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Carriages used to bring Titanic passengers to Southampton set to be destroyed?

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Eyersey468

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While I can understand the historic value of the carriages themselves as examples of that type of rolling stock I doubt it will ever be able to be proven that these specific carriages were definitely on that train
 
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alexl92

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To answer the OP's question, my understanding is that they have been in storage at the Pontypool & Blaenavon Railway, but the railway now need the space so would charge the owner £350/month to keep storing the coaches there. The owner is now offering them up for free to anyone who can guarantee their security and future.

(If I've got my facts wrong I apologise; I read it in a magazine recently and now can't find the source. If I do find it andhave been wrong I will correct this)
 

Dr_Paul

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A lot of that film was technically brilliant, but the love story plot was a massive pile of nonsensical horse feathers.
Harry Enfield did a magnificent parody of the last Titanic film, bringing in all his 'characters' to fit the film's main characters.
As regards the real subject of the thread, I strongly support the idea that funds and energy should focus on rebuilding historic vehicles rather than keeping yet more tatty Mk Is going.
I'd far rather ride in a refurbished / rebuilt / replica carriage from 1900 or thereabouts than on a Mark I carriage. That's one of the main things I like about the Bluebell Railway, the wonderful collection they have of vintage carriages and the effort they put into restoring them.

On the other hand, for most people under around 40 travelling on a Mark I would be a novelty, with corridors, compartments, comfy seats, windows that align with seats, windows that open, etc.
 

eldomtom2

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Sometimes the greater part of the story is in the loss and discovery, which restoration to an arbitrary point in it's life would potential obscure. Preserve these carriages like the Mary Rose, and then have a replica accessible to all, maybe with different stages of it's life reconstructed (liveries, layouts, etc in different compartments?) to tell the story through time. The fact that they sat in a yard for 30 years is no less a part of their story than 1 single train they might have ran in, nor is the story of rediscovery any less part of Britain's railway history than boat trains generally.
I feel there is a very limited number of coaches worth keeping in unrestored condition, regardless of what academics being rather ivory-tower think about it. There is already the L&B coach at the NRM - the time spent being unrestored is perhaps not the most interesting part of the coaches' story, and the coaches' unique aspects do not lie in it.
 

zwk500

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I feel there is a very limited number of coaches worth keeping in unrestored condition, regardless of what academics being rather ivory-tower think about it. There is already the L&B coach at the NRM - the time spent being unrestored is perhaps not the most interesting part of the coaches' story, and the coaches' unique aspects do not lie in it.
I totally agree you only need very few coaches in unrestored condition. Picking which to restore and which to not is an art itself. As to the most interesting part of the story, that depends on what the observer is interested in. It will be different for each observer.
 

WesternLancer

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Full feature on these carriages (3 pages IIRC) in current issue of Rail Magazine, by BBC's Paul Clifton. An interesting read. It's upbeat in tone ref the hope to save the carriages and indicates some discussion with Mid Hants Railway. Obv Paul C responsible for the BBC report in the original post and a regular Rail contributor.
An image of the article on this page for the 2 June issue

The article flags that the British Titanic Society seem quite engaged with it - maybe their involvement can help secure funds that might otherwise not be accessed by rail preservationists with long lists of deserving projects to tackle
 

Alankebby

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This is LSWR coaches 70 and 76. To answer the question of how these ended up in Wales. They got sold out of mainline service to the Army and were used on some of the military railways (Longmoor and Marchwood, possibly Bicester and others too) for many years. Then in the 1970s or 80s got sold into preservation on the Mid Hants.

The Mid Hants disposed of them in the early nineties as part of their cull on vintage carriages (eyesores taking up valuable siding space as the management of the time saw them). There were bought by a private owner who moved them to Blaenavon, and have been there ever since. Some work has been done by the owner there, but it’s obviously a massive task for one person - especially being completely in the open.

Will be interesting if they do return to the Mid Hants. Certainly a more worthy project than those LBSCR 4 wheelers they have. Swanage have made some noises about being interested too for use with their T3. So we will have to wait and see what gets announced.

The owner also has an Ironclad brake at Blaenavon which presumably needs a new home too. Hopefully it might go with 70 and 76 for future use with them at their new home.

Would a Restaurant Composite be in the Titanic boat train? I would expect in those days for a ship of that size there would be separate trains for First and for Third class. It was common on the LSWR for there to be three or four boat trains for a major transatlantic liner, and for them to be run as separate classes.
The British Titanic Society do seem sure that vehicles of this exact type were used on the boat trains to the Titanic. Presumably they have photos of the train which show this.

In any case the BTS seem committed to saving these coaches as an example of the ones used, even if it can never be proved that 70 and/or 76 themselves were involved.

Reading the article in ‘Rail’ the plan seems to be to restore them at Ropley. Then run them on the MHR as a Titanic boat train experience.
 
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WesternLancer

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This is LSWR coaches 70 and 76. To answer the question of how these ended up in Wales. They got sold out of mainline service to the Army and were used on some of the military railways (Longmoor and Marchwood, possibly Bicester and others too) for many years. Then in the 1970s or 80s got sold into preservation on the Mid Hants.

The Mid Hants disposed of them in the early nineties as part of their cull on vintage carriages (eyesores taking up valuable siding space as the management of the time saw them). There were bought by a private owner who moved them to Blaenavon, and have been there ever since. Some work has been done by the owner there, but it’s obviously a massive task for one person - especially being completely in the open.

Will be interesting if they do return to the Mid Hants. Certainly a more worthy project than those LBSCR 4 wheelers they have. Swanage have made some noises about being interested too for use with their T3. So we will have to wait and see what gets announced.

The owner also has an Ironclad brake at Blaenavon which presumably needs a new home too. Hopefully it might go with 70 and 76 for future use with them at their new home.


The British Titanic Society do seem sure that vehicles of this exact type were used on the boat trains to the Titanic. Presumably they have photos of the train which show this.

In any case the BTS seem committed to saving these coaches as an example of the ones used, even if it can never be proved that 70 and/or 76 themselves were involved.

Reading the article in ‘Rail’ the plan seems to be to restore them at Ropley. Then run them on the MHR as a Titanic boat train experience.
Thanks for the info - if the BTS can help facilitate that plan - well good luck to them and it would be a great outcome. I can imagine that given the (strange to me) massive obsession there seems to me to be about Titanic, it could be a good 'business plan' to fund the renovation of some historic carriages. 'Take the opportunities that you can get' I tend to think!
 

Alankebby

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Indeed. Nothing officially confirmed yet about a move to, and restoration and use at the MHR but anything that can save these historic coaches has to be a good thing.

Latest update from the BTS is that these coaches are currently being prepared for transportation away from Blaenavon. No news on the destination just yet.
 
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