Progress update December 2021

The LNER Coach Fund team engaged on this GWR-based project reckon it’s time for another update, such

is the progress being made. Work continues in the bar area, with the walls panelled in the style of the old

‘Clapham Buffet’ car which used to reside on the SVR courtesy of the National Collection. The actual bar

counter position is marked out on the walls while thought is being given to its detailed design. The team were

pleased to welcome some members of the SVR Bar Staff who were able to offer some extremely useful

advice on how it should be done. While the miniature kitchen area is currently being used as a tools store as

work progresses, we nevertheless look forward to another visit when the Bar Staff can advise on that area

too!

In the saloon area, at the other end of the coach, the pictures and their surrounding frames and panels are

fitted up. These pictures are GWR carriage photographs from the turn of the 20th century and one shows

Dawlish station with single track and Victorian looking bathing machines on the beach, while another photo

shows what we believe may be an Edwardian Royal Yacht at Stonehouse near Plymouth, and we are very

grateful to the GW(SVR)A for help with these. Below the carriage waistline in this saloon we have fitted large

wooden panels stained and highly varnished to match the panels above, and superb they look too. The LNER

team is very broad minded in sourcing materials and in fact these sapele panels came from LMS coach No.

13045, sister to No. 2300 in the regular LMS set, which was broken up for spares. With today’s volunteer

skills that coach could have been saved as well but, alas, that is speaking with hindsight.

The steam heating equipment, consisting of a series of inter-connected large diameter pipes running the

length of the saloons at floor level, was sourced from the famous ‘Might Come in Useful’ stores in the

carriage works at Kidderminster. These pipes have been installed using newly made steel brackets and the

job currently under way is fitting the covers over them to make them look a bit tidier. These covers were also

unearthed as a jumbled heap in that invaluable Kidderminster stores and were overhauled and tidied up as a

Covid homework project by one of our volunteers, while some elegant wooden tapered ends have now been

made and fitted, profiled to deflect impacts from passing wheelchairs, Henry vacuum cleaners and the like.

These wooden covers, with brass vents, were thought to come from another long lost LMS vehicle - all grist

to the mill to this team – so you may imagine our delight when it was subsequently discovered that in fact they

had come more appropriately from various GWR Dining Cars!

Another job currently being tackled is the communication cord. Appropriate hand-pockets, where the famous

red chain may be pulled with a penalty of £5 for improper use, were obtained from Kidderminster, while

wooden covers running the length of the coach are being made from scratch.

We are most grateful to a generous sponsor who has come forward with funds for the seat ends.

Unfortunately no drawing for these could be found so we have resorted to ‘guestimating’ the shape from

published photographs, re-engineered to suit disabled users. We are extremely pleased with the appearance

of the first trial prototype.

The vehicle end doors have been fitted and are hinged, in place of the GWR heavy and cumbersome curved

sliding type, which will make for easier use by passengers. Finally the electrical circuits are being installed

and some of the lights are now fully working, powered from a shore supply and controlled through the proper

working switchgear.

We are encouraged that the vehicle is really starting to take shape, with light most definitely visible at the end

of a long tunnel. A big ‘Thank You’ to all who have contributed or helped in any way, not least in conserving

those myriad useful spares at Kidderminster, which have saved an absolute fortune!

SM 19/11/2021