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That report was printed in the Lincolnshire Echo 20 May 1901 with "TMR".

It appears the concept of "church vans" was common in England and were for the same purpose, but for civilians.

They were road vans, horse-drawn, maybe later motorised.





Edit: re. T.M.R. - As the Imperial Military Railways company had only been formed the previous year, perhaps the letter-writer wasn't sufficiently knowledgeable about South African railways, and mistakenly referred to it as the Transvaal Military Railways.