A day out via Brighton gave me the chance to see something I read about a while ago.
It caught my eye at the time as another inventive use of railway rolling stock and I have been meaning to see it ever since.
A Southern Railway carriage on Platform 8 at Brighton station has been converted into a coronavirus Lateral Flow Test centre for staff. It appears on the outside to be like any other carriage but closer inspection reveals the curtains and equipment for testing.
I wasn’t sure if the green curtains were part of the Southern branding or just what was available at the time.
It struck me as yet another way in which carriages have been converted for different uses down the years.
Probably most famous of all is the carriage used in a clearing in the Compiègne Forest for the signing of the Armistice in 1918. The carriage belonged to the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits.
Many other carriages have been converted into writing huts, workshops, sleeping accommodation and holiday homes.
I even read about a craftsman in Essex who is creating new uses for old carriages.
As cabinet maker Stuart Harris says: “If people don’t restore them, they will just rot away.”
They are such a versatile and important part of our railway heritage and it’s great to see the imaginative ways in which they are being put to use.
UPDATE: I’ve just read that Pullman Car Ena is to become a buffet car at the Old Railway Station B&B in Petworth in West Sussex.
According to the Midhurst and Petworth Observer, Princess Ena is a 1906 Pullman Carriage – one of three that came from America, and the only one that is still surviving. It worked on the Southern Railway and was decommissioned in 1934.
What a great addition to the Pullman cars already at the site which are being used as guest accommodation.