GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Solihull Station: gwrs2632

Behind the main island platform, three departmental coaches are stabled in the up sidings at the north end of Solihull station on Saturday 18th August 1951. All of these three coaches were built at the end of the 19th century and operated on the broad gauge track before being converted to main line narrow gauge stock. After being withdrawn from revenue earning passenger duties and condemned in the mid 1930’s, they were rebuilt as Camp Coaches starting a second life as Summer holiday homes at various locations across the Great Western Railway’s network. After six years this was curtailed in 1940 after the start of the Second World War, when fitted with black-out curtains and painted all-over in brown livery, the Camp Coaches were in demand as temporary accommodation by various Government Agencies, the Military, as well as for Railway purposes. In December 1940, thirty-nine of the Great Western Railway’s sixty-five Camp Coaches were being used; twelve by railway staff and twenty-seven by the military. Damage caused to those used by the military resulted in the Railway Executive Committee deciding not to release any more Camping Coaches to non-railway authorities and many saw service as Engineering Department accommodation or as emergency wireless vans with the Signal & Telegraph Department. After five years of intensive use and limited maintenance, it was considered uneconomic to restore them as Camp Coaches after the end of the war, so they remained on official loan to various Railway Departments (retaining their Camp Coach numbers) until eventually being condemned in the mid 1950’s. Some details of each of these three coaches’ history are given in the individual captions associated 'gwrs2626', 'gwrs2630' and 'gwrs2631'.

This photograph is displayed courtesy of the HMRS (Historical Model Railway Society) and copies can be ordered directly from them using the link HERE, quoting reference ABW608.

Robert Ferris

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