Historically the Middleton Railway only transported goods - mainly coal - and so it had no need of passenger coaches. When we started to operate passenger trains, we initially had to use a goods brake van and an open wagon, as the only available vehicles, but since then we have converted several parcels vans into the passenger coaches that we now use. They are identified in our collection by the running numbers that they used to carry as parcels vans, and there are three of them, which in the order in which they came into service are as follows.

As well as these we also have two goods brake vans, which were built originally to carry the guard of a goods train, and to provide additional braking power in the days before goods trains had brakes on all vehicles that could be controlled by the driver. These brake vans are sometimes used to carry passengers when we are running mixed trains (ones that consist of both passenger and goods vehicles) as part of special events. Again, these vans are identified by the running numbers that they used to carry when they were in use on British Railways, and they are as follows.

The pages for these coaches and vans give a brief overview of our collection, but for more information about it our stock book is available in the shop. Click here for more details of this.

Return to the page for our museum collection.