Midland Picnic Saloons, and an Interesting Website

[Nick Holliday]

I have recently been introduced to an absorbing website containing thousands of photographs and postcards from around the UK.  It appears to contain a few photographs that even avid collectors have not seen, but it takes a lot of searching to find them.  The compiler is not afraid to include less than perfect views, or sets of pictures taken at different angles of the same scene, such as the well-known turntable incident at Tunbridge Wells West on the LBSCR. On the down side, however, there are quite a few duplicates and some of the captions leave a lot to be desired, and shouldn't always be taken at face value. dating is sometimes suspect, and some of the locations are interesting; it is divided into counties, and it is odd to find that Fakenham is in London.

Of the many delights therein, I thought these might be of interest, although probably old hat to the likes of @Compound2632. Taken at Bingley Station in Yorkshire, they show the platform full of excited excursionists from a local mill, waiting for their train,   https://www.jbarchive.co.uk/yo-110---englands-mill-trip-bingley-railway-station-yorkshire-1904---6x4-photo-29091-p.asp

and then a fine view of them on board, ready to depart. https://www.jbarchive.co.uk/yo-2220---englands-mill-may-trip-1904-railway-station-yorkshire---6x4-photo-32820-p.asp

All the visible coaches are virtually identical MR 6-wheeled Picnic Saloons; this seemed unusual usage to me, but, according to Lacy & Dow, was quite common on the MR. It is interesting to note that the buffers appear to be short, suggesting that this was a fixed set; the one in Lacy & Dow has standard long buffers.

[Compound2632]

Copies of both are in the Midland Railway Study Centre's collection. The photo of the picnic saloons was reproduced in Midland Railway Society Journal No. 77 (Autumn 2021) - but not as sharp as here - in the course of an article on excursion traffic. Lacy & Dow allude to Major Yorke's report into an accident at Templecombe in August 1894, which involved a Midland excursion train returning from Bournemouth to Worcester and included seven of these saloons, along with Pullman car recently converted to a picnic saloon. So these two instances at least point to them being used in sets - which would be good news for a manufacturer! Unfortunately, in common with all Midland 6-wheel saloons, they were 32 ft long over the body, so not immediately bashable from the Slaters 31 ft 6-wheelers.

 

The suggestion that the set is close-coupled is interesting. The close-coupled sets of 6-wheelers for local working built in 1883/4 were just 12" between the carriage body ends, clearly closer than we see here, but carriages fitted with the normal 2' buffers would be 3' 5" between ends. Those lavatory windows are the same width as the door droplights, so about 2' over the panel beading; that does seem to be about the same as the gap. So they do seem to be close-coupled but not as closely-coupled as close-coupled local sets!

 

Looking through the Carriage & Wagon Drawing Register, I've not (yet) found a drawing that might cover this, but if the carriages had standard 2' buffers at one end and and the 7.5" dead buffer blocks of the dead end of the close coupled 6-wheelers at the other, that would give the spacing seen.

 

Note the paper labels in the windows with the number of the carriage in the set, so you could find your carriage in a train of identical vehicles.

 

Edited December 11, 2022 by Compound2632