Posted: 19 June 2015, 11:06:08

Hi, There

Holbrook New Street near Sheffield, Bored Bar Engineeering, South Yorkshire SK 44088 81588

I have been advised that this maybe 041668

but this has been reported scrapped Hull Hessle Yard on site by Ward Ferrous Metals 12/89

Tony

Posted: 19 June 2015, 15:18:00

Interesting - thanks Tony.

Wouldn't be the first time old IU vans thought or assumed scrapped have turned up years later!

Has a plate been found on it?

Posted: 19 June 2015, 23:08:03

Hi, Ben

I asked for more info on this van, enclosed is reply

The van at Holbrook, Bored Bar Engineeering, South Yorkshire. The number 041668 is painted on the side over a dark grey panel (not numbered crudely by hand -looks stencilled to me). Thats how I arrived at the ID. The fifth digit (a 6) is a bit faint but on the second visit I took my high-powered 16x50 binoculars to double-check and am pretty sure it is a 6. I had already eliminated the other possible alternatives (0,8, 2, and 9) because they were not box vans in internal use. The van sits in a compound which is usually locked up and Ive never been there when someone with a key is about, otherwise a closer inspection would be possible (and its likely it is on its underframe too, which would help a lot. The van is in a fairly sheltered position near a wall. It also has a fairly large letter 'S' on the side and another part of a letter before that (which makes me think LMS? -but nah, that seems too improbable) also a faint 'Return to Port Sunlight' still visible, so its external paintwork is doing quite well in terms of averages. I know sometimes internal users do get wrongly numbered, though there is no record of 041668 suffering form this. And books like the Internal Users book sometimes say that stock can be sold on to other people without it being properly recorded, and to look out for such examples -which do turn up from time to time. The only way to know for sure is to gain permitted access to the compound and check closer -that may well solve it, but for now Im still inclined to believe what I see.

Tony