of third class carriage" but this idea was dropped prior to dispatch so that they formed dediated freight vehicles. The original drawings are reproduced in James I.C. Boyd's definitive history of the railway in the thrid volume of the final edition.  Four closed vans arrived in readiness for the opening of the Peel Line on 1st July 1873 with the final member of the class being constructed in-house in 1921.

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They were built to carry a load of up to six tons (with a tare in the region of three tons). The first batches, delivered up to 1879 were 14' 6" long with a width of 6' 6" and an 8' 0" wheelbase and all vehicles had brakes fitted as standard.  Later members of the class broadly followed these specifications although there were some variations in those built by the Railway Company and those inherited from the Manx Northern Railway upon amalgamation in 1905.

When delivered the specification for livery was noted as being pale grey, and the lettering appeared in unlined white; as repaints took place each vehicle took on slightly different hues, latterly becoming a much darker shade of grey, and with a black shadowing to the white lettering, as evidenced today on the rebuilt Gr.12 and accompanying photographs.  There were many various idiocyncracies to the liveries, and today G.1 has lettering that appears to have been applied in permanent marker (!) whilst G.19 has a black plate on the side with plain white lettering in a rather crude style when compared to the historical lettering used.

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There is some speculation that some vans were painted in an allover brown livery at some point but no evidence of this exists, save for period photographs showing a darker appearance but these are all black and white images.  Similarly, this darker livery could just as easily have been a creosoted finish although again there is nothing in the company records to suggest this was the case.

All vans carried their number on each side, consecutively including those inherited from the Manx Northern Railway upon merging in 1905.  These ex-northern line vans carried a small "r" prefix as denoted in the following pages, to differentiate them from the other rolling stock of the class.  This was commonplace on all items of stock, the notable exception being the six-wheel coaches which gained an "N" prefix and therefore their own class.

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A versatile and well-used class of vans, many of them survived into the dark days immediately after Lord Ailsa's tenure only to be transported to Ballasalla Station in the autumn of 1974 and ultimately be scrapped.  Happily though, three survived and are still extant on the railway today, being G.1, Gr.12 and G.19.  There follows on the next pages short biographies of each of the members of this class with, wherever possible, accompanying photographs.  If you have a photograph of any missing members of the class and would be happy for it to appear on this site, please get in touch with the website manager who would be delighted to hear from you.  It is also of note that two cattle wagons (formerly K.17 and K.18, themselves converts from four-wheel passenger coaches) we later modified into close vans of the G class, making the total 21, though it is not thought these additions ever carried any numbers.