Camping coaches

One use to which old coaches were put was as camping coaches at stations close to beauty spots or holiday destinations. The idea was launched by the London & North Eastern Railway in 1933 and spread to the rest of the ‘Big Four’. In order for these to be marketed more easily, there needed to be a degree of standardisation in both the layout and the facilities, even if the vehicles in which they were housed differed widely. The concept was to provide for cheap holidays which encouraged the use of the railway, as travel by train to the adjacent station was part of the deal.

In terms of facilities, a clue lies in the use of the word ‘camping’. A camping coach was little more than a more spacious and durable tent. It was more weatherproof than a tent, which was certainly a consideration for holidays in the UK but otherwise the facilities were minimal. Toilets would be available in the adjacent station and there might be camping gas cooking facilities. Otherwise, beds, chairs and a basic table were about all that would be expected. Water supply might be by a hose from the nearby station or railway house or, in cases such as Stogumber on the Minehead branch, it would be from a six-wheel former milk tank wagon stabled adjacent to the camping coach.

The camping coach would usually be placed on a little-used siding away from any frequent railway activity. It would be maintained in basic running order so that it could be moved away to the Carriage Works in the off-season to be serviced, repainted and updated for the next year. However, camping coaches did not always return to the same location year after year. More popular locations might well receive a better vehicle or one with more accommodation if the demand was there.

Nor should camping coaches be confused with the somewhat superior ‘Holiday Coaches’ produced from out-of-service Pullman cars from 1952. These were a BR development mainly in south-east England, probably because Pullman cars were overhauled at Brighton. The peak of camping and holiday coach provision was in 1962 when 223 vehicles were scattered across the BR network.

The writing was already on the wall, however, because foreign holidays were becoming ever more affordable and popular, while closures of stations and branch lines reduced the number of camping coach sites and the access to them. Then, just a year after that peak, the Beeching report brought camping coaches to an end as most of their locations were wiped off the railway map.

It has to be said that in recent years with internet sites offering cheap ways to advertise availability, the camping coach has made a slightly more upmarket return. Privately owned

and operated sites with available space have acquired Mk 1 and Mk 2 coaches to provide novel bed and breakfast accommodation. Perhaps the longest established and best known is the former Petworth station in Sussex, where half a dozen Pullman cars provide B&B accommodation. A couple of these Pullmans once did the same duty for BR at Marazion station in the far west of Cornwall.

Above: A six-wheeler, one of a dozen London Chatham & Dover Railway coaches converted in 1934, at Combpyne on the Axminster-lyme Regis branch. Built in the 1890s, it was finally disposed of after camping coach duty, in 1953. This little station had minimal facilities and a bare platform but a hose to the coach suggests that it had water supply, while the tank under one end may have contained gas. All other pictures of this site that I have seen show bogie coaches and date from its final decade of operation. CJL COLLECTION A BR camping coach brochure which gives a clue to the Spartan interior that could be expected.