…self catering carriage holidays on the Derwent Valley line.

These BR standard Mk 2 carriages, once used on the west coast main line between London Euston and Birmingham, Manchester and Scotland, were withdrawn from passenger use in 1991.

 

They then served for over a decade for locomotive testing, based at Doncaster Works. They would have been visible to many passers-by as the “Doncaster Trial Train”.

 

The carriages are an open Standard class carriage (2e TSO 5856) and a First-brake composite (2d BFK 14157, later renumbered 17157).  To be sympathetic to the structure of the carriages, each apartment occupies part of both carriages.  Here’s a slide show of the carriages arriving on site prior to being refurbished (click the arrows on the large photo below).