Saloon Railcar
Gorum.
It has approx a 3hp motor driving one axle on the front bogie. It basically consists of a coach with what was Foxglove welded on the front - you can see the old bolster on the coach still.
Photo & text courtesy of Craig Gluyas.
Vincent. Photo courtesy of Simon Townsend.
ONE of the above battery powered railcars started life as two seperate coaches. They were constructed in 1957 by Matthew & Les Anderson (Father & son trading as Minirail). While running the Severn Beach Railway near Bristol, they constructed 2 four wheeled coaches. They ran at Severn Beach until Les and his father came to Longleat. It was in the mid 60's that the two coaches were dismantled and the bodywork was joined together on a brand new steel frame. It had a new roof put on it and when I showed the above picture of Vincent, it brought back memories of a particularly awkward job. Having formed the metal for the roof, it was a difficult time holding all the pieces while trying to fix them together. When the 2 single bogied coaches had been joined to make one large coach, work began to make another identical coach.
The second large coach was made from scratch using brand new materials. None of the materials for the frame, bodywork or roof had been used before. I am currently trying to find out whether the bogies were new or had been previously used.
When Les left Longleat, these coaches went with him to Combepyne on the Axe & Lyme Railway. When this closed down they were sold at auction.
Having looked in various places on the web, I understand that the coaches were being stored at Birnbeck Pier by Weston-Super-Mare. They were to be used on a railway that never opened.
The owner of the Blaise Castle Miniature Railway, Norman Hayne, bought the coaches and installed a milk float motor. They then took their present form as battery electric railcars. They ran at Blaise Castle for about 15 years. At some point while being stored, one of them was vandalised.
In 2003 the Blaise Castle Miniature Railway was bought by Austen Moss, the coaches then headed north to Lancashire to the Windmill Farm Railway.
One is still at Windmill Farm (Gorum) and the other (Vincent) was sold to Simon Townsend in 2004 and is still located at Rhyl today. One of these is a re-build and one was brand new...........Anybody know which is which?
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