The conversion of a second carriage is to be specially adapted for passengers who are accessible by the Carriage & Wagon Department.
35475 British Railway Brake Second Corridor MK1 coach was purchased from Embsay & Bolton Abbey Railway in 2020 and arrived at Ingrow-West on the back of a low loader in a Network Southeast Livery, looking slightly worse for wear. After arrival, the coach was taken to the Carriage & Wagon Department based at Oxenhope Station.
The coach was added to the Worth Valley fleet and given the number 50.
One of the first jobs for the newly numbered ‘BSK 50’ was to remove the Commonwealth Bogies from the carriage, seen here on No.1 Road outside the Exihibiotn Shed at Oxenhope Station.
The Commonwealth Bogies were sent to an external contractor, Riley and Sons (E) Ltd, for overhaul, as the KWVR Carriage & Wagon Department doesn’t have the facilities required to overhaul the bogies.
The next set of mages shows the starting point for work on BSK 50: removing the Goods compartment flooring. This area is to become the new wheelchair-accessible area. The volunteers brought up the entire floor and later replaced it with fresh timber and steel top hat sections to ensure the floor is safe.
The next set of images focuses on converting the luggage/goods area of BSK 50 into a wheelchair-accessible compartment.
The first image shows the corridor section that runs down the length of the coach. To the right, you can see the freshly constructed walls of the Accessible compartment; while not easy to tell in this image, the doorway into the accessible compartment is the same size as a double door on the exterior of the coach, of which the double doors that lead into this compartment have been modified as well, with an extra double glazed window to allow maximum visibility for passengers.
In the second image, two of C&W’s volunteers (top: Paul Ashby, Bottom: Simon Starke) are adjusting a set of double doors on accessible compartments. As previously mentioned, the door on the left has an extra window, a modification specifically for this coach and its accessible compartment.
In the left image, the Keighley end of the coach has been heavily modified to have an extra window installed. In the image itself we can see that a layer of grey primer has been painted on and rear most luggage compartment doors have been removed. This window has also been installed to increase visibility for the accessible compartment and to allow more natural light into the vehicle.
Inside the vehicle, the end of the accessible compartment, the goal is to be able to comfortably fit 3 wheelchairs inside along with 3 more individuals on a row of seats. As seen in the second image
Bogies return from overhaul at Riley and Sons (E) Ltd
Early 2024, The Carriage & Wagon Deparmant welcomed BSK50’s bogies back to Oxenhope from their overhaul at Riley and Sons (E) Ltd where they were stripped back to the frames, shot blasted, primed and painted in a underframe black before being refitted with refurbish parts like shock absorber springs, Leaf springs, and brake rigging.
The bogies are yet to be refitted under the coach and can still be seen stored in the yard at Oxenhope. In the images we can see the final stages of painting being done by the team at Riley and Sons, C&W Volunteeres visiting the workshop and the arrival of the bogies back at KWVR.
BSK 50 is still far from finished and has been a large project for the past 4 years.
With the arrival of the bogies back at Oxenhope it is quite obvious that the work done by Riley and Sons was worth the wait as the bogies looked fantastic on arrival.