Railway volunteers get it covered for latest renovation of carriage

Windale Furnishings Ltd., who are based on the industrial estate in Hassall Road and specialise in upholstery for caravans, helped bring volunteers at Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway a step closer to finishing work on the carriage.

, The carriage is one of two huge narrow gauge vehicles from the former Ashover Light Railway which were built in 1924 by the Gloucester Rail Carriage and Wagon Company for the seven-and-a-quarter-mile narrow gauge line that once ran from Clay Cross to Ashover in Derbyshire.

Passenger services ended in 1936 and eventually the carriage, along with three others, became sports pavilions for the Clay Cross Company’s workers. One collapsed in 1960; two were bought in 1961 by the Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway to be renovated and returned to traffic on its original line at Humberston, near Cleethorpes, while a fourth survivor now runs on the Golden Valley Railway near Ripley.

When the LCLR moved to the Skegness Water Leisure Park, carriage # 2 was returned to working order in time for the line’s 2009 reopening and it carried HRH The Princess Royal, Princess Anne, on her visit to see the line’s acclaimed collection of English narrow gauge railway vehicles, in 2017.

Restoration of carriage # 1 has been under way intermittently for several years, but is a more difficult task than its sibling. Safety glass to restore the windows has been donated to the railway by Piper Windows of Skegness and now the caravan seating specialists, Windale Furnishings Ltd., have used authentic railway carriage moquette to reupholster the old Glasgow tram seats which were fitted at Humberston more than 60 years ago.

The moquette was specially woven by a mill in Huddersfield for the Vintage Carriages Trust, a charity operating the Museum of Rail Travel at Ingrow West station on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway, in West Yorkshire.

The organisation had helped establish the LCLR’s Historic Vehicles Trust more than 40 years ago and was happy to supply surplus moquette woven for their restoration of one of their vehicles, for Windale Furnishings to use on the Ashover carriage.

Russ Froggatt, Managing Director of Windale Furnishings, said: “It was an interesting project to fit the moquette on to the frame of the old tram seats. We’re used to working with modern materials on static and touring caravans and motor homes, so this was a first for us.

“It was also the first time we had done any work for a railway carriage and in some respects, the moquette was nicer to deal with – it’s a more substantial fabric than we are used to.

"We’re thrilled to have been able to help put this wonderful piece of Lincolnshire’s railway heritage back on the rails here in Skegness”.

Richard Shepherd, Chairman of the LCLR’s Historic Vehicles Trust, said: “This generous work by Windale Furnishings is a huge boost to our efforts to return the second of our old Ashover carriages to running order.

"Without the support they have given us – and that of Piper Windows who have donated the safety glass – we would have had to spend much more of our limited resources to have the work done. “