‘Birdcage’ restoration is set to recreate lost IoW carriage type
A LOST Isle of Wight carriage type is to be recreated with the movement of a South Eastern & Chatham Railway ‘Birdcage' coach to the island for restoration.
The Kent & East Sussex Railway has sold the Brake Composite carriage No. 1106 to the Isle of Wight Steam Railway for a nominal sum, with the IoWSR undertaking to restore it to passenger service.
Built in December 1910, it formed part of a three-coach set which the Southern Railway sold to the Longmoor Military Railway in 1943, the centre (composite lavatory) coach being damaged and scrapped around 1955.
Following the LMR's closure in 1969, the two brake vehicles were sold to the KESR, arriving at Robertsbridge by rail in September 1970. After being used for a few years, No. 1106 was placed in storage and fell into a derelict state, although it retains its original underframe.
However, sister vehicle No. 1100 has been fully restored to original condition and remains in service on the KESR.
Although it never ran on the Isle of Wight, several coaches from the same batch were converted at Lancing Works in 1948/49 to replace older carriages on the island.
IoWSR trustee and special projects director Nick Felton, who was involved in negotiating the deal, said: “We only use carriages that have a specific relevance to the railways of the Isle of Wight. Carriage No. 1106 has long been on our wish list as being one of the few mainland-based vehicles that are compliant with our policy and which we considered might be both available and suitable to supplement our fleet.”
Details of its restoration are still to be decided by the IoWSR board, but one possibility is to convert the brake compartment to 1½ passenger compartments, giving 8½ passenger compartments in all. Nick explained: “If this option is chosen, it would enable us to recreate a vehicle similar to a type that we were unable to save in 1967.”
It was delivered to Havenstreet in October by Reid Freight, with the return load being one of the two carriages of the Island Line's 1938 tube train No. 483006, which has moved to the Llanelli & Mynydd Mawr Railway (see main story).