A general utility van (GUV) is a type of rail vehicle built by

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Comm ...

primarily for transporting mail and parcels. They were used by both

Rail Express Systems Rail Express Systems (RES) was a sector of British Rail. This sector was responsible for transport of mail and parcels, including the travelling post office trains, as well as taking over charter operations from InterCity (British Rail), InterC ...

and

Railtrack Railtrack was a group of companies that owned the railroad, track, railway signalling, signalling, tunnels, bridges, level crossings and all but a handful of the railway station, stations of the Transport in England#Rail, British railway syste ...

Colas Rail Colas Rail is a railway infrastructure company, which also serves as a rail freight operator in the United Kingdom. It is a subsidiary of Bouygues. Colas Rail was founded as Seco Rail by SECO (Société d'Études et de Construction d'Outillag ...

and some

train operating companies In the railway system of Great Britain, a train operating company (TOC) is a railway undertaking operating passenger trains under the collective National Rail brand. TOCs have existed since the privatisation of the network under the Railways ...

still use them.

British Rail

Fleet details

Livery examples

File:NVA 96603 at Penzance.jpg, NVA 96603 at

Penzance Penzance ( ; ) is a town, civil parish and port in the Penwith district of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is the westernmost major town in Cornwall and is about west-southwest of Plymouth and west-southwest of London. Situated in the ...

on 29 August 2003. This vehicle is a

Motorail A motorail train or accompanied car train (ACT) is a passenger train on which passengers can take their car or automobile along with them on their journey. Passengers are carried in normal passenger carriages or in sleeping carriages on longer ...

van operated by

First Great Western First Greater Western, trading as Great Western Railway (GWR), is a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup that provides services in the Greater Western franchise area. It manages 197 stations and its trains call at over 270. GWR ...

on the ''

Night Riviera The ''Night Riviera'' () is a sleeping car, sleeper train operated by Great Western Railway (train operating company), Great Western Railway (GWR). It is one of only two sleeper services on the railway in the United Kingdom (the other being th ...

'' Image:NOA 95758 at Cheltenham Spa.JPG, NOA 95758 at

Cheltenham Spa Cheltenham () is a historic spa town and borough adjacent to the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort following the discovery of mineral springs in 1716, and claims to be the mo ...

on 9 January 2004. This vehicle is a high-security

Royal Mail Royal Mail Group Limited, trading as Royal Mail, is a British postal service and courier company. It is owned by International Distribution Services. It operates the brands Royal Mail (letters and parcels) and Parcelforce Worldwide (parcels) ...

van and is painted in unbranded

livery.

Preservation

Many GUVs have found new uses on preserved lines in the UK either stored and kept as coaches or converted for uses as different things.

PMV

The Southern Railway used the designation PMV (Parcels and Miscellaneous Van).

References

British Rail coaching stock British railway wagons Train-related introductions in 1956 {{UK-rail-transport-stub