Bala Lake acquires Statfold L&B carriages
THE STATFOLD Barn Railway has donated its four Lynton & Barnstaple Railway-style carriages to the Bala Lake Railway.
Originally built by Alan Keef Ltd in the early 1990s as part of a batch of eight vehicles for use on the Thorpe Park railway, five were subsequently acquired by the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway, while the remaining three went to the Lynbarn Railway at Milky Way near Clovelly in 1994/5. Four of the L&BR’s carriages were rebuilt as five-compartment enclosed coaches, and were the railway’s main passenger carriages from 2004 until 2013. Rendered surplus to requirements by the arrival of the North Devon line’s authentic, replicated L&BR carriages, the four Alan Keef vehicles were sold to Statfold Barn in May 2014.
The four carriages donated to the BLR are No. 517 (a Third Class brake composite with a First Class compartment), all-Third Class Nos. 518 and 519, and No. 520 – a Brake Third with guard’s compartment. The vehicles are expected to enter service on the BLR in the 2024 season.
BLR Trust chairman Julian Birley said: “This is an incredible boost to the railway and its future plans of extending into Bala. This now gives the railway three rakes of four coaches, giving a greater capacity to entertain the increased number of passengers expected when the centre of the town is reached.
“With the long, drawn-out negotiations that have been ongoing in applying for planning permission from the Snowdonia National Park, it is great to see something actually associated with railways coming to the fore rather than dealing with subjects as mundane as sewage treatment works and phosphate discharges into the river. We are indebted to Graham Lee at Statfold Barn, and look forward to seeing him riding in them on our railway.”