Care of our Carriages

Care and conservation of the carriages

The NYMR has some covered accommodation for its heritage carriages: the Carriage Stable, developed as part of the successful National Lottery Heritage Fund YMJ project and donations, has space for 40 carriages across the 5 lanes. However, some vehicles spend much of their time outside, not least the operating sets whenever trains are being run. The NYMR also has a carriage works where it overhauls and undertakes day to day maintenance on the fleet.

Carriages in regular or even occasional operational use must be maintained to safety critical standards. Those in public use are subject to ‘fitness to run’ requirements which means that they are routinely checked to make sure that they are in good working order when they set off for the day’s work.

They must be kept clean and must strike the right balance between retaining original historic features and meeting the needs of current day visitors. This work includes:

• Regular internal and external cleaning. 

• Servicing of toilets, water supply and electrical systems. 

• Periodic repainting and varnishing. 

• Reupholstering of seat covers. 

• Replacement of consumables (notably brake blocks). 

In addition, both timber-framed (eg LNER) and steel framed (BR) vehicles are subject to progressive deterioration of body framing and panelling. Regular inspections take place and at periodic intervals of around ten years it is necessary to strip the vehicle right down and replace heavily corroded or rotted parts. This is crucial both from the point of view of long-term conservation and to meet statutory crashworthiness standards. It is anticipated that the recent advent of substantial covered accommodation for NYMR carriages will lead to a lessening of rates of deterioration.

Generally, the normal service carriages are overhauled by the Carriage & Wagon Department, whilst the vintage carriages are generally restored by the private groups who own them.

Moquettes

Seating on the carriages needs to be comfortable – the seating in use at the NYMR feels far softer than many of the carriages operating on the main line. The construction and design of seats has changed over the years but the common factor is the use of moquette on the seats to ensure a robust, durable seat cover. The designs and colours of moquette vary considerably and whilst carriages at the NYMR may not have the original materials any longer, the use of good quality moquette continues.

Adaptation

How some carriages have been adapted and why

Whilst the aim of carriage care is to maintain the vehicles in as close to authentic condition as possible, it is not possible to maintain vehicles in working order for a 21st century audience in a 21st operating environment without some level of controlled adaptation.

Whilst this work is minimised and the aim is always to retain as much original material as possible, as well as the ambience of mid-20th century travel, some changes must be made (not all on every vehicle). These include:

• Conversion of lavatories from disposal to the track to disposal via retention tanks.
• Permanent locking of some superfluous doors, windows and lavatories.
• Conversion of lighting to equivalent low power types.
• Reupholstering in equivalent but non-original moquette.
• Widening of doors and gangways, installation of disabled toilets and seating changes in a small number of vehicles to create Fuss Free Access (FFA) for passengers with additional needs and their family and friends.

It seems likely that compliance will require the comprehensive installation of internal door locking to carriages in regular use in the foreseeable future.

However, the original means of opening doors remains to this day – most people are now so used to awaiting the green light to indicate that the doors can be opened and then pressing a button. Opening doors on carriages on the NYMR (and all other heritage railways) is rather more complex. Prior to alighting from a carriage, the window at the door needs to be pulled down. giving access to the handle on the outside of the carriage to open the door – station staff are invaluable to help with this. Even if you know what to do, the handles can still be difficult!

It should be noted that carriages used in trains operating from Grosmont over Network Rail tracks to Whitby (in practice around 60% of vehicles used in core services) must meet Network Rail’s and the regulatory body’s requirements for vehicles operating over the National Network. Whilst derogations can, in theory, be negotiated, in practice this means that some vehicles (notably those with timber bodies) have to be confined to the Pickering – Grosmont section.