Were there ever any special prisoner carriages used in Britain?

I'm just watching an old Dirk Bogarde film (Desperate Moment) and it appears they had these in Germany. I know Russia still uses them today.

Dartmoor Prison had a 10 mile spur built to it. So I was just wondering.

 

https://flic.kr/p/29Zu17u

Peterhead prison wagon still exists.

Switzerland still has, or had until recently, a couple of carriages used to move prisoners around.

 

It was not solely for Dartmoor prison. It was a GWR branch line.

 

Improbably, the Belgian Vicinal had some.

 

A preserved one.
A carriage used to convey prisoners from Peterhead Prison to the Stirlinghill Quarry at Boddam.

 

That seems to be prison to work site rather than court to prison.

I don't know how representative it is but fictional examples: Fletcher in the opening scenes in Porridge is transported by train, Terminus features a prison transport (although they were actors playing prisoners). A concrete example: Oscar Wilde was transported by the sounds of it by a regular train from Wandsworth (?) to Reading Gaol.

"On November 13th, 1895, I was brought down here from London. From two o’clock till half-past two on that day I had to stand on the centre platform of Clapham Junction in convict dress, and handcuffed, for the world to look at. I had been taken out of the hospital ward without a moment’s notice being given to me. Of all possible objects I was the most grotesque. When people saw me they laughed. Each train as it came up swelled the audience. Nothing could exceed their amusement. That was, of course, before they knew who I was. As soon as they had been informed they laughed still more. For half an hour I stood there in the grey November rain surrounded by a jeering mob."

http://www.wilde-online.info/de-profundis-page24.html

 

During my BTP years I was involved in several prisoner escorts, usually to return people to court after they had skipped bail awaiting trial. Where possible it was always done in a reserved compartment. The longest one involved travelling to Scotland from London on an overnight sleeper to bring back a prisoner who had been found and arrested in Ayr.

 

The Home Office would have been able to reserve compartments on regular services. How many prisoners would actually have needed moving as most cities had a large prison and there were cells in a lot of police stations for short sentences is another matter The increase in recent times in the prison population is quite depressing and far exceeds the equivalent general increase in population numbers.

https://commonslibrary.parliament.u...on of England,Northern Ireland begins in 2000.


The film Terminus has a scene of prisoners being moved in a compartment from Waterloo ( 14'50 to 17'20 )

https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-terminus-1961-online

 

Directed by John Schlesinger. How interesting.

 

Terminus won a BAFTA award and is Schlesinger's only British Transport Film which is a shame: I wonder what happened to him afterwards.........

 

There is this picture of Timothy Evans clearly being moved by train



Edit, he is being taken back from South Wales to London prior to his trial

 

Apparently, the 'prisoners' in the film 'Terminus' were actors!

 

Quite a lot of people involved in terminus were actors. I think most of the speaking roles were actors.

 

Beamish have a "convict van" which has cells in one end - I am not sure whether it is a genuine set up or a wagon converted for the fun of visitors?

 

Noticed prisoners being transported in a regular service train back in early 60s ...was spotting at Salisbury and couple of times saw them in the front carriage of the down ACE , presumably heading for Dartmoor , lots of constables around on train and platform .

 

Maybe Exeter Prison.

 

Vividly portrayed in The Happy Prince (2018) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2404639/.

Patrick

 

Not in Britain but until 1996 prisoners were transported on the Italian railway network in special coaches. One has been preserved and I have even been locked in one of the cells...
http://www.museoferroviariopiemontese.it/carrozza-per-trasporto-detenuti-tipo-1934-kt-48405/

I have often been on planes with prisoner transfers and they are quite interesting to observe. It will depend on the specific case but the prison van is driven onto the ramp, sometimes with a couple of Carabinieri cars as escort. The party boards through the rear steps usually 10-15 minutes before boarding. Always sat in the last row and normally at least the row in front of them is empty. Sometimes there is just one officer handcuffed to the transportee. At Naples airport this all goes on right in front of the windows for departures. Being raised up you get an excellent view!
Boarding is done normally and you would not notice anything unless you had seen them arrive. Sometimes the officers are in uniform but not always. I usually select a seat right at the back as it’s quicker to get off in Turin as both doors are used and a bus to the terminal, so I have sat opposite these escorted trips on quite a few occasions. Once normal passengers have disembarked the secure van is brought to the rear stairs and the ‘interesting’ passengers leave.
One exciting occasion there were two vans with four heavily armed escort cars for two prisoners. Taking off to the West from Naples takes you over some pretty ‘fruity’ areas for organised crime and you just hope that the passengers are not informants that the men with violin cases want to silence at any cost!!
That big movement was over 10 years ago now and I have not flown on a commercial flight for over 14 months now for obvious reasons. Last time I saw this was probably 18 months ago, all very low key.

 

British Rail issue instructions (I think it was in a copy of the ticket examiners handbook, I have a copy which I can not find at present!). That prisoners on H.S.T.'s where to be transported in the seating bay nearest the guards office in the T.G.S. (Trailer Guards Second/Standard) vehicles. I suppose the reasons for this where these seats where furthest from the public access doors and that only the guard would have access beyond that point!

 

When the 4Cep electric units were refurbished, most of the former 2nd class compartments were converted to open saloon layout, but one compartment was retained, which I understood was so that it could be reserved for prisoners and escorts.