Vintage Carriages

This chassis had been in store for many years at the Telford Steam Railway and has been acquired to aid the creation of a Vintage train at the ESR. 

Once restored, it will be able to support a vintage carriage body (see MR 1574). It is identical to the one under the body of MR 255, being also about 130 years old. Made of wood, with external steel flitch plates, it lacked all buffers and a draw hook. Brake equipment was damaged and has needed careful repair. Much of the timber was life expired and has been replaced. Restoration challenges like this have become less daunting over the years and there is a wealth of advice and assistance in the preservation movement. 

THE HOPCROFT COACH

We were made aware of two coach bodies being offered to ‘a good home’ for free  – one was Taff Vale and the other Midland. After contacting the owners, agreement was reached with the ESR that this Midland body would be perfect for the Midland chassis under restoration. Three of us went up to the Midlands  in early August to prepare the body for lifting. This involved taking out a fireplace, knocking down the attached chimney, clearing out a bath, toilet, handbasin and – literally – the kitchen sink. Haulage was arranged with local haulier, C. P. Duck or Evercreech, for the 29th August 2025.

The coach was built by The Midland Railway and sold as part of a batch of 8 in 1920 to the Brecon & Merthyr, becoming their No. 111. MR 255 was B&M No. 112. The Great Western Railway took over from the B&M in 1923 and renumbered it as 4317. Midland Railway No. 255 (see separate entry) was B&M No. 112 and Great Western Railway No. 4318. We have twins. We think the Midland number is 1574, but further investigation is needed to confirm this.

We are extremely grateful to Mr & Mrs Hopcroft – excellent hosts for our two trips and who are very pleased with the outcome. We have also encouraged another preserved railway to put their hands up for their Taff Vale Railway coach body.

There were two doors missing, but these were found under the coach body. The original owners must had have foresight. The body has been stored until such a time as it can be placed on the Midland chassis No. 5657 (see separate entry) hopefully early 2026.

THE RICHARD DAVIES COACH

This coach body was originally built in Manchester by Ashbury & Co. in 1896.

It was taken over by the Great Western in 1923, renumbered 544 and used for another 5 years, before being sold off at the end of 1928 for use as a holiday home in West Wales.

It was in Richard Davies’ family for 70 years before the holiday site was redeveloped and he generously donated it to the East Somerset Railway.

It is a 6 compartment 3rd Class coach with an unusual interior. The middle two compartments had solid full height partitions and we believe this was because they were designated for smoking. The outer pairs had only half height partitions, just to the top of the seat backs.

Once all the furniture, carpets and wiring had been stripped, we could see that it was in very good order structurally. The roof vents were dismantled and stored, to allow for a better tarpaulin to cover the body.       

It will need new pine boards to repair and remake the partitions. Some door furniture, seating and lighting will be necessary, and a re-canvas of the roof. It is fully glazed and – unlike many holiday homes – retains all its doors and original windows. Usually extra windows were cut into these bodies and doors altered or removed, sometimes to accommodate chimney breasts. This body just had two extensions attached, thus the vertical markings on the body side. 

In 1911, on the Taff Vale Railway a serious accident took place near Abercynon. It was known as the Coke Ovens accident and involved a passenger train and a goods train colliding.

Two of the carriages in that train, numbers 203 and 266 were recovered, with the bodies partially destroyed. Their chassis, however, were salvageable and were sent to two different manufacturers for replacement bodies to be added. No. 203 emerged from Gloucester Railway Carriage & Wagon works in 1912, as the prototype for the new high roof style of coaches of the TVR.

This combination of an Edwardian body on a Victorian chassis ran in the Welsh Valleys for another 16 years, before being pensioned by the Great Western Railway, who had subsumed the TVR in 1923. The chassis was presumably scrapped. But the body was sold to become living accommodation on a small holding south of Bath. It served this purpose for many years, before being downgraded to a cattle feed store. Its resting place was beside the Limpley Stoke to Hallatrow branch line, near Combe Hay. Many of you will have seen the 1950’s film that was made on this stretch of line, ‘The Titfield Thunderbolt’ (if you haven’t, it comes highly recommended for a ‘tea and crumpets’ afternoon on a drizzly day). In this film, the passenger accommodation was cobbled together from a low wagon carrying a coach body, borrowed from the person who lived in it. We like to think that TVR 205’s body could have been the inspiration for this.

In 1973, twenty or so years after this film was made, the coach body was discovered by a group of volunteers for the Somerset & Dorset preservation site in Radstock.

A plan was hatched to recover and restore this coach body. Work continued at Radstock until the project was forced to re-locate to the West Somerset Railway. Rather than move the coach there, the group, based in Bath, looked for a more easily accessible site and one was found in the goods yard of Frome Station. Following much research a suitable chassis was located at a Ministry of Defence site. A purchase was made of a Great Eastern Railway bogie coach chassis, complete with wood-centred Mansel Wheels – the type the coach would have had when complete. The chassis was rather too long for the coach, but help was at hand, as the wagon repair company, Marcroft, was still active in Radstock.

The chassis was taken to their works and was shortened accordingly. Concurrent with this, was our developing relationship with the Welsh Industrial & Maritime Museum’s director, Dr. Stuart Owen Jones. We exchanged research material and guided him to other Welsh origin coach bodies for his collection.

With the chassis complete, the body was moved once more, from Frome back to Radstock, and united with its new wheels. It was then transported over the Severn to its new home in Cardiff for further restoration. The three remaining owners were themselves undergoing life changing pressures – two were getting married and the third was moving to London. The coach was offered to and accepted by the Welsh Industrial & Maritime Museum, where it stayed for a number of years.

And then came Cardiff’s regeneration of the docks. The museum had to pack up and move almost everything into storage and that is where the coach has been ever since.

The National Museum Wales (as it is now called) have agreed to the ESR having this coach and to restore it, as they see no opportunity to do so themselves. It is due to arrive in early 2026.