News - K&ESR Launches Woolwich Coach
Press Release
The Kent & East Sussex Railway has launched its latest vintage carriage into service – after 40 years in the restoration queue. LMS four wheeler Brake third No. 7965 was built in 1911 at the L&NWR’s Wolverton Works for use on the North London line and was one of the last four wheelers built by an English railway. The coach, originally L&NWR No.109, ran in a fixed set in mainline service and first appeared on the Richmond – Broad Street service. It moved to the Potters Bar – Alexandra Palace line in late 1916 and the Broad Street Poplar service in 1936. About 1940 the LMS sold the coach to Woolwich Arsenal who used it on workmens’ trains – although Winston Churchill is reputed to have also travelled in it. During this ownership it lost its internal partitions, gained a central table and longitudinal slatted seating. On withdrawal from service in 1964 it was purchased by the K&ESR Locomotive Trust and became the Railway’s first passenger vehicle of the preservation era.. The ‘Woolwich’ coach saw some service on departmental duties but did not run after 1976. Unfortunately the vehicle deteriorated in storage but, thanks to a donation from a ‘generous benefactor’, restoration began in 1999 with the separation of the body from the underframe. Work on the latter was progressed as resources permitted, but in October 2003 a grant of Lottery funding was obtained from the Millennium Commission. Work to both body and underframe then proceeded rapidly, with the three passenger compartments being restored to use. The Woolwich coach was complete, in splendid LMS maroon livery by 13th July 2004. It was officially launched into service on 6th August by Meridian TV news presenter Sue Kinnear together with K&ESR Chairman Norman Brice and Andrew Duck, Project Manger, the Millennium Commission. All paid tribute to this magnificent achievement by the K&ESR Carriage and Wagon Department’s volunteers and staff.
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