Back in those dark days of 1939-45 we all had to do our bit for the war effort. One of God's Wonderful Railway's many contributions was to use steel-bodied vans to collect any unwanted goods, or 'salvage' in the jargon of the times, for re-use and recycling. The vans were painted up in a striking shade of blue ( quite similar to the 'Electric Blue' which British Railways would use twenty years later for their new generation of overhead electric locos ), and had 'SALVAGE' and the stirring slogan 'SAVE FOR VICTORY' lettered prominently on the sides. They were often run attached to coaching stock, with passengers encouraged to bring their salvage down to the station and deposit it patriotically in the special van. The GWR wanted to order some more blue paint when supplies ran out, but unfortunately the manufacturer was based in Germany, so further vans had to be painted in the standard chocolate brown. Our van, however, represents one of the original batch in authentic German blue. Give your layout a wartime atmosphere by coupling up one of these nostalgic vehicles to your Colletts or B-Sets.

Check out the review of our GWR Salvage van on the GWR Modelling website at www.gwr.org.uk/galpennine.html to see a photo of one of the original vehicles.

The GWR Salvage Van is produced in association with Lord & Butler Ltd, and is also on sale at their premises in Penarth Road, Cardiff.