M731211 is an example of a London Midland & Scottish (LMS) railway standard brake van design that has its origins from 1938. It is 24ft long with a 16ft wheelbase, and is through piped to allow working within vacuum fitted trains.

Originally a batch of 670 were built to Diagram D1909, and proved so popular that two more batches were produced. This particular brake van was built at the Derby workshops of the LMS in 1941 to Lot D2036 which comprised 522 vehicles in total. The final batch of these brake vans was in fact built by British Railways between 1949 and 1950, with this batch numbering a total of 1320 vehicles. This meant the design had seen over 2,500 vehicles built, which shows how successful the design was.

Despite the wartime economies of the time of this van being built, railway capacity had to be expended to cater for the increased demand for freight. Consequently, brake vans (which were an essential element of any unfitted freight train) were built in large numbers by all the railway companies.

During it's later life, the vehicle was used as part of Paddington electrification with Spie Entrans. It was in engineers olive livery, no yellow band and electrification written on the side. See this link for a picture of it in this guise. It tailed a rake of LNER quad art with flat roof for walking the lines when putting wires in place. it was regularly stabled in Southall depot which was to prove a lifeline for the vehicle when it was no longer required.

731211 was rescued from the cutters torch in Southall Yard in early 1995 by Dave and Jenni Ashwood before being donated to the Great Western Preservation Group (GWRPG) based at Southall. Although in comparatively good condition the years had taken their toll on the vehicle. The end steel panels required replacement, some side planks were rotten and the commodes (lookouts) required welding. On the plus side, the axles, brakes and wheel tyres have very little wear.

731211 is classed as a vacuum braked vehicle, having had wooden blocks placed behind the buffers to increase the distance between vehicles to allow a screw coupling to be used and for room to couple/uncouple the vacuum pipe. In reality though, 731211 is only through piped. Which means the train brake passes through the vehicle and doesn't apply its brakes. This means it has a white coloured vacuum pipe instead of red.

In 2019 the AVRHT purchased the vehicle from the GWRPG to supplement its existing brake van fleet. This brake van being of a type that was known to be used on the line before it closed. The van eventually arrived at the railway in May 2021.