Carriage 2060

Carriage 2060
	At Rhyd Ddu
Type	Corridor Third
Seating	36 x 3rd
Home Railway	WHR
Status	In service
History
Built by	Romanian Co. & FR Co.
Built	Rebuilt 2007 - 2009
Technical
Length	40 ft 11 in
Frames	Steel
	Carriages

Carriage 2060 is an all third saloon carriage operating on the Welsh Highland Railway.

Background[edit]

This carriage was acquired from Romania and underwent refurbishment there before its transport to the UK and delivery to Boston Lodge on 19 April 2007. Funding for this coach was from the FR Trust, and included part of a grant from the Welsh Tourist Board (now called "Visit Wales").

At the same time as carriages 2043 - 2045 were being built at Boston Lodge, a fourth carriage of different design was on its way. No. 2060 is a steel-bodied saloon of a type common in Central and Eastern Europe, and is understood to have been used previously on the 760mm gauge Turda-Abrud line in Romania. It is one of four recovered in scrap condition from there a few years ago; a similar carriage was refurbished in Romania for a line in Germany. A picture seen on an appeal page, did not show no. 2060, but a similar carriage refurbished in Romania for a line in Germany, with FR/WHR livery added digitally.

It was supplied by a contractor in Brad, Romania, as an overhauled shell on regauged bogies and with standard F&WHR couplings. It was externally complete but internally fitted only with a floor and internal timber fixing studs. It came equipped with vacuum brakes and corridor fall plates. The roller bearing bogies are similar to those on the Romanian ballast hopper No. 4023 which was acquired around the same time.

The FR Co. provided some parts of the brake kit, to enable completion of the running gear, and some paint in the required colours. Provision was made for standard WHR corridor connections and the same type of Eberspacher heater fitted to other WHR carriages. Seating, electrics and interior panelling (in a similar style to the locally-built saloons) was added at Boston Lodge.

Because the carriage is too high to pass through Rhiw Plas bridge, it was unloaded by a crane on to the FR mainline at Bron Madog, immediately on the Porthmadog side of the bridge.

After completion of the work at Boston Lodge 2060 was transferred to Dinas as part of the first through train over the completed WHR on 12th March 09.

In May 2017 2060 was back in the carriage works at Boston Lodge for some attention, it was back in service on the 1st of July.