Passenger Carriages
Carriages which would form passenger accommodation.
Great Eastern Railway Third Class Brake Coach
GER Passenger Brake Van (553)
GER 4-Wheel First Class (Number 19)
GER Third Class Coach (No 1041) - Bungay Coach
GER Boston Coach
LNER Gresley 13251
BR Standard Mk1 TSO 3779
BR Standard Mk1 Second E24959
BR Standard Mk1 BCK M21027
BR King's Cross Brake Suburban E43157
Ferryvan BDC 210234
GER Third Class Brake Coach
This is a Great Eastern Railway Third Class brake coach. At present it is a body on its underframe only, generally in good condition but with no running gear.
Brown, Marshall and Copmany Ltd built it for the Great Eastern Railway in 1873 for £256.
It is 22ft 6in long and was withdrawn from service in 1902. It was sold for the pricely sum of £8, and was used as a chapel at Great Wenham until after the Second World War , and during this time it received its present corrugated iron roof.
Since its arrival at the Museum on 6th February 1988, the only work to date has been repaint the exterior for weatherproofing.
It is grounded to the north of Chappel North Signal box, and it is at present being used for storing Carriage and Wagon permanent way equipment.
GER Passenger Brake Van (553)
Built in June 1890 at Stratford Works, this thirty-two foot long coach was designed for main line use. It is certain that this type appeared on most Great Eastern express and main line trains up to the 1920’s. The brake end, with prominent guard’s lookout, has the characteristic end windows, and a space was provided here for luggage, parcels, etc. At the other end, a small compartment - removed later in its career, but now replaced - was provided for hand luggage. In the central compartment fish or livestock was conveyed. This compartment had a special convex floor, to assist washing out after use.
The design of No. 553 was typical of contemporary Great Eastern Railway coaching stock, with a wooden body on flitched wooden underframes. The Mansell wheels survive, although the Westinghouse brake gear has now been replaced with vacuum brakes. Oil lighting was originally fitted, but was replaced in 1925 by incandescent gas. A through steam heating pipe was fitted in LNER days, but this does not survive.
After the grouping of the railways in 1923, the coach was relegated to secondary duties and was withdrawn in September 1934, by which time it had been renumbered to London and North Eastern Railway Number 63761. It was transferred to departmental use as a tool van at Lowestoft Central. Subsequently, it was transferred to Yarmouth South Town, from where it was purchased for preservation on its withdrawal in 1965. It was stored at Carlton Colville (near Lowestoft) until it arrived at Chappel in 1974. It is now in 1916 condition, when it had a livery of carmine red known as ‘Colchester Crimson’. It has been restored to a high standard, and restoration work was sufficiently advanced by June 1996 for the vehicle to attend the ‘Eastern Union Railway 150’ exhibition at Ipswich as part of the Museum’s contribution to the static display. It appeared with the other Great Eastern restored coaches behind the GER E4 locomotive from Bressingham to form the first train of wholly GE stock since the 1950s. It is in operational condition, but due to its age it is only used on demonstration trains on special occasions.
GER 4 Wheel First Class (Number 19)
Built in 1878 by the Birmingham Carriage and Wagon Company Ltd. in a batch of forty – numbered 1 to 40 – at a cost of £281.The length of twenty seven feet was introduced only two years before for suburban coaches, and this remained standard until the last four wheeled coach was built in 1905. Prior to 1878, suburban stock varied from twenty six feet down to twenty-one feet in length. From the start, No. 19 was built for marshalling in close-coupled trains, with short buffers protruding 1’ 1” from the headstock at one end whilst at the other end concave wooden blocks ten inches in diameter were fitted in which short or normal buffers could rest. The conventional screw couplings and draw hooks were dispensed with; instead a continuous drawbar with an eye at each end for a single link was provided. Short side or safety chains were also fitted. In the early 1880’s, gas lighting was introduced on the Great Eastern Railway, and as gas was produced at Stratford this type of lighting was at first confined to suburban coaches. Fish tail burners producing a flat flame were originally fitted, with the more familiar and economical incandescent lights with mantles being introduced in the early 1900’s. The continuous Westinghouse brake was adopted as standard by 1880, and this would have been fitted at an early stage if not provided when new.
