Scottish Railway Preservation Society Collections pages

Glasgow & South Western Railway
Third Class Corridor Compartment coach No.731

Glasgow & South Western Railway Third Class Corridor Compartment coach No.731
The coach in service at RNAD Bandeath, near to Throsk, Stirlingshire. Photo J.L.Stevenson

SRPS Core Collection. Acquired in 1969. On display in Museum Hall 2.
Built 1914, Birmingham Railway Carriage & Wagon Co.

This bogie carriage is typical of those that the Scottish companies were building for main line use in the opening decades of the 20th century.

The G&SWR competed vigorously for passengers with the Caledonian Railway, whose carriages were reputed to be the most comfortable in Scotland. No.731 was designed by the G&SWR, to their Diagram 42. Although Scotland's railways had their own works that could build carriages, these were sometimes busy, and contracts were placed wherever companies could get the best prices and delivery times. This coach was built in Birmingham.

The coach would have been finished in the company's maroon livery, lined and lettered in gold. There are attendant bell pushes in each compartment, which suggest this carriage was built for use on the crack expresses of its day. It is 53ft long, over the body.

This is one of only three carriages known to survive from the G&SWR (all of which are at Bo'ness). Its importance is its degree of originality. It passed to the ownership of the London Midland & Scottish Railway and then British Railways, who sold it to the Admiralty in 1954 for internal use at the Royal Naval Armaments Depot at Bandeath, Stirlingshire. The Admiralty removed the steam heating and vacuum brake gear underneath the coach, but otherwise No.731 remained intact and as first built.

Acquired by SRPS in 1970 after the closure of Bandeath Depot, this coach with its intact compartments and side corridor still demonstrates the typical character of pre First World War train travel. It has great potential to be conserved, accurately restored, and even put into occasional traffic, as an authentic and original G&SWR vehicle.

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Pre-Grouping Coaches List