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Description

The next set of coaches to emerge on Sodor were from Crovans Gate works. Reopened in 1915 to provide rolling stock to the NWR and maintain its engines, the former builders found itself challenged. Due to the slow speeds of the pre-grouping trains, 4 wheeler coaches had been considered good enough. Now with wartime speeds demanded, the 4 wheelers could not simply keep up. Thus a bogey design was necessary.

Sir Horace White and Topham Hatt approached the coach designer Matthew Bourneham, designer of the S&M 4 wheelers to make a new body. Using a bogey chassis of Midland design, Bourneham designed a series of 6 compartment coaches with metallic body and electric lighting and steam heating.

The War Department understandably refused the design as soon as they saw it due to the fact the design utilized metals and materials for electric lighting (Both required by the navy and army) and instead requisitioned 34 older wooden Midland coaches with gas lighting. The railway board was informed of this requisition on May 18th, 1915. Four days later, two expresses and a local train collided at Quintshill. The fire, fanned by the gas and wood of the ancient coaches, quickly slew over two hundred men. The War Department suddenly found the newly formed North Western Railway in a state of revolt at the coaches chosen.

The navy, the service that requested the NWR’s formation in the first place quickly stepped in to rectify the volatile situation by found enough metal and material for 20 coaches while the Midland coaches would be used on local services. The railway was assuaged and calmed down the press which was beginning to grow rebellious in its writings against the wooden coaches.

The coaches that were built performed brilliantly and the newly formed NWR quickly scrapped the older Midland Coaches and built more of the Crovans Gate design coaches. Over the next 30 years, the design prospered in NWR cream and green & cream and red.

By the mid 1950s, newly provided BR Mk1’s replaced the design for express runs and they prospered on local runs for some years until replacement by another Crovans Gate design.

Description

The next set of coaches to emerge on Sodor were from Crovans Gate works. Reopened in 1915 to provide rolling stock to the NWR and maintain its engines, the former builders found itself challenged. Due to the slow speeds of the pre-grouping trains, 4 wheeler coaches had been considered good enough. Now with wartime speeds demanded, the 4 wheelers could not simply keep up. Thus a bogey design was necessary.

Sir Horace White and Topham Hatt approached the coach designer Matthew Bourneham, designer of the S&M 4 wheelers to make a new body. Using a bogey chassis of Midland design, Bourneham designed a series of 6 compartment coaches with metallic body and electric lighting and steam heating.

The War Department understandably refused the design as soon as they saw it due to the fact the design utilized metals and materials for electric lighting (Both required by the navy and army) and instead requisitioned 34 older wooden Midland coaches with gas lighting. The railway board was informed of this requisition on May 18th, 1915. Four days later, two expresses and a local train collided at Quintshill. The fire, fanned by the gas and wood of the ancient coaches, quickly slew over two hundred men. The War Department suddenly found the newly formed North Western Railway in a state of revolt at the coaches chosen.

The navy, the service that requested the NWR’s formation in the first place quickly stepped in to rectify the volatile situation by found enough metal and material for 20 coaches while the Midland coaches would be used on local services. The railway was assuaged and calmed down the press which was beginning to grow rebellious in its writings against the wooden coaches.

The coaches that were built performed brilliantly and the newly formed NWR quickly scrapped the older Midland Coaches and built more of the Crovans Gate design coaches. Over the next 30 years, the design prospered in NWR cream and green & cream and red.

By the mid 1950s, newly provided BR Mk1’s replaced the design for express runs and they prospered on local runs for some years until replacement by another Crovans Gate design.