Coaching Stock

Pullman Coaches

Aquila: This coach was built by the Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Co. Ltd. in 1951, from an order placed in 1938 which was delayed by the Second World War. Aquila's first duty was to form part of the Festival of Britain exhibition, it then entered service on Victoria to Dover Golden Arrow train on June 11th 1951. In 1960 Aquila was transferred to the Waterloo to Bournemouth West Bournemouth Belle service. A brief transfer back onto Victoria to Dover and Folkestone boat train duties in 1967 preceded withdrawal from British Railways service in the autumn of 1968. It is known that Aquila was used on various Royal Train duties during the mid 1950s when it was part of a short train which operated in the London area. On the 28th of March 1958, Aquila was part of the train used to convey Her Majesty the Queen and Prince Phillip from Shorncliffe to Windsor and Eton Riverside following a state visit to Holland. Aquila arrived at the Colne Valley Railway in 1988. It is the most authentic of our two Pullman coaches as it retains all the original tables, chairs and internal fittings.

Hermione: This coach was built by the Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Co. Ltd. in 1926 as a Pullman Brake Parlour Brake Third, initially it was simply known as Car No.36. It entered service on the Victoria to Brighton Southern Belle service, a duty which it performed until 1932 when replaced by the then new Brighton Belle electric trains. In 1946 it was upgraded to a Pullman Brake Parlour Second and renumbered Car No.194, following which it was used on the Victoria to Dover Golden Arrow train. On June 20th 1947 it was transferred to a new service, the Devon Belle, which operated from Waterloo to Ilfracombe and Plymouth. Finally, the coach was transferred back to the Golden Arrow and other boat train services from June 11th 1951. Hermione was withdrawn from British Railways service in 1968, and it arrived at the Colne Valley Railway with Aquila in 1988. The original furnishings had been removed prior to its arrival and were replaced with new before the coach was put into service. Fortunately the intricate inlaid marquetry survived and this has been extensively restored to its original condition.

London & North Eastern Railway Coaches

Gresley Bar - E16551E: Diners enter the Colne Valley Pullman train through the bar coach which also acts as a reception area prior to sitting down for a meal in the Pullman coaches. This vehicle was built as a Brake Third Open coach, number 43571, by the London and North Eastern Railway at their York works in 1935. It was renumbered E16551E when taken into British Railways stock in 1948 and remained in passenger use until 1963. It was then converted to a weed-killing train spray control coach for use by the Eastern Region based at Lowestoft and renumbered DE320995. After performing this role for twenty years it was withdrawn and purchased by the Colne Valley Railway. The timber bodywork of the coach was in very poor condition requiring major rebuilding and restoration to make the coach serviceable again. Much of the spray equipment was still in place and this, together with all the remaining internal fittings, were removed prior to starting restoration. The wooden floor was in very poor condition and required complete replacement, prior to which the metal underframe was shotblasted and spray painted. All external timber panelling up to the window level was replaced together with all the window glass. New internal panelling in mahogany was fitted throughout. The bar was constructed from mahogany in the area which was previously the luggage compartment. Seating, which was recovered from a first class open coach, was installed together with new tables constructed to Pullman standard. The livery now carried is brown and cream to match the Pullman coaches.

GNR Semi-Open Third - 42440: This was built in 1906 at Doncaster for the Great Northern Railway. It was designed by Sir Nigel Gresley and used on the London (Kings Cross) to Leeds, Bradford and York services. It had 48 third class seats arranged in a mix of compartments and open plan layout. It was withdrawn in 1954 and converted to a tool van for the Cambridge based break down train, which resulted in it being gutted internally and the windows were boarded up. It awaits restoration back to its former glory.

GER Corridor Brake Third - 62482: This was built at Derby for the Great Eastern Railway in 1920 for use on suburban services from Liverpool Street. It was withdrawn in 1958 and gutted for use as a break town train tool van. It awaits restoration and is in use as a store.

British Railways Mark 1 Passenger Coaching Stock

With the nationalisation of the railways in 1948, the newly formed British Railways inherited four distinct designs of passenger coaching stock, which continued to be built after nationalisation. However, the new design office at Derby soon embarked upon the design of a standard passnger coach for future requirements. By taking the best elements of each of the four pre-nationalisation railways and also adding in an improved requirement for crash worthiness, the Mark 1 design was born. This featured a steel underframe designed to withstand end forces about three times greater than previous stock, onto which was constructed the specific body required. Following Pullman Company designs, all coaches were to have buckeye automatic couplings and Pullman gangways (for ease of maintenance). The bodies were constructed from steel using standard components, such as windows, doors, fixtures and fittings. The first coaches appeared in 1952 and they continued to built until 1963. Many different internal layouts were built for specific services, each having a specific code allocated for the layout.

TSO - Tourist Open Second - 4512 & 4628: These two coaches were built at York in 1956 and feature 64 second class seats in an open plan layout (eight bays of four each side of a central aisle). These coaches had the highest seating capacity of all the Mark 1s built, which is why they were given the "Tourist" classification - they were built for Saturday holidaymaker traffic.

SO - Open Second - 4810: This coach was built in Bimaingham in 1959 and has 48 second class seats in an open plan layout (eight bays of four seats and two seats either side of a central aisle). This was for marshalling next to a kitchen car to provide dining facilities for second class passengers.

SK - Corridor Second - 25697: This coach was built at Wolverton in 1958 and has 48 seats arranged in eight compartments of six seats each. This design represented the standard second class coach.

