Parcel Vans at Oxford?

[CarltonA]

Does anyone know why there have been two BR blue parcel vans at Oxford station for a long time now?

 

[AlexS]

They are what is known as internal users, I believe FGW use them as additional storage space.

 

[CarltonA]

Thanks, was wondering about them for a while. Maybe they will outlast the coming of the Marylebone service when it starts.

 

[AlexS]

I doubt it, I think there are meant to be platforms built on the dock where they live!

 

[route:oxford]

I doubt it, I think there are meant to be platforms built on the dock where they live!

The adjacent derelict swing bridge is due to be refurbished in the near future.

Perhaps, at the right time, these two parcel vans should also be refurbished, repainted in faux LNWR colours and placed on the swing bridge...

 

[ChiefPlanner]

They were used in BR days for the Area Managers stores ! - they probably have a short lifespan .....probably unmoveable !

 

[cm39275]

as a member off Oxford station staff, the station managment have mentioned these vans are ment to be moving to a preserved railway when that part off the station is redeveloped as part off Chilterns evergreen 3 prodject. these vans currently are used to stores salt and killfrost ready for the winter.

 

[Crimson_Quiff]

Whopper. I last clocked these vans when I travelled on Retro Railtours' Leeds-Oxford outing, November 2010.

A piece of railway history and all that!

 

[43021HST]

Those Vans must've been there for a long time, Dad was telling me when he used to work at Banbury North box, he used to catch train from Reading, this would've been sometime in the early nineties. He can remember the vans being there then.

 

[RPM]

I think they've bee there since at least the late 1980s if I remember correctly.
I took this picture of one of them last year:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rpmarks/6866437398/

 

[Rugd1022]

I've photographed them several times on the way to and from the staff car park on our Oxford jobs, always thinking 'they'll not be there for much longer'.... here's a night time shot...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21403537@N00/5312186484/in/set-72157606853423254