Little further change occurred to No. 19 until 1903 when a transformation took place. Five years previously James Holden had introduced an entirely new design of suburban coach nine feet wide and seating six people a side in second class coaches instead of five, and five people a side in first class instead of four. This gave over 20% more seating for the same length of train with little increase in weight and, by the end of 1901 had built three hundred and seventy eight of these new carriages. However, a total of 1571 of the conventional coaches remained in suburban service built variously during the period 1868 to 1897, the majority of which were of too recent build to consider for early withdrawal.
Holden therefore devised a method of widening these coaches by halving the bodies lengthways and the insertion of a one-foot wide section, thus providing the same seating capacity as the new stock. During 1902 and 1903, seven hundred and three coaches were rebuilt at a cost of only £30 each. Of the batch of forty built in 1878, twenty-four were converted – all during 1903. Widening gave an extended lease of life, the last surviving until 1922 whilst the unwidened coaches were withdrawn between 1901 and 1913. Withdrawal for No. 19 came in July 1913, the fifth of the widened batch to go.
The coach was obtained by the former Ipswich Branch of the Museum, whose members were responsible for much of the early restoration work on it. For demonstration use, it has now been fitted with a vacuum pipe and cylinder. In 1982, it was used to represent Thorpeness station (on the former Aldeburgh branch) in an episode of the BBC TV series ‘Nanny’, starring Wendy Craig. 1983 saw it attend the BR Stratford Open Day, followed by a visit to the Felixstowe Dock and Railway Company celebrations in 1986 and then Southend Centenary celebrations on 28 August 1989. In June 1996 it attended the ‘Eastern Union Railway 150’ exhibition at Ipswich as part of the Museum’s contribution to the static display. These visits were made by road.
Due to the nature and age of the vehicle, it has to receive regular attention. In 2000-1 it received exterior renovation to the woodwork. It is also used in demonstration trains only on special occasions. At the present time (August 2005) further restoration is taking place.
GER Third Class Coach (GER No 1014, LNER No 60704)
This vehicle was built in August 1890 by the Great Eastern Railway at Stratford as a six-compartment main line 3rd class coach, weighing approximately 4½ tons. As such it would have had upholstered seats and been fitted with continuous brakes of the Westinghouse type. Three of the compartments were designated as ‘Smoking’ and fitted with extra ventilators on the roof, and had the windows marked by etched glass signs saying ‘Smoking’. Originally this coach would have been finished in varnished teak livery, then in later years a painted teak colour followed, in around 1919, by GER crimson lake of which there are still traces left on the headstock.
At about the time of the grouping in 1923, when the LNER took over the GER, 1041 received steam heating and reverted to painted teak livery. It had LNER markings applied, and was renumbered to 60704 in the LNER series for GER coaches.
As more bogie stock became available, 60704 was downrated to branch line use, and its contemporaries ran on the Stour Valley line through Chappel. After a working life of 45 years, 60704 was withdrawn in 1935 and the body sold as a bungalow to a site at Homersfield on the Waveney Valley line, near Bungay in Suffolk.
It was subsequently bought for preservation, and under many layers of paint and tar, it is in a remarkable state of preservation. At present, the Bungay coach currently rests on Platform 2, where it functions as a shop under the name of “The Curio Coach”.
GER Boston Coach (E61533E)
Built in 1921, this is a Great Eastern Railway bogie composite coach. It had a side corridor with compartments, and has original Great Eastern Railway bogies. Both the exterior and the undergear are in reasonable condition, but the interior has been stripped. After withdrawal it saw departmental use, latterly with Signal and Telegraph engineers at Boston, Lincolnshire. It arrived at Chappel on 25 August 1988.
It is a rare and vital link between the GER main line coaching stock and the onset of Gresley-influenced replacements, and is one of only two GER bogies coaches preserved, the other being on the North Norfolk Railway at Sheringham.
A considerable amount of work has yet to be undertaken on restoring this coach, after which it will be possible to run this vehicle in the Museum’s demonstration passenger train.