CK - Corridor Composite - 15939, 15981 & 15984: These three coaches were built at Wolverton in 1956 and have 24 first and 18 second class seats arranged in compartments of six seats (four first class and three second class compartments). The first class compartments are larger and feature curtains and padded seats with separate cushions and carpeting.

BSK - Corridor Brake Second - 34623 & 35169: These coaches only have four passenger compartments, but they do have a compartment for the Guard and a luggage van with two sets of double doors. Our two coaches are slighly different from each other as well. 35169 was built at Wakefield in 1958 and is to the standard design with 24 second class seats (six in each compartment). However, 34623 was built at Gloucester in 1955 for the Southern region and has eight seater compartments giving a capacity of 32. This was because of commuter traffic and was achieved by omitting the armrests.

RMB - Restaurant Miniature Buffet - 1809: This coach was built at York in 1957 and has 44 second class seats plus a small buffet counter to enable light snacks to be served. Prior to the introduction of these coaches, on train catering was provided by full kitchen cars which provided an at seat service and an associated buffet counter for take away meals. For shorter distance and cross country routes, British Railways designed the RMB coach which was basically a TSO with 2½ seating bays removed to provide space for the counter and store cupboard. Our coach worked between Cambridge and Liverpool Street for most of its life.

British Rail Mark 3 Passenger Coach

The Mark 3 coach is a modern design first introduced in 1975 and most are still in main line use today. The entire High Speed Train fleet is formed of Mark 3 coaches. A total of 210 sleeping coaches were built to the mark 3 design as a result of the 1978 Taunton sleeping car fire when it was found that the previous mark 1 designed sleeping cars were not fire resistant. So British Rail decided to completely repace its sleeping car fleet and upgrade the facilities provided. However, the demand for overnight trains declined during the 1980s because of the improvements in speed on most daytime services in the same period. As a result, over half the fleet of sleeping cars had become redundant by 1990. Eventually, some were made available for sale at what must be regarded as a bargain price so the volunteers at the Colne Valley Railway purchased one to provide comfortable overnight accomodation. Our vehicle was built at Derby in 1981 and is a SLEP (Sleeping Car with Pantry), number 10511.

Non Passenger Carrying Coaching Stock (NPCCS)

This unusual title refers to all those vehicles which were built to passenger carrying standards but were actually for other uses. These include Travelling Post Offices, Parcels Vans, Kitchen Cars, Horseboxes, Fish and Fruit Vans.

BG - Gangwayed Full Brake Vans - 31281, 80785, 80792 & 81507: These vans were built for carrying luggage and parcels on long distance passenger trains. Whilst a BSK coach was sufficient for cross country routes, it was felt that the busier routes required more luggage space. These vans had a central Guards Compartment with the rest of the coach remaining empty. They also had double doors to both luggage sections. The oldest at the Colne Valley Railway, number 31281 was built at Wolverton in 1944 for the London, Midland & Scottish Railway. The other three are BR standard versions built as follows: number 80785 (Birmingham 1955), number 80792 (Birmingham 1956) and number 81507 (Pressed Steel Ltd. 1958).

POS - Travelling Post Office Sorting Van - 80318: This vehicle was built at Wolverton in 1961 as a direct replacement for a collison damaged pre-nationalisation coach. It is fitted out for sorting mail on the move and its only occupants were Postmen. It finished its days in service on the East Anglian TPO which ran from Norwich to London and return. It was bought by the Post Office and donated to the Colne Valley Railway for display. It is normally open to the public and you are welcome to look around it.

CCT - Covered Carriage Truck - 94434, 94536, 94737 & 94889: These four wheeled vans were designed for the carriage of motor cars and have end doors to enable cars to drive through them as well as double side doors. They also found use on parcels trains. The four on the Colne Valley Railway were all built at Earlestown (near Warrington) in 1960.

PMV - Parcels & Miscellaneous Van - 2105: Only the Southern Railway built PMVs and the title explains their usage. The Colne Valley Railway example was built at Lancing in 1942.

IFV - Insulated Fish Van - 87885: This van was built at Faverdale in 1960 for the conveyance of fish from the East Coast ports to London for the morning market, a traffic the railways lost in the 1970s. As a result a large number of these vans were redesignated SPV (Special Parcels Van), for the conveyance of high value parcels.

HB - Horsebox - E96347: Today, the generator van is a very important vehicle on the Railway as it provides an independent electricity supply to power the heating and lighting on the Pullman train. However, E96347 was built at British Railway's Earlestown works in 1957 for a very different purpose, as it was one of a batch of 115 horseboxes. The carriage of racehorses to meetings all over the country by rail was once commonplace. The vehicle was constructed using standard mark 1 coach building techniques. Stalls were provided to accommodate up to three horses, with separate compartments provided for a groom and for fodder. The groom was able to feed or inspect the horses through moveable shutters. By 1971 the carriage of horses by rail had ceased, but E96347 was removed from this traffic in 1966 and converted into a steam heating boiler van. This involved replacement of all internal fittings by an oil fired steam boiler and it was used to supply steam for carriage heating on trains where the locomotive provided was not fitted with a steam generator. It was renumbered ADE321101. Latterly the vehicle was used as a static steam boiler training vehicle at Gateshead in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. It was withdrawn in 1986 and arrived at the Colne Valley Railway shortly after. The conversion to a generator van involved the removal of the steam boiler and the installation of a 125kW Dorman diesel generator set.