Northern Counties Committee - Coaching Stock

Coaching Stock

As with the locomotives, Midland Railway influence on NCC coaching stock design only became apparent after Bowman Malcolm retired in 1922.

The NCC was a small railway and did not require the variety of coach types that its parent the LMS did. However, the NCC provided accommodation for three classes of passengers throughout its existence and this led to there being several coach designations that were unique to the NCC.

The majority of LMS (NCC) coaches can be described as conforming to the design criteria of LMS Period I stock. This was perpetuated into the mid-1930s with repeat orders to existing designs. These coaches were mounted on steel under frames that were generally 57 ft (17 m) long, weighed between 28 and 31 tons depending on type, and ran on two four-wheeled bogies. They had wooden framed, fully panelled bodies with semi elliptical roofs and three-link screw couplings.

Side corridor stock such as the J6 thirds and F2 composites had doors with adjacent quarter lights to all compartments and ventilation was by droplights set into the doors. G1 tea cars had a small dining saloon and kitchen set into one end of a composite coach. Although there were no external doors to the dining saloon, the windows retained the droplight and quarter light arrangement.

On the other hand, open stock had a two-window arrangement whereby each seating bay had two windows side by side. One window was fixed and the other was a droplight. Restaurant vehicles such as the B2 first class dining car and the B3 third class dining saloon had Stone’s pattern ventilators above the fixed windows but this feature was not included in other open stock. The J5 open thirds were unusual in having four doors per side rather than two. The doors had adjacent quarter lights like those on the side corridor stock and opened directly into the passenger saloon rather than the end vestibules which only accommodated the lavatories.

The “North Atlantic” stock clearly belonged to Period II but the large picture windows and toplight ventilators had been inspired by contemporary Great Western Railway practice. The full set of five coaches was made up of four types. These were a B4 buffet car, an H3 side corridor tricomposite, two J8 side corridor thirds and a K3 side corridor brake third. The buffet car was 60 ft (18 m) long and the others 57 ft (17 m) long.

The class V14 bogie brake vans that appeared in 1936-37 were superficially similar to the LMS variety. However, they had standard 57 ft (17 m) underframes as opposed to 50 ft (15 m) ones and beading strips on the sides to cover panel joints.

The 60 ft (18 m) J10 open thirds that were built at the same time as the V14s generally reflected the styling of Stanier Period III stock but these too had beading strips. The provision of lavatories on these coaches appears to have been an afterthought. There were three doors on one side but only two on the other; a single lavatory had been squeezed into the vestibule where the missing door would have been. Despite their modern appearance, their bus type seats were not popular with passengers.