The ‘Shenfield Shark’
ON a siding to the south-east of Shenfield station sits a ‘Shark’ ballast plough brake van. From platform one, the everyday passenger can clearly see it is slowly deteriorating. The van’s grey and yellow paintwork has faded and peeled, while its metal frame appears to be rusting away and a couple of wooden planks that make up the body are missing. Its appearance suggests the van has been forgotten, but it has become so recognisable that it even has its own name: the ‘Shenfield Shark’.
The vehicle’s distressed appearance always catches my eye whenever I pass through Shenfield, and I have often wondered what it was like inside. One
