Carriage Renumbering Guide
A potential cause of confusion to users of this wiki is the fact that since 1836, over time, there have been a number of renumberings among the fleets of both carriages and vans, and even railways.
For the beginner, we have:-
- from 1836, the Festiniog Railway,
- from 1870s, the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways,
- from 1923, the original Welsh Highland,
- from 1970s, the WHR Ltd, and
- from 1997, WHR(C).
Within each of these, there have been number series for passenger vehicles, and non passenger vehicles, and even then, there has been renumbering for various reasons, within these sequences.
Although there were separate series for carriages and vans before 1946, from 1955 a unified numbering series including both was adopted. The modern era Centenary stock bogie carriage emerged before the designation of the "100 series" was commenced in 1967.
By 1996 it had become clear that the carriage numbers taken up by vans should be vacated to make way for new and future replica four-wheel carriages, and as a result a separate van series was reintroduced. This has meant that most vehicles have now reverted to their pre-preservation numbers.
The table below is intended as a point of reference so that the wiki user can locate any vehicle that has been renumbered (or whose number has been used more than once) in the preservation era. It is, admittedly, incomplete.
| Number | Notes | Pre-preservation number |
|---|---|---|
| Van 1 (1st) | No longer exists | Van 6* |
| Van 1 (2nd) | Now Van 51 | |
| Van 1 (3rd) | Replica of old No.1 Van. Now Van 7 | |
| Van 1 (4th) | Replica curly roofed van | |
| Carriage 1 | Replica "zoo car". Previously Carriage 9 | |
| Van 2 (1st) | Now Van 6 | Van 8* |
| Van 2 (2nd) | Previously Carriage 10, now Van 10 | Van 2 |
| Carriage 2 | Previously Carriage 6 | Carriage 2 |
| Carriage 3 | "Small Birmingham" | Carriage 3 |
| Van 4 | Previously Carriage 11, now Van 11 | Van 4 |
| Carriage 4 | "Small Birmingham" | Carriage 4 |
| Van 5 | Previously Carriage 12 (1st), now Van 12 | Van 5 |
| Carriage 5 | "Small Birmingham" | Carriage 5 |
| Van 6 | Previously Van 2 (1st) | Van 6 |
| Carriage 6 | Now Carriage 2 | Carriage 2 |
| Van 7 | Replica of Van 1 (1st) | |
| Carriage 7 | "Flying bench". Now officially Carriage 12 but this number not carried | Carriage 12 |
| Carriage 9 | Replica "zoo car". Now Carriage 1 | |
| Carriage 10 (1st) | Became Van 2 then Van 10 | Van 2 |
| Carriage 10 (2nd) | Entered FR Service 2007 | |
| Van 10 | Previously Van 2, before that Carriage 10 (1st) | Van 2 |
| Carriage 11 (1st) | Became Van 4, now Van 11 | Van 4 |
| Carriage 11 (2nd) | Was Carriage 7 | Carriage 12 |
| Van 11 | Was Van 4, previously Carriage 11 (1st) | Van 4 |
| Carriage 12 (1st) | Became Van 5, now Van 12 | Van 5 |
| Carriage 12 (2nd) | "Flying bench". Number officially allocated but changed to 11 before application. | Carriage 12 |
| Carriage 12 (3rd) | Replica porthole bugbox | |
| Van 12 | Was Van 5, previously Carriage 12 (1st) | Van 5 |
| Carriage 24 (1st) | Now Carriage 104 | |
| Carriage 24 (2nd) | Replica NWNGR summer coach WHR(C) | |
| Carriage 25 (1st) | Allocated (but never carried in service) to current Carriage 105 | |
| Carriage 25 (2nd) | Number allocated to a rebuild of NWNGR No.9 by WHRL | |
| Van 51 | Previously Carriage 1 (2nd) | - |
| Carriage 100 (1st) | Became Carriage 1000 in Works fleet from 2005-2010 then scrapped | - |
| Carriage 100 (2nd) | Entered FR service 2007 | - |
| Carriage 101 | Became Carriage 123 then reverted to Carriage 101 | - |
* There is some confusion about the pre-preservation numbering of these vans. The article in Heritage Group Journal 82 has the first Van 2 in preservation as Van 8 after 1940 and Van 5 before that. However in the 1989 guide book, it is stated that Van 2 was originally Van 6 (or Van 8 after 1940). This would suggest that the first Van 1 of the preservation era had been Van 5 in pre-preservation days............