GWR orders for the Fruit D express fruit van were still being delivered into the 1950s. These useful vans were widely used for express parcels the growing small consignments business.
Many of these relatively new vans were still in service when the change to blue livery occured in the late 1960s/ early 1970s, the last examples surviving in service until about 1980, often travelling widely in parcels service.
This model painted in rail blue is ideal for the 1970s era, the twilight years of the Western regions' diesel hydraulic locomotive fleet, when many of these vans were used to transport spare parts from Swindon works to locomotive depots.