LNER Second Class Open Coach (Gresley) 13251
Built in 1921, this is a Great Eastern Railway bogie composite coach. It had a side corridor with compartments, and has original Great Eastern Railway bogies. Both the exterior and the undergear are in reasonable condition, but the interior has been stripped. After withdrawal it saw departmental use, latterly with Signal and Telegraph engineers at Boston, Lincolnshire. It arrived at Chappel on 25 August 1988.
It is a rare and vital link between the GER main line coaching stock and the onset of Gresley-influenced replacements, and is one of only two GER bogies coaches preserved, the other being on the North Norfolk Railway at Sheringham.
The coach has recently undergone a restoration where it has become a displays vehicle, as such it is unlikely to be used in demonstraiton trains.
BR Standard Mk1 TSO 3779
The first BR standard coach designs appeared in 1950 with a strong family resemblance to the Bulleid stock of the Southern Railway, and were constructed in various configurations until 1964. They featured a separate underframe 64' 6" long and 9' wide body of all-welded construction. Buckeye couplers, Pullman-type gangways, vacuum brakes and BR1 double bolster bogies were standard equipment. Buffers were normally retracted out of use but could be extended when the coupler head was lowered to expose the drawhook for attaching to locomotives or coaches fitted with screw couplings. Different types of coaches were denoted by the operating code letters, in this case TSO standing for ‘Tourist Second Open’ - that is, an Open saloon vehicle for Second Class passengers.
Built at Doncaster Works in 1953 to Lot number 30043, No. E3779 weighs thirty-three tons, and has sixty-four seats fitted, with two a side seating at tables either side of a central corridor. One table at the end was not fitted so that invalids and/or stretcher cases could gain access through the demountable window if so required, although the window is now no longer fitted.
It arrived at Chappel by rail on 17 May 1981. Various restoration work has been done on this coach, including refitting of the upholstery and a repaint into crimson and cream livery in 1987/8, followed by further minor attention and a repaint into BR lined maroon livery that was completed in February 1990. The seating was re-upholstered in early 1993, following which the vehicle was moved to the restoration shed in 1995 for repairs to body rot which proved to be much more extensive than expected - although this is not uncommon with the early Mk1 vehicles. Following completion of this work, it was re-painted and released to traffic as a service coach in December 1997, and it is at present regularly in use in the Museum’s demonstration passenger trains.
BR Standard Mk1 Second E24959
The first BR standard coach designs appeared in 1950 with a strong family resemblance to the Bulleid stock of the Southern Railway, and were constructed in various configurations until 1964. They featured a separate underframe 64' 6" long and a 9' wide body of all-welded steel construction. Buckeye couplers, Pullman-type gangways, vacuum brakes, and BR1 double-bolster bogies were standard equipment. Buffers were normally retracted out of use, but could be extended when the coupler head was lowered to expose the drawhook for attaching to locomotives or coaches fitted with screw couplings. Different types of coaches were denoted by the operating code letters, in this case SK where the ‘S’ means Second Class and the ‘K’ indicates a side corridor.
No. E24959 was constructed as part of Lot 30154 at Derby in 1956, and was withdrawn from service in 1981. It was purchased for preservation by two members of the East Anglian Railway Museum and stored at Colchester pending the installation of the permanent connection with the BR line at Chappel.
It arrived at the Museum in November 1981 and was refurbished during that winter. It was repainted in BR lined-out maroon livery and has since formed part of the regular passenger train used on Steam Days, receiving a further repaint in February 1989. Accommodation comprises eight compartments, seating 48 second class passengers. The weight of the vehicle is 33 tons. It was taken out of service in late 2000 for overhaul – this included bodywork repairs, a repaint into crimson and cream, and full re-upholstering. It returned to service in Spring 2003.
BR Standard Mk1 BCK M21027
This coach was built by Metro-Cammell in Birmingham in 1954 as part of Lot No. 30132. It is a standard Mark I coach, with a brake compartment, first and third class compartments (hence the description composite), and a side corridor. Weighing 33 tons, it is 64' 6" long, and has Pullman-type vestibuled gangways. It has drop down buckeye couplers, and retractable buffers with shank collars for extension when it is screw-coupled.
