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 Railway Carriages

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Priscilla
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Priscilla

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Join date : 2012-01-16

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PostSubject: Railway Carriages   Railway Carriages EmptyMon 02 Sep 2019, 09:20

GG's recent engine pics reminded me of an old carriage used as a home by an eccentric in a remote field along our estuary, five miles  from a rail track. Being a bit Enid Blyton to us curious children we eventually went to investigate. It was wooden with ornate design in age-stressed blue. Local legend had it that the occupant was crabby making this a brave and rather nosy  venture. However, she kindly satisfied blatant curiosity by letting us peep into a compartment which was a cosy sitting room stuffed with colourful  stuff as flamboyant as she was dressed. She said there was a bedroom, a kitchen and a dining room and all cosy even in winter. I do not recall a corridor so we assumed she went into the six or so rooms from outside. It was quite long.

I    looked up carriages, startled to see that home use of carriages was alive and prospering - we ought use them for the homeless, was my immediate thought. How hers got there in the first  place was a mystery. After spending 8 days in a Maharajah's carriage on a palace tour (person bearer included) I can vouch for the comfort at the high end. The world is probably littered with relics of past rail splendour.
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nordmann
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nordmann

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Join date : 2011-12-25

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PostSubject: Re: Railway Carriages   Railway Carriages EmptyMon 02 Sep 2019, 09:34

I went to school with children from three families who lived in about six carriages between them all that were parked in an old disused siding near the local railway station. They were hooked up to the electricity grid but not the water mains or sewage, so every child had a daily chore involving carting buckets of water from the pump that once filled steam locomotive boilers nearby, as well as "lining" the communal dry toilet with ash and occasional gravel (a facility they shared with occasional spectators at the local rugby club's matches, who I suspect had paid for its construction). One can only imagine the sheer labour involved on the part of the three mothers ...

The rest of us were dead jealous.

PS: Just checked the site on Google street maps - where the siding once was is now a de-luxe housing estate of about 30 semi-detached houses which, given the address, I assume retail for nothing less than a million euros each.
PPS: The carriages, as I recall, were stock that had once been used on the Belfast to Dublin route run by GNR. They would have left service, I assume, in the 1930s after probably 40 to 50 years' service.
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LadyinRetirement
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LadyinRetirement

Posts : 3293
Join date : 2013-09-16
Location : North-West Midlands, England

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PostSubject: Re: Railway Carriages   Railway Carriages EmptyMon 02 Sep 2019, 10:21

When I spent some time in (roughly) the late 1970s to (very) early 1980s in eastern London suburbia there were some sidings near Goodmayes - when I went back to that area in the mid 1990s to 2010 the site of the sidings had become a site for shopping (mostly a Tesco store and its carpark).

I go with some friends and acquaintances from the local U3A for a lunch once a month (though we didn't meet in August).  One of the restaurants that was suggested was composed of converted carriages (I'm not sure of its location).  In the end we decided it would be rather a tight fit for all of us.
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Nielsen
Triumviratus Rei Publicae Constituendae
Nielsen

Posts : 594
Join date : 2011-12-31
Location : Denmark

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PostSubject: Re: Railway Carriages   Railway Carriages EmptyMon 02 Sep 2019, 11:24

LadyinRetirement wrote:
...

I go with some friends and acquaintances from the local U3A for a lunch once a month (though we didn't meet in August).  One of the restaurants that was suggested was composed of converted carriages (I'm not sure of its location).  In the end we decided it would be rather a tight fit for all of us.

I was reminded of when a bunch of elderly, former soldiers went to an army museum, looking at pictures, uniforms, arms and vehicles and stuff.

As it was allowed we attempted to sit in an old Willy's Jeep, back in the day it sat two* on each of the front seats, two looking at two others and the gear and stuff needed for a number of days in the back of nowhere.

We all agreed that the Jeep must have been washed in boiling water, now it wouldn't seat us nor much of the neccessaries ...


*Correction: it sat one on each of the front seats ...


Last edited by Nielsen on Mon 02 Sep 2019, 16:46; edited 1 time in total
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nordmann
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nordmann

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Join date : 2011-12-25

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PostSubject: Re: Railway Carriages   Railway Carriages EmptyMon 02 Sep 2019, 12:50

Not sure boiling water was to blame, Nielsen.

As far as I know "The Incredible Shrinking Willy" is simply a facet of age.

(collects coat and leaves) ....
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Nielsen
Triumviratus Rei Publicae Constituendae
Nielsen

Posts : 594
Join date : 2011-12-31
Location : Denmark

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PostSubject: Re: Railway Carriages   Railway Carriages EmptyMon 02 Sep 2019, 16:49

Well, well, well, here I was attempting to use the correct wording and is immediately set up for a mental spanking - once again.

Methinks the trebuchets needs singing to.
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