[BUG] ZSX wagon is probably misnamed

[Matthew]

The pakset's principal piece goods wagon for railways in the 1970s and 1980s is the "ZSX covered van" a.k.a. PieceZSX created by the much-missed JamesHood.

There is surely a mistake somewhere, since ZSX is the TOPS/CARKND code for:
Z: Departmental two-axle vehicle (carriage or wagon)
S: Operating vehicle (e.g. barrier, generator)
X: Dual brake (air and vacuum)

ZSX wagons were used for rail engineers' stores, rather than for revenue use carrying general merchandise. Unfortunately, neither the .dat file, the comments nor the Git history have relevant comments.  Doing some online searches shows that Hornby and Rapido (model train manufacturers) both produced ZSX models, both describing it as a "ZSX Ferry Van". The Hornby model is almost certainly based on this photograph, since the wagon number is identical (and the wagon has been preserved). I speculate that JamesHood had the model railway wagon (or a photo of it) to hand and used it as the basis for his .blend file, thinking it was an actual ferry van.

However, the model descriptions are somewhat misleading: the ZSX code was not used for ferry vans (general merchandise vans used on cross-Channel and North Sea ferries); they were converted from ferry vans for departmental use.  The ZSX wagons that inspired the models were converted from dual-braked wagons built in 1961-63, so we could probably move the intro date a bit earlier. So far I have been unable to find out the CARKND code used for the wagons when they were in revenue use before conversion. It will have been of the form V?X (van, dual-braked), but I think these ferry vans would have had a different code from the very common VAA and VBA wagons because they had the special fittings for ferries.

I should be able to get access to a library book with more info when I have a better Internet connection.

[jamespetts]

Thank you for this research - that is helpful. For now, I have simply removed the "ZSX" name so that this is now a "BR covered van". If you can find some more precise name, do let me know.

[Matthew]

Thank you for this research - that is helpful. For now, I have simply removed the "ZSX" name so that this is now a "BR covered van". If you can find some more precise name, do let me know.

Thank you for the quick response, James.

I have now found that they were TOPS-coded as VIX (1, 2). So the best name would probably be something like "BR VIX Van".

The same sources and others say that they were constructed in two lots in 1962-64. I think our pakset refers to 1968 because that was when they came to domestic prominence in a brakes trial programme. So maybe the intro date should be moved to 1963 as well, please?

For future reference, detailed elevation plans of this wagon are in Paul W.Bartlett and T.Mann 'Cross-Channel Ferry Wagons used on BR' in Leigh, C. ed. Model Railway Constructor Annual 1985 (Shepperton: Ian Allan 1984), pp.26-27. Available from the Internet Archive Library.

[jamespetts]

Thank you for that - I have now modified the introduction/retirement dates and added the name accordingly.

At some point, we would ideally have these wagons introduced in their original bauxite livery.