Seating capacity is twelve in First Class, and eighteen in Third Class. Coaches of this type continued to be built until 1964. Originally fitted with a guard’s periscope lookout, this was removed by British Rail with the spread of overhead electrification. It was fitted with electric train heating for the West Coast Main Line electrification from Euston in the mid-1960s, but most of this equipment was removed between its withdrawal from service and its arrival at Chappel. It arrived at Chappel on 29 January 1978, and has since received some further attention. The upholstery was refurbished and the exterior repainted in November 1988, and mechanical attention was given in March 1991.
It usually forms part of the regular service train. It is an excellent example of the post-War style of coaching stock used extensively on British Rail throughout the fifties and sixties until the introduction of Mark II coaches. Examples of this type continued in regular service until the early nineties. Following overhaul and repainting into carmine and cream livery, it re-entered service in December 2000.
BR King's Cross Brake Surburban E43157
Length 56' 11"
Weight 28 tons
Built 1954
Six compartments, plus guard’s brake compartment
This is a BR Standard Brake Suburban (BS) non-corridor compartment coach, with slam doors. It has an all-welded steel body, mounted on BR1 bogies. The type was collectively known as the ‘King’s Cross Suburbans’, operating out of King’s Cross, Moorgate and Broad Street to Hertford, Hatfield, Royston and Cambridge. They replaced the Gresley articulated sets, Quint-Arts, on these services.
There are seats for seventy-two, with twelve people being accommodated in six-a-side compartments. Many of these coaches had a very short life owing to branch line closures, and their replacement by diesel multiple units, with scrapping commencing as early as 1962. Having an appalling reputation for body rot did not help their life span. Some of this type were also used on the Clacton and Walton branches prior to electrification.
It arrived at Chappel by rail - by means of a track slew - on 29 January 1978, following which is was repainted from BR Corporate Blue to BR Maroon. Later, following a long and extensive restoration programme that was completed in December 1994, it was outshopped in the lighter shade of red without lining as used when they were first introduced by British Railways. It has immediately proved very popular with visitors, as compartment stock of this type is no longer to be found on British railways – and not on many preserved railways.
It was re-upholstered throughout in 1998, following which it saw regular service in the Museum’s demonstration passenger trains, especially during the very popular Day out with Thomas events. In 2005 it had to be withdrawn from traffic due to the discovery of asbestos within the coach: this will need to be removed by specialist (and expensive!) contractors before the coach is able to re-enter service.
Ferryvan BDC 210234
Weight 23 tons (Prior to Conversion)
Air braked
Length 36ft 6ins
Gross Laden Weight 41 tons
Roller bearings fitted
This wagon was built at Shildon Works in 1975 as part of Lot Number 3908. It was originally built for conveying traffic through to the Continent via the former train ferries from Dover to Calais and Harwich to Zeebrugge, which were withdrawn when the Channel Tunnel opened.
It was transferred to departmental use with British Rail Telecommunications (BRT), which was subsequently privatised and taken over by RACAL, and became RACAL-BRT. They removed the original sides and sliding doors, and replaced them with eight drop down counterbalanced low height bottom hinged doors.
They also fitted internal and external lighting, and fitted a shore supply connection. It was used to carry stores, and being roofed afforded protection from the possibility of stores coming into contact with the overhead power lines. The wagon was advertised for sale lying at Doncaster, however during the purchase period it was moved to Didcot Yard for further storage, from where it was eventually purchased by the Museum and moved on a low-loader lorry to Chappel, where it arrived on 23rd November 2000.
It was purchased with the specific intention of rebuilding it to be a replica of ‘Henrietta’, one of the carriages in the Thomas the Tank Engine stories. Following design work by a Museum team, the conversion has included the fitting of new wooden bodywork, a guard’s brake valve, seats and lighting.
It also has space for one wheelchair. It is planned that it will give rides at selected events at the Museum, hauled by our replica ‘Toby’ locomotive. It is also possible that this coach will be hired out to other preserved railways from time to time for their popular ‘Day out with Thomas’ events.