Since the Dia 245 carriage has arrived at Quainton Road and been put under cover to dry out, we have been trying to find out more about it.
Recently, Steve White spent some more time at Quainton Road where he was allowed to inspect and photograph the carriage more completely than at the day out.
As a result, he has spent some considerable time, for which we thank him, trying to see if we can find out more about this specific carriage.
Basically what we already knew was that Eric Maxwell who was based at Tanfield, bought the carriage off BR in 1975, from the Consett depot, once bought it was moved to Tanfield where it was used as a mess room and storeroom, before being lent to Knebworth for more than 7 years when they had their narrow gauge public steam railway. It then returned to Tanfield, and sadly not in the state in which it was lent. After that it was used again as a mess room at Tanfield until I first saw it in 2015.
But apart from that we know nothing of its early life, nor actually when it was built, or an accurate GNR running number.
Steve has suggested that is was quite likely to have been converted during LNER times to become a camping carriage, and we can show some of its possibilities, I wonder how many people have knowledge of the various sites at which these carriages were stored during the rental season?
As we find out more, we will let you know.
Thanks to Steve White for the extra research and both photos and words.
Paul Craig
