PART TWO
MIKE FENTON concludes our series on the railway camping coach schemes originating in the 1930s with a look at Camping Coach provision 1947-67 from the Southern Railway into British Railways Southern Region days, as ever with assistance from some of the participants.
In introducing this final part of the series on the 1930s camping coach years of the London & North Eastern, Great Western, London Midland & Scottish and Southern companies, it is worth mentioning that the Southern Railway's part in the story has forced upon this author a rethink in the approach in that, although my main interest in the topic has always been focussed on that pre-war period, the sheer volume of material available relating to the LNER, GWR and LMS required a full two-part appraisal, whereas the Southern required a different approach accommodating the post-war years. Therefore I do not include the later holiday schemes of the other British Railways Regions which are covered very expertly in Andrew McRae's two books for Foxline, these volumes notable for their superb full captioning of the photographs.
Although later into the camping coach market, in 1935, and almost reluctantly-so, and very much inferior in the amount of its holiday hire provision compared with the others of the ‘Big Four’, the Southern Railway excelled itself in being first back into the field after World War II and restarted the operation not only whilst still the SR, before nationalisation, but also with all but three of its pre-war camping coaches, having the market to itself until the new BR Regions joined in, the Western, Scottish and Eastern Regions in 1952, the London Midland and North Eastern in 1954. Also a key factor in my approach was the dearth of good Southern-related interview material available for the 1930s period, whereas its BR years presented a good selection of original material which was highly-deserving of recording, as the reader will see.
The Southern coaches Nos.8,12 and 17 suffered from wartime damage, not necessarily from enemy action, and were unfit for further use as summer hirings, so exLondon & South Western Railway No.7828 was authorised for conversion in March 1948, this date implying that it did not feature in the first season back in 1947. It was an unusual camping coach conversion in that it was a former clerestory restaurant car rebuilt as an elliptical-roofed saloon in May 1931, further converted to a Naval Ambulance Coach (WD1240) for the Admiralty by July 1943. Back with the Southern, it arrived at Hinton Admiral for the 1948 season.
Meanwhile, ex-South-Eastern & Chatham Railway No.1958S was withdrawn from traffic in February 1947 to become Camping Coach No.26, and another ex-SECR vehicle,. No.1932S, had been authorised for conversion in July 1946, becoming No.27, both taking their place for the ‘47 season. Thus were the three wartime losses replaced. Most of the original camping coach stock of London, Chatham & Dover Railway origin underwent replacement during 1953-4, the larger LSWR vehicles of pre-war days carrying on until 1961. During the period 1948-53 Southern Region extended its available hire coaches with Nos 28-39, most of the new conversions replacing pre-war stock being ex-LSWR 56ft bogie coaches dating from the period 1903-20. In contrast to the original 1930s conversions with coach numbers displayed above both end windows on each side, coach numbering was now displayed as a single use on both sides of the coach on the panelling under a window, with the number and the letter ‘S’ for ‘Southern’ on each side of it.
No camping coach allocations have emerged for the Southern's return to camping coach provision in 1947 and the information that does exist is somewhat confusing. A copy of a 1947 poster in this author's possession states that “The Camping Coaches of the Southern Railway (‘bungalows on wheels’) will, for the 1947 season, be stationed at suitable places in Devon and Cornwall.” However, according to Mike King, in the journal in 2016, there were sightings of individual coaches that year that included Amberley (No.2), Corfe Castle (a Type A six-wheeler), Gunnislake (No.23), Port Isaac Road (No.18), Wrafton (Nos.20 and 22), Woodbuiy Road (No. 16) and Wool (No.13), clearly not all Cornwall or Devon sites. The earliest year before 19541954 was its last season in use. By contrast, later additions to the provision were Sway in 1956 and in the 1960s three Kent locations – Birchington-on-Sea, Walmer and Yalding.
