There are no articles in this category. If subcategories display on this page, they may contain articles.

Subcategories

  • 3916 Restoration

    Status: Ongoing restoration to running order

    Location: Wansford: Part of Nord Express line up by Main Entrance

    History

    Sleeping car no. 3916 was built in 1949 in Belgium. It was part of the YTb class. These were built to replace those cars lost during the war and were identical to their pre-war counterparts except for the lack of marquetry. The car contains XX compartements and can sleep XX people. In service each car would have had its own attendant. Due to the piecemeal nature of Wagons-Lits’ expresses where cars could regularly lay over for a day with passengers on board the car has a self contained heating system with a coke boiler.

    The car was built for the Nord Express, and hence has a comparment at either end which sleeps three rather than the usual two. Each compartment has a ‘sleeping mode’ with bunks and a ‘day mode’ where the beds fold away to become seats. They also have a sink, and a shoot underneath incase the occupants are caught short in the night! First class passengers would have a compartment per person, whereas second class would have to share. As well as in the Nord Express, the car also ran in the  the Arlberg-Orient Express (Paris - Bucharest, Romania). Sister cars nos. 3912 and 3915 are still in use with the modern day luxurious Venice-Simplon Orient Express (VSOE).

    Our car was brought to the UK for a BBC television film Caught on a Train in 1979. 3916 was used for many years as volunteer accommodation as well as featuring in a number of films. Receiving little attention and no funding, the coach was allowed to degrade to the point where it was declared unfit for use. It languished for a number of years until 2007 when a group of NVR volunteers took pity on her. The result was the formation of The International Railway Preservation Society (IRPS).

  • 2975 Restoration

    Status: Restoration will begin once 3916 is complete. Preventative maintenance occurring as required currently

    Location: Wansford: Part of Nord Express line up by Main Entrance

    2975clean

    History

    The restaurant car, no. 2975, was built in 1927 in Italy. It is currently painted in the Pullman colours of cream and blue livery.

    In its service life, this car spent most of its time in Switzerland. This is a major reason why the coach survived World War 2 while many other Wagons-Lit's carriages were not so lucky.

    Restaurant cars were usually attached to the back of other regional expresses and then removed at the country's border.

    2975 is actually the heaviest coachin the UK, weighing in at 55 tons.

    2975posh

    The coach was withdrawn from service in 1977 and moved to the railway in 1978 after being purchased by Thomas Cook and used for dining trains on the NVR.

    The car is now located in the entrance of the car park at Wansford, as part of the Nord Express display. It requires a substantial 6 figure sum to get it into running condition again however. This will be our next project after the Sleeping Car.