The Crown Lockfast Vehicle (CLV) number was allocated by HM Customs & Excise. This is one of the first generation of railway vans designed for mechanised loading, in this case palletised loads handled by forklift truck. The vans were built from cheap materials, using semi-skilled labour to assemble prefabricated sections. They were often loaded at one end only, and in the 1960s a series of derailments at high speed revealed fundamental design flaws that revolutionised the design of freight vehicles.
British Railways stopped using this design of Palvans in 1967, but sold some to the makers of "Johnnie Walker" whisky. For many years, these vans made up a uniquely Scottish train, running at low speed down the main line to transport whisky in cask between the company's blending and bottling plants at Kilmarnock.
This van was carefully restored from an extremely decayed condition, using authentic materials, by the SRPS "Back on the Tracks" Project.
