Rolling Stock Department
Coaches
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All of our coaches are standard British Railways designs and they fall in to two main groups;
Mark 1 coaches
These coaches were the first 'standard' design of coach built by British Railways from 1951 to 1963. Though designed to be of one length with standard fittings the internal layouts were very much dictated by the demands of the railway regions ordering the coaches. For example, the Southern Region needed to move large numbers of people during the summer holiday periods so looked for open coaches that could seat the maximum number of people. But the Eastern and North eastern regions favoured more traditional and comfortable compartment coaches for its long haul services to Scotland.
Our coaches are a mix of these types and hopefully reflect the broad range of designs built.
Examples of Mark 1 coaches within the EOR fleet, include 5005 (pictured above), which is a tourist second open ("TSO") in BR blue and grey. These have 64 seats, with 4 seats round a table on either side of the corridor.
Other examples in the fleet include 4809, this is a second open ("SO") coach, which has 4 seats on one side and 2 seats on the other (48 seats). The seats are slightly wider, and are ideal for families with small children.
We are also delighted to have W 16237 within our fleet which is a composite corridor ("CK"), which has 7 individual bays, some first class, some second class, each with long seats either side of the compartment. These compartments are both ideal for families and groups travelling together, as well as reminding many of us the type of coaches that were once common when travelling in the Eastern Region of BR.
Mark 2 coaches
The mark 2 coach was the next batch of standard coaches built by British Rail between 1963 and 1975. They were designed to be stronger and more standardised than the previous mark 1 fleet. Built over a long period of time they managed to rack up many sub classes from A to F all with slight improvements on the previous design.
We currently have coaches representing marks 2a, 2e and 2f within our fleet.
Examples include W5181 (pictured above) and W5136, which are both tourist second opens (TSO), and have vacuum brakes and steam heating, so ideal to work with steam locomotives.