During the 1950s/1960s, European freight traffic was transported in long-wheelbase van wagons that featured larger sliding doors, sliding side vents and air brakes. It was common for BR van wagons to incorporate a 10ft wheelbase and have a capacity of a 12-ton load. Only specialist wagons were used by BR to carry goods as part of the cross-channel fleet that could operate on train ferries.

To keep up with the competition of European freight traffic, BR designed an improved ferry van to Dia. 1/227. These improvements included a large sliding door on each side, capacity for a 20-ton load, four sliding vents on each side and both air and vacuum brakes. Over headstocks, the van was nearly 42ft long, and the wheelbase came to a jaw-droppingly large 26ft 3in wheelbase. Between 1962 and 1964, Pressed Steel constructed a total of 400 vehicles for cross-channel freight traffic.

The introduction of bogie vehicles in the 1970s and 1980s for cross-channel traffic superseded the need for ferry vans. They were utilised for other duties such as departmental, barrier vehicles and domestic goods traffic with VBA and VDA vans. 

BR coded these ferry vans as VIX under the TOPs system. In 2018, three ex-Fastline ferry vans were the final ones in service and were craned out of Peterborough yard to be transported away via the road. Several VIX ferry vans are preserved and can be found at the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre, Peak Rail, the Eden Valley, the Spa Valley and West Somerset Railways.

The VIX ferry van is finished in an eye-catching BR Railfreight red and grey livery. The hook couplings enable easier coupling of other rolling stock and locomotives on your layout. It features sliding doors.