Talyllyn Railway Carriage 21

The Talyllyn Railways carriage 21 left Wharf Station on26 October 2011 on its way to Boston Lodge for heavy repairs to the timber bodywork.

Pictures at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/preswylfa/sets/72157627859774819/

 

And arrived safely...

 

Obviously appearance can be deceptive and a paint of coat can hide many things but for a carriage that needs heavy repairs it looks in good order. I just wish some standard gauge lines kept their coaching stock looking as good when nearing an overhaul

 

A couple of decades ago this sort of thing was done "in house" at Pendre as a matter of course. Either the TR has got rich, or there is a lack of suitably skilled volunteers - I suspect the latter!

 

It's both really. We have the money to do it but not at the same time as doing heavy overhauls on other coaches but the point has been reached where 21 needs a new body and we can't have too many coaches out of service too often. Most of our coaching stock is used quite extensively throughout the season.

 

Quite funny to see a 2' gauge TR coach! I assume those are accommodation bogies...

Foxy

 

Boston Lodge carriage works has superlative skills as witness the W&LLR Pickering replicas and the various rebuild/replicas for F.R. use. Good on the T.R. for helping to keep this centre of excellence in existence.

 

If it needs a new body, going to Boston Lodge makes sense (the OP mentioned "heavy repairs"). I remember helping the gang off-load the similar no. 20 at Wharf, newly delivered from Raymond Tisdale of Kenilworth. It was in 1969, so 42 years isn't bad - was it really that long ago? :-(

ISTR that the end framing of the new "standard" TR coaches was designed to allow for the optional fitting of corridor connections at some point in the future. This was never seriously pursued because through corridors would have reduced the seating capacity of each coach. The run-round loops were (and are) restricted in length by the cramped sites at both termini, and this precluded running longer trains to make up the seating shortfall. It was also felt that "non-corridor" coaches were better suited to the TR's "character". Quite right IMHO, such things as corridors and buffet cars belonged further north!

The prototype (No 18) was built entirely at Pendre, and the design was loosely based on the two Glyn Valley Tramway 4-wheelers that the TR had recently rescued and restored. The need for new coaches was urgent and it would take too long to build them by volunteers at Pendre, so the bodies were built commercially (by Tisdales) on Pendre-built underfames and bogies - the coaches being fitted-out at the TR. The design was amended in some respects to suit commercial construction - the most obvious difference is the lack of panelling above the windows on the production series. AIUI Tisdales went on build the similar looking (but much smaller) coaches for the Llanberis Lake Railway.