Questions

One of the unrestored items of rolling stock on your railway is Mark 1 BSO(T) 9000. Is this vehicle of historical significance (as its number would suggest)? Do you intend to restore it within the near future?

What are the thoughts at present on the fourth rake of coaches livery, regards the poll results towards the end of last year which was greatly in favour of blue and grey?

Why are permanent way vehicles named after sea creatures, such as Dogfish, Walrus, Shark, Grampus, Mermaid etc?

Answers

One of the unrestored items of rolling stock on your railway is Mark 1 BSOT 9000. Is this vehicle of historical significance (as its number would suggest)? Do you intend to restore it within the near future?

BSO(T) 9000 is BSO 9276. It was renumbered following its conversion to a BSO(T). We do intend to restore it - hopefully within the next two years. It will become part of our fourth rake of coaches.
[August 2005]

What are the thoughts at present on the fourth rake of coaches livery, regards the poll results towards the end of last year which was greatly in favour of blue and grey?

The fourth rake is planned as blue / grey, but no start dates are available yet. We have a full workload this year, and once we have completed a full Carmine & Cream rake, there will be a considerable amount to be done on some of the existing service coaches - two of which were last refurbished 11 years ago. The priority has to be our existing coaches.

Also, bear in mind the amount of work that goes into the restoration of a coach. Each one is likely to take us about 6 months, so in will be two or three years yet before a meaningful rake begins to appear.
Question asked 25.02.2005, answered by the Carriage & Wagon Dept.

Why are permanent way vehicles named after sea creatures, such as Dogfish, Walrus, Shark, Grampus, Mermaid etc?

No-one seems to know why sea creature names were used. They were telegraphic codes, as each name was used to specifically and easily identify a type of wagon when a telegraph message was being transmitted.

For example, a 'Shark' is a brakevan with a ballast plough; a 'Toad' is a brakevan without a plough. You can imagine the difficulties which would have arisen if all this had to be set down in a telegraph message.

Bear in mind also, that 100 years ago, many of the staff would not have been able to read or write. That is why wagons for each company traditionally had large bold capitals to identify them to illiterate staff. LNER ones originally had a white diamond to identify them for the same reason.
Question asked 23.03.2005, answered by the Carriage & Wagon Dept.

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