Sherpa Freight Rover LDV alert

[catsinthewelder]

On 16/09/2025 at 22:25, warch said:

I was walking around the Shrewsbury Steam Rally classic car section with my dad a few weeks ago and he was reminiscing about this very subject, apparently the special school for delinquent kids he worked at had a fleet of York engined Transits which were notorious for not starting with a slc of boisterous yoofs onboard whilst out on outward bound day trips and weekends away.
 

People love to go on about how great the 70s were, but one feature you forget was that you were absolutely fucked if you were miles from anywhere or it was a Sunday or there was no one on hand to lend assistance in those pre mobile days.

At least he could wear the little fuckers out trying to push start it!

[Heavyspanners]

Fresh in on FB Marketplace, an early Sherpa panel van. Not a camper conversion - a plain old van, as far as I can see in authentic Not Mucked About condition.

Rusty, of course, but repair panels are now available (van comes with a couple, apparently). B Series engine, so mechanically it's pretty easy.



Price is possibly a bit steep for a non-runner, but it's a genuine rarity. It really is a case of 'find another'.

Best thing about it - it's a double slider!

[D.E]

2001 Ldv Convoy Luton Van 2.5 Di £750

[500tops]

Potential bargain? 

Pilot  Auto sleeper which is just out of MoT. Southampton 

 

1996 Blue LDV 200 for sale for £449 in SOUTHAMPTON, HAMPSHIRE https://share.google/gHdwcCPgyOcy3luxK

[Snipes]

Is that a private plate or did the final facelift arrive all the way back in 97?

[quicksilver]

1 hour ago, Snipes said:

Is that a private plate or did the final facelift arrive all the way back in 97?

The Pilot and Convoy did indeed appear back in 1996 so that's an early one. I know of some N-reg Convoys like this one that I think were pre-production.

 

[eddyramrod]

Spotted on the way from my hotel to the show at Chumley...

I know, not the best pic, but I wasn't getting out of the car.

[Heavyspanners]

Some lovely period photos of one of British Rail's Sherpas - they bought them by the trainload - which I discovered on a railway modelling forum thread about road vehicles used by the railways..

It's the same van in every shot, just wearing different logos. This was during the period when the various activities of British Rail were separated out into a number of different 'business sectors'. Not actually a bad idea, some of the sectors were quite successful as stand-alone businesses which also had the backing of the parent organisation.  This meant it was logos a-go-go for a while.

All photos taken at Aberdeen Clayhills Depot, possibly by Bob Reid, although the post on the railway modelling forum doesn't make it quite clear if he actually clicked the shutter or not.

Here we are in 1991. The loco is 47 145, named Merddin Emrys, scrapped in 2009.  The van was a 1989 model which meant it was probably one of the last Freight Rovers...or possibly an early Leyland Daf. Perkins Prima diesel. Sold off in 1996 but apparently it lived on until 2001.




A slightly earlier photo, with the van wearing the Inter-City logo of the time. The locos are Class 08 shunters, built in the 1950s to a design that went back to the 1930s. Still a few of them about now.




Here's the van with 47 786 Roy Castle OBE. The loco is in Rail Express livery, the colour scheme applied to locos which worked mail trains. I have no idea why Roy Castle got a loco named after him.

Looking at the badge on the van's left-hand rear door, I'd say it's a Freight Rover. The Leyland Daf badge was bigger, with DAF in massive great letters.




There might be more vintage Sherpa photos on the railway modelling forum thread, but it dates back to 2018 and it seems a lot of the photos/links have gone dead now.

 

[Snipes]

Absolutely criminal not to paint the sherpa in proper Intercity colours!

[500tops]

Just spotted a few streets apart in Plymouth 

[Heavyspanners]

2 hours ago, Snipes said:

Absolutely criminal not to paint the sherpa in proper Intercity colours!

 That was done, at least once - but I'm not sure if it was done officially. I think it was a private owner's DIY paint job.

This is the one and only photo I've ever seen of the Inter-City Sherpa, and it doesn't look like a proper British Rail vehicle. Not with those wheel trims, anyway.

Owner being questioned by the police for impersonating British Rail staff...



The location looks like somewhere in Wales, and the date must be 1987 at the earliest. That's when the 'raspberry ripple' Inter-City livery came in.

The Sherpa is on a W-plate, so it's one of the last original-shape models, and probably a bit too old to still be on the BR fleet in 1987. It's still on the DVLA database as an Austin-Morris (the colour is given as 'multi-colour') but untaxed since 1990.

There's a real British Rail van on the right: most likely a Morris Ital. I don't think BR had any Marina vans. The usual small van was the Bedford HA, which BR bought because it was the cheapest van on the market at the time. When the HA went out of production, BR switched to the Ital as it was the next-cheapest van.




 

[grogee]

3 hours ago, Heavyspanners said:

I have no idea why Roy Castle got a loco named after him.

Did a lot of great work for charidee mate, not half. Doesn't like to talk about it. 

<segues into Bachmann Turner Overdrive>

[mk2_craig]

2 hours ago, 500tops said:

Plymouth 

 

That one has been caught on camera in what was presumably its original life! Not my photo but apparently from 2013.

 

[Heavyspanners]

5 hours ago, Heavyspanners said:

 That was done, at least once - but I'm not sure if it was done officially. I think it was a private owner's DIY paint job.

This is the one and only photo I've ever seen of the Inter-City Sherpa, and it doesn't look like a proper British Rail vehicle. Not with those wheel trims, anyway.

Owner being questioned by the police for impersonating British Rail staff...



The location looks like somewhere in Wales, and the date must be 1987 at the earliest. That's when the 'raspberry ripple' Inter-City livery came in.

The Sherpa is on a W-plate, so it's one of the last original-shape models, and probably a bit too old to still be on the BR fleet in 1987. It's still on the DVLA database as an Austin-Morris (the colour is given as 'multi-colour') but untaxed since 1990.

There's a real British Rail van on the right: most likely a Morris Ital. I don't think BR had any Marina vans. The usual small van was the Bedford HA, which BR bought because it was the cheapest van on the market at the time. When the HA went out of production, BR switched to the Ital as it was the next-cheapest van.




 

One slight mystery has been solved, thanks to the Railways Of Wales Facebook group (you see, Facebook isn't just for the nasty things in life).

The location is Llandudno Junction station. The photographer must have been standing on the roof of what is now the Taxi office (you can just see the parapet of the roof in the bottom-right corner).

The Sherpa was more or less where the blue taxi is in this Google view.

The station area has certainly been scrubbed up a bit now. It's surprising that it still looked like a bomb site in the 1980s. If you take the Google camera out into the street, you can see the red & white house is still there, and still looks much the same.