Covered carriage truck

British Rail covered carriage truck
CCT No. 94286 preserved on the Great Central Railway
In service	1959–mid-1980s
Manufacturer	BR Doncaster Works, BR Earlestown Works
Family name	British Railways Mark 1
Constructed	1959-1961
Number built	827
Fleet numbers	94100–94922, 96200–96203
Capacity	10 tonnes (9.8 long tons; 11.0 short tons)
Operators	British Rail
Specifications
Car length	37 ft 0 in (11.28 m)
Width	8 ft 9 in (2.67 m)
Height	12 ft 6 in (3.81 m)
Maximum speed	70 mph (113 km/h)
Weight	17 tonnes (16.7 long tons; 18.7 short tons)
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)

Covered Carriage Truck was a type of railway van with end doors used for moving motor cars or parcel traffic. Four wheeled CCT were banned from Motorail services in the mid-1960s. These vans were designed to be used for carrying motor cars in Motorail but the tight clearances inside the body of the van and closing/opening of the end doors took a lot of time and effort from staff. The vans were replaced by General Utility Vans (GUV) and car flats.

British Rail's Earlestown Works built 822 four-wheeled Covered Carriage Trucks; these were preceded by a prototype, number 94100, built at Doncaster. In addition, Doncaster Works rebuilt four former LNER passenger coaches as prototype bogie CCTs numbered 96200–96203.

Early years

From the early days of railways, such as the Liverpool and Manchester Railway of 1830 road coaches were carried on flat waggons. This is illustrated in the Royal Mail 12 penny postage stamp of 1980. These were called "carriage trucks" but would later be called "open carriage trucks". The earliest open carriage trucks were basically flat waggons with fixtures for attaching ropes and chains. Covered carriage trucks came later.