Interesting railway carriage

[Rachel]

I recently had a trip with a friend to the North Norfolk Railway in north Norfolk in the UK. It's a preserved line run by volunteers and runs between the seaside town of Sheringham and market town of Holt. We came across this nicely restored railway carriage which originally was used on the Wisbech & Upwell Railway a roadside tramway in the Fens built by the Great Eastern Railway.



A local TV station did an interesting report on the tramway in it's later years. You can view it here . It's all gone now unfortunately.

[Randy]

Very interesting Rachel. I see you still like trains as much as I do.

[Rachel]

Thanks Randy. Yes, I have some strange interests for a girl but there are a lot of ladies active in the preservation groups and even in model railways. All kinds of old transport fascinate me.

[mickeyobe]

Jul 4, 2015 4:28:43 GMT -5 Rachel said:

I recently had a trip with a friend to the North Norfolk Railway in north Norfolk in the UK. It's a preserved line run by volunteers and runs between the seaside town of Sheringham and market town of Holt. We came across this nicely restored railway carriage which originally was used on the Wisbech & Upwell Railway a roadside tramway in the Fens built by the Great Eastern Railway.



A local TV station did an interesting report on the tramway in it's later years. You can view it here . It's all gone now unfortunately.

WOW!
How beautiful. How elegant.
If that is third class, first class must be solid gold.

Mickey

[Stephen]

You can see the coaches sister in use in the famous Ealing Comedy, The Titfield Thunderbolt, it was not destroyed by the film crew, as sometimes reported, the wrecked coach in the crash was a film prop. But after filming it returned to storage and was broken up as scrap in 1957.
In the film it is fitted out with a bar to suit Stanley Holloway's  character's requirements to serve alcohol outside licensing hours as long as the train was moving.
Stephen

[Rachel]

This carriage was, I believe, rescued from somebody's garden where it had been used as a summer house. Many old railway carriages were sold off and used as peoples homes when there was a shortage of affordable housing. You can still see the ruins of old carriages and wagons in farmers fields where they were used for storage.

[Rachel]

Jul 4, 2015 17:32:02 GMT -5 mickeyobe said:

WOW!
How beautiful. How elegant.
If that is third class, first class must be solid gold.

Mickey

Mickey,

This is the First Class end of the carriage ... I imagine that you got upholstery in the 1st Class section

[Rachel]

Most old railway carriages had a far less glamorous end as with this old one which ended up as a ramshackled office on an ex-railway coal yard. Apologies for the awful quality. It was scanned from a print many many years ago.

[Rachel]

Or they might have stayed on the rails and become engineers/departmental stock like this old LNER carriage now a mess and tool van ...

[Rachel]

Or if they were especially glamorous they might have ended up in a luxury train like these two, I think, part of The Royal Highlander at Inverness station ...

[Stephen]

Similar coach to the grounded one, the one in the shot has been restored and in London Transport collection.



Stephen

[Rachel]

Thanks Stephen. There is a good number of restored carriages to be seen about these days. They've always played second fiddle to the locomotives but I find them just as interesting.

[SidW]

Fascinating pictures Rachel, especially the sequel. The locomotive restorers had to start saving rolling stock as well, if they wanted the public to come and ride.

[Rachel]

Thanks Sid.