Karl Hewlett
Regards
Karl (Now with an operational laptop!) Thanks Karl
with the 50th Anniversary of the Closure of the North Cornwall Line
Roger Winnen
The late running Night Riviera.
By Mick House.
When the train passed me on Apex Bridge I noticed that one of the doors on a sleeper coach at the rear of the train had bright yellow tape on it suggesting an incident on route had occurred, unfortunately the train had passed before I could photograph it, I did get a shot of her heading towards me.
She finally arrived at Penzance 54 minutes late at 08.46, so if anybody is about to get a photo of the door and or more details of the incident, we will add to the website.
By Mick House.
John Cornelius
- special interest
Mike Morant / Neil Phillips
The two ‘proper’ chocolate & cream BCKs were remarkable vehicles, one with a Cornish connection. They were outshopped by Swindon in 1948 in full GWR livery and used as brake and support coaches for the Royal Train, with the occasional run to special events such as the Newbury Races, being kept under cover at Old Oak Common when not in use. In 1957 they were fully repainted into the similar but simpler BR(WR) chocolate & cream livery (without BR roundels in this case) and continued in such use until eventually released to normal traffic in the early-mid 1960s, one further prestige duty being brake vehicles for the South Wales Pullman substitute set. They were withdrawn in late 1965 without ever carrying carmine & cream or maroon liveries like the rest of the Hawksworth coach fleet. Both went into preservation, 7372 ending up with GWR saddle tank 1363 at Bodmin General for many years (at least the GWS didn’t have to repaint it!) – both are still together at Didcot, while 7377 is at Buckfastleigh.
For b&w photos of the last slip coach working with W7374W and a great colour shot of the two ex-Royal BCKs together in normal service at Newport in 1965 visit this interesting website: http://www.robertdarlaston.co.uk and scroll down the ‘Railways 50years ago’ and ‘Railways5’ sections respectively.
Best regards,
Neil Phillips
(PS Not bad for a diesel enthusiast, eh?! I happen to have latched onto this subject at the beginning of this year when I saw a b&w photo of one of the ex-Royal vehicles leading the South Wales Pullman at Cardiff in 1965 and couldn’t figure out what two-tone livery it could have been in as late as 1965. Internet searches proved surprising…..I had no idea 1363’s companion at Bodmin General was so ‘well-connected’!!)
Well done Neil -many thanks and of course many thanks to Mike for the picture from his large collection.