Empress Van F.27 (i)

F.27 is the first of two identical luggage vans purchased in 1897 and dubbed Empress Vans owing to it being the jubilee year of Queen Victoria; similar in dimensions to the half-luggage carriages F.19 and F.20 but with no passenger accommodation, it was used in connection with the Luggage In Advance service on the south line for the heavy boat trains.  Latterly the carriage was used as an ambulance train during road closures on the T.T. Course which was close by to much of the north line route.  It survived the closures and was also later used to accommodate campers, fitted out with bunk beds (as was sister F.27 at the same time).  Spending its latter years in the yard at Douglas Station in open storage, it was in poorer condition than sister F.28 and stripped down in January 2013 to form the basis of a replica which now serves as the kitchen/generator/toilet for the railway's dining train.  The bodywork was beyond economical repair and scrapped at this time, though the timber underframe survives in the workshops at Douglas Station, possibly a candidate for future restoration.

Length:

Width:

Over Ducket:

Capacity:

Wheelbase:

Roof-Rail:

Builders:

35’ 0”

7’ 0”  

8’ 2”

Nil

4’ 6”

9’ 4

Metropolitan

January 2013

Douglas Station

May 1966

St. John's Station

September 1949

Douglas Station