Pec NS P 8502

This carriage owes its ‘dented nose’ to a folding coupling attachment on the automatic coupler, which allows it to be coupled to both electric and diesel-electric trains. To make room for the attachment, a ‘bite’ – or ‘dent’ – was taken out of the nose. This ‘Dented Nose’ is a mail van. The streamlined mail carriages were built just before and after the Second World War to match the other streamlined rolling stock from the 1930s.

The carriages were given the designation Pec: the ‘P’ stands for post office carriage, the ‘e’ for suitability for electric trains and the ‘c’ for toilet. The Pec was owned by the PTT, which is why there are no NS emblems on it. The last Pecs were taken out of service in 1979 following the introduction of a PTT star network with separate postal trains.

The importance of preserving a representative of this unique type of rolling stock was also recognised by the PTT. The PTT transferred the 8502 to Stibans (Foundation for the Preservation of Dutch Railway Rolling Stock to be Decommissioned), established in 1979, which later transferred ownership of the carriage to the Railway Museum.