‘Lost’ third GWR Victorian sleeping car is rediscovered
WHEN one of the West Somerset Railway charities, the Steam Trust (now the WSR Heritage Trust) started a 20-year restoration of its GWR Victorian sleeping car No. 9038 back in the 1980s for display in the Gauge Museum at Bishops Lydeard, members knew that just three cars were originally built by the GWR at Swindon in 1897 as Lot No. 787 to serve on the PaddingtonFishguard service during the early 20th century.
Indeed, a second coach, No. 9039, was removed from Aberporth in Wales by the Great Western Society around the same time – both coaches having originally being used to form two properties. The second coach was in such poor condition that the decision was made to just offer it as parts for No. 9038 instead.
However, nobody knew the whereabouts of the third coach, No. 9037, and assumed it had been dismantled.
House’s secret
That mystery has now been resolved following a discovery by a couple who bought an old house near Helston, on the Cornish coast. Paul Rice and Sally Pentreath knew it had an old sleeping carriage at its core, with a later extension built around it. Their intention was to build a completely new home on the site but they wanted to ensure that the original coach was saved, if there was interest from the railway community.
When the owners reached out to some local enthusiasts, word spread to the WSR – and it was quickly established that it was likely to be the long-lost sister coach of No. 9038. Since the bungalow was due to be demolished very soon, a team from the WSR formed to make an inspection, with the willing cooperation of the new owners.
Investigations confirmed that the carriage was indeed No. 9037, originally built as a First Class Clerestory Roofed Sleeper and given the number 241, alongside sister coaches Nos. 242 and 243. It was renumbered to 9037 in 1907 and finally withdrawn in 1937. It is believed to have been moved to the current site in Cornwall shortly afterwards, apparently using Marazion as a staging point and needing six horses to pull it up a steep hill to the current location.
The new owners kindly agreed to allow the WSR team extra time to assess the state of the carriage and examine the potential to move it as a whole unit.
It became apparent that the whole of one side of the carriage had been removed as part of an extension to the living space by a previous owner, so it was hard to justify a complete extraction of the unit.
Sectioned for display
After some consideration, a decision was taken to try and remove a section of the coach and transport it to the WSR for potential display alongside sister No. 9038, to show visitors a ‘behind the scenes’ view of how the carriages were manufactured back in Victorian times. There was also the potential to demonstrate to visitors a ‘before and after’ aspect of No. 9038’s original restoration.
With the help of the owner’s local contractors, the section of the coach was removed from the site on May 12 and transported to a lorry at the nearest road access half a mile away.
It was then moved overnight to the Heritage Trust’s Williton carriage restoration site, ready to be prepared for display in a future extension of the Gauge Museum, hopefully to be ready next year.
The whole exercise was completed in less than a month from the time of the first visit.
No. 9038 can be seen in the WSRHT’s Gauge Museum at Bishops Lydeard, which is open on WSR running days.