LMS 20 ton Brakevan 197695 (body only)

There is some mystery surrounding this brakevan, which was probably built at Derby around 1926 to a design very similar to the last brakevans of the Midland Railway. It was a time when experiments were being conducted with projecting side windows in brakevans, called "duckets" or "lookouts" which enabled the guard to safely look down the length of his train. Some LMS brakevans were being built with the new feature, others without. Curiously the main framing on 197695 is clearly designed to have duckets fitted, but there is no evidence they ever were. What is known for certain is that in the 1950s BR decided that all long distance working brakevans must be equipped with duckets, so many vans without them were condemned, though ironically 197695 could have been equipped very easily. After being stripped from the underframe, which was scrapped, the body was sold off for further use. The body from 197695 owes its survival to being used as an office inside a factory, although by the time it was offered to a Foxfield member for preservation it was outside in a field of horses (hence the chewing marks on the verandahs). It is remarkably complete for a grounded body and is currently used for accommodation. It awaits the location or conversion of a suitable underframe, plus installation of the all-important heating stove, before it can be considered for use by Foxfield guards.

Incidently a similar, complete, vehicle was preserved at Foxfield from Babbington Colliery, Nottingham in 1971 but was moved in 1974 to the Great Central Railway, where it is now in use on the GCR northern extension numbered 731340.