The Night Ferry in 0 gauge

[sncf231e]

Before the channel tunnel between France and England was opened there was only one passenger train that travelled between France and England: the Night Ferry or in French Le Ferry Boat de Nuit. This Wagons-Lits train ran every night from London to Dover were the sleeping cars, with (sleeping) passengers were transferred to a ferry sailing to Dunkerque. In Dunkerque the sleeping cars were fetched from this ferry and ran in a train to Paris. Of course every night there was also a train in the other direction.

In October 1936, almost 90 years ago, the Night Ferry had its first run between London and Paris; its last run was in October 1980. The history of the Night Ferry and the rolling stock used in this train is subject of the book Night Ferry by George Behrend and Gary Buchanan (ISBN 0 901845 13 2).

The 25 Night Ferry sleeping cars, which were able to run in France as well as England, were specially built for the Night Ferry in two batches and owned and operated by the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits et Grands Express Européens or CIWL. They had the numbers 3788 to 3805 and 3983 to 3989.

Correct models of these cars, which were assigned the CIWL Type F, should of course wear one of these numbers. The original cars were much smaller than other CIWL cars since they were made to the English clearance gauge. Of course models of these cars could be sold in Britain as well as the continent, however the scale difference, especially 00 versus H0, makes this  again difficult.

The English kit manufacturer Westdale made a kit of the type F sleeping car in 0 Gauge with a scale of 1:43.5. I have four of these with different numbers which make up a reasonable length Night Ferry train at the correct scale to be pulled by French or English locomotives.

 

Regards

Fred

[sncf231e]

Here is a version of the Night Ferry with a Southern and a NORD locomotive instead of the BR and SNCF locomotives of the video I made earlier.

 

I am not sure that the train actually ran with a SR Spamcan in England and a brown NORD pacific in France in the same period. I think the Bulleid Pacific was introduced when the NORD was already SNCF. Modellers licence I think I will call it.

 

Regards

Fred

[sncf231e]

There were, but not during the whole  period of the Night Ferry, also sleeping cars that went from London via Dover, Dunkerque and Lille to Brussel and also for a short period to Basel. This video shows these connecting trains to Basel and Brussel i n 0 gauge in my garden.

Regards

Fred

[GWR57xx]

Hope there were no injuries among the Basel passengers 🙂

Nice trains.

[Atlantic Coast Express]

Interestingly, there appears to be quite a lot of interest in the recent past surrounding the CIWL Wagon-Lits Night Ferry Type F Sleepers, and across all the model railway gauges. Bit of digging around it appears Playcraft Railways may well have there in the mid-1960s with these couple of consumer advertisements. Have never seen one of these in the flesh so to speak. There’s a nice blog on Night Ferry at https://shamrocktrains.com/posts/night-ferry/ and a complete chapter in Martyn Pring’s 2020 book ‘Boat Trains: The English Channel & Ocean Liner Specials’   https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Boat-Trains-The-English-Channel-and-Ocean-Liner-Specials-Hardback/p/18521Proposed tinplate Night Ferry Type F Sleeper rotated.pdfProposed tinplate Night Ferry Type F Sleeper rotated.pdf

[sncf231e]

9 hours ago, Atlantic Coast Express said:

Interestingly, there appears to be quite a lot of interest in the recent past surrounding the CIWL Wagon-Lits Night Ferry Type F Sleepers, and across all the model railway gauges.

I do not get the impression of any interest (except from me) about the Night Ferry and especially not in 0 gauge. ACE and Darstaed have promised these long ago in tinplate but A.L. seems to be out of business and A.G. is doing finescale. But for those who want to know about Night Ferry sleeper models, I wrote an article about it which can be read or downloaded from my website (for free of course):

http://sncf231e.nl/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/The-Night-Ferry-sleeper-modelled.pdf

 

Regards

Fred

[John R Smith]

 

A real tour de force, Fred! Great stuff as usual, including the music which suits your videos so well. Incidentally, I think that is the first model of a Bulleid pacific I have seen which looks right, with the shiny and slightly rippled air-smoothed casing. Tinplate really works well in this case.

[Atlantic Coast Express]

18 hours ago, sncf231e said:

I do not get the impression of any interest (except from me) about the Night Ferry and especially not in 0 gauge. ACE and Darstaed have promised these long ago in tinplate but A.L. seems to be out of business and A.G. is doing finescale. But for those who want to know about Night Ferry sleeper models, I wrote an article about it which can be read or downloaded from my website (for free of course):

http://sncf231e.nl/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/The-Night-Ferry-sleeper-modelled.pdf

 

Regards

Fred

Fred, There's a lot of activity going on behind the scenes in both 0 gauge and 00 but because of commercial non-disclosure agreements nothing can be said as of yet. A.L. has retired and the ACE Trains business has been acquired by Kevin and Clare Finch of Stationmasters Rooms: https://thestationmastersrooms.co.uk Martyn Pring is also researching a new book on Night Ferry with individual traveller tales and some hilarious stories about the London to Paris trip (and vice versa). Planned to be published in 2025 as part of the Railway 200 celebrations: https://railway200.co.uk 

[sncf231e]

Martyn (aka Atlantic Coast Express),

 

I have heard this stories now for so many years, that I gave up believing these.

 

Kind regards

Fred