Forcett Coach Progress – January 2012
Here are the latest views of progress on the Forcett coach’s restoration at Stanegate Restorations & Replicas, as sent through by Ian Yates who leads the team there…
Below: This is a close up of a dry fitting of one end replacement cill.
Below: This view shows the cill from the other angle, with the corner post removed for repair.
Below: This dramatic view showing the guard’s end with end removed – including the headstock.
The roof is supported by the new sides. This graphically emphasises the extent of the work being carried out as part of this restoration.
Below: An idea of the condition of some elements of the coach! This shows the disintegrating headstock with the buffer to the left.
Below: This is the replacement cill end, shown against the original which is being used as a pattern.
Could you answer me a question? When this coach was preserved did it have wheels or was it a grounded body. The picture you posed a while back of it in store it looks to be grounded.if so when and where did it get new wheels.
To be honest, I’m not sure where the wheels came from or when, but it would certainly make sense to assume they were provided as part of the 1975 restoration. It was certainly wheel-less at Clay Cross and when craned out of there to come to Beamish. I have yet to find a photo of it here in storage prior to restoration – such a discovery would confirm the hypothesis. At around this time the NER birdcage brakevan was being restored, making one good wagon from the remains of two. Whilst this was done off site (at Tyne Dock) the wheels under ours are very similar to those under the Forcett, making me wonder if Beamish obtained them from the same source with the Forcett coach’s restoration in mind. Unfortunately there is nothing in the files to indicate much of the coach’s history in the preservation era and even the suggestion that it was at one time at the old York railway museum is hard to substantiate as it is not recorded photographically (that I have seen – yet) nor appears in the catalogues for display there.