CC1018 GWR Twin Bonnet Vent

This kit is designed to provide substitute ends for the listed kits to enable them to be constructed in the ventilated form and also to enable the longer wheelbase types, to be cross kited and scratch built.

As originally envisaged on the GWR vans were not provided with any form of ventilation. Indeed on early railways vans were rare, the normal practice being to sheet over water damageable loads in open wagons. However with the growth in the carriage of manufactured product : plus problems of theft all railways began building vans in large numbers towards the close of the 19th century. Our three kits (1003W, 7W & 8W) depict vans built between 1902 and 1905. When first built they had no vents at all. The V5 van of 1902 & the two heights of the 1905 V4 vans were originally both built with cross braced ends. After 1912 the design of vans settled down to the double bonnet vent type in this kit, all new constructions being of this type. At first some were fitted with a form of flap to shut off the airway but this did not last for long.