Carriage 113
| Carriage 113 | |
|---|---|
 At Caernarfon | |
| Type | Corridor Brake Third Toilet |
| Seating | 15 x 3rd |
| Home Railway | FR |
| Status | Operational |
| History | |
| Built by | Carnforth Railway Restoration & Engineering Services |
| Built | 1991 |
| 2003-2008 | On WHR as buffet vehicle |
| 2018 | Rebuilt as brake coach |
| Technical | |
| Length | 35 ft 8 in |
| Frames | Steel |
| Carriages | |
Carriage 113 is a brake third carriage with a toilet in the Carnforth series.
Background[edit]
An aluminium bodied coach mounted on Pattern 88 bogies, and heating. Built by Carnforth Railway Restoration & Engineering Services, with running gear, electrical services, finishing and painting by Festiniog Railway Company at Boston Lodge. Financed under the INCA programme. As originally built 113 was a composite carriage with two first class compartments and no brake area, the same as sister carriage 112. The original seating capacity was 17 third and 8 first.
Originally shopped in the Push Pull livery of lined Green and Cream, in the early 2000s it was painted in unlined Red and Cream.
In 2003, 113 was sent to Welsh Highland Railway (Caernarfon) with 100 to form part of the F-set. The following winter it underwent major interior work when one compartment was converted to a buffet store and the interior panelling and floor covering were replaced.
It was cabled and plumbed for Push Pull operation but this was removed when the gas heating was removed and new heater fitted (see Carriage 114).
By November 2008 the carriage was back on FR metals, as it was surplus to requirements at Dinas thanks to the delivery of Carriage 2010 and (later on) Carriage 2100. No. 113 was spruced up in the carriage works before returning to service on the FR in February 2009. This included re-instating the missing first class compartment and giving the carriage a touch up and varnish. While in the carriage works, the interior was cleaned up.
113 was back in service on the WHR in 2013 due to high demand resulting in the need to strengthen the 2 WHR sets to 11 cars apiece. 113 remained on E-set until the end of the 2016 season, when it was displaced by the new Carriage 2047.
It was confirmed that the Carnforths would see a few more years of service in October 2015.
After being removed from E set 113 entered the carriage works at Boston Lodge to be refurbished. It re-entered service in May 2017, again on the WHR, in F-set taking the place of 2060 which had itself entered the carriage works for attention. At this time, alongside the other corridor composites, the first class was downgraded. The seats remained as before but the doors were removed from the compartments and the first stickers removed from the windows.
By the summer of 2017 work on 2060 was complete and 113 was back on the FR. In autumn 2018 it was back in the carriage works for conversion to a brake vehicle. The bottom compartment was removed, and the space used to create a guard's area fitted with a setter and handbrake, whilst the remaining compartment was converted to a lavatory. This enables it to operate with observation carriage 100 (which has no guard's compartment under the Service Car principle) and buffet carriage 114 in the FR's third carriage set.[1] The work was largely done by volunteers. The opportunity was also being taken to rewire the carriage with LED lighting and to revise the seating layout to create an improved wheelchair space.[2][3] The work was completed in early 2019 with the carriage re-entering service at Easter.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ "Carriage Works", Ffestiniog Railway Magazine, Issue 239 (2017), page(s): 807
- ^ Moving Pictures, Seventeen - 17/4/18
- ^ "Carriage Works", Ffestiniog Railway Magazine, Issue 243 (2018), page(s): 175