New home urgently required for two historic LSWR dining cars

AN URGENT appeal for a new home for LSWR dining cars Nos. 70 and 76 has been made after the owner was given notice to remove them from the Pontypool & Blaenavon Railway by June 30.

The pair – long-term restoration projects which are mobile on their own wheels and fitted with goods van-type working brakes – have been in South Wales since 1993.

They are owned by Blaenavon enthusiast Captain Charles James MBE, who said the heritage line will charge him a £300 monthly rental to keep them at their current location from July. Both are being offered free of charge to any new owner.

The pair, both built at Eastleigh, are said to be the oldest survivors of their type still on wheels. Some restoration has been carried out, and both are stored under tarpaulins.

No. 70 was built in 1907 as a clerestory-roofed restaurant composite and was renumbered 4132 by the Southern, which removed the clerestory and made several alterations to the internal layout in 1931. During the Second World War, it was commandeered by the army and converted to an ambulance car for use in casualty evacuation trains, based at Netley, near Southampton. Later transferred to the Longmoor Military Railway and converted to a cinema coach, it was bought by the Mid-Hants Railway (MHR) in 1978 and sold on to a private individual in 1993.

Origin

No. 76 was part of a train which carried passengers bound for the Titanic from Waterloo to Southampton in April 1912. It became No. 4138 under Southern ownership and in 1931 underwent similar alterations to those carried out on No. 70.

It too entered military service during the Second World War Two and was part of a train used to carry soldiers evacuated from Dunkirk to Dover to collecting centres all over the south and Midlands.

After 1943, it was used by the USA Transportation Corps and based at Netley. After the conflict, it was converted to a breakdown coach. In 1969 it was transferred to MoD Bicester, where it was used as a ferry vehicle, and in 1977 was also bought by the MHR, where it became a support coach for the S15 Locomotive Group. The same buyer acquired it in 1993.

Both were bought by Charles in 2000, and he sold No. 70 to fellow enthusiast John Down in 2002. John passed away in 2010, and Charles inherited the coach.

Charles was told the coaches will be scrapped if not moved, but he is no longer fit enough to continue their restoration. He said: “They are far too good to be burned or cut up, and are still mobile and transportable.”

➜ To offer the coaches a new home, contact

Heritage Railway at rjones@mortons.co.uk or write to editor Robin Jones at: Heritage Railway, Mortons Ltd, Horncastle, Lincolnshire, LN9 6JR.