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.
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.
