Buffet Car
A Buffet Car service was first introduced on the Festiniog Railway in 1957, although a service had previously been tried on the Welsh Highland Railway in the late 1920s. The first FR buffet car was created when Carriage 12 was fitted with a counter for use as a mobile refreshment compartment. It was followed by Carriage 14 which entered service at Easter 1963, see FR Magazine No. 21 page 18 for a description of the service available. That was the year when draught beer started in FR buffet cars for in that year both Carriage 14 and newly rebuilt and extended Carriage 12 were fitted with draught "Tankard". At that time passengers in the buffet car were issued with specially printed souvenir menus, for which a supplementary charge of sixpence (old money) was made.
Since then the buffet service has been significantly expanded and is now available throughout the corridor connected part of the train. New buffet cars have been constructed to offer an ever increasing level of service in order to meet the expectations of the modern passenger. The latest buffet cars are in the form of service cars which combine them with the guard's van.
List of buffet cars[edit]
Original WHR[edit]
- Carriage 23 - Rebuilt as a buffet car 1927, buffet removed 1929.
FR[edit]
- Van 5 formerly Carriage 12 - buffet facilities removed 2014
- Carriage 14 - buffet facilities no longer used in normal service
- Carriage 103 (1968) - withdrawn 2006
- Carriage 114 - buffet third - currently the only pure buffet in normal service.
- Carriage 124 - buffet provided as part of the Service Car concept.
- Carriage 125 - buffet provided as part of the Service Car concept.
Modern WHR[edit]
- Carriage 2010 - buffet provided as part of the Service Car concept.
- Carriage 2011 - buffet provided as part of the Service Car concept.