Camping coaches

**Camping coaches** are old railway coaches that have been converted to resemble holiday cottages on the inside, but still look like a railway carriage on the outside.

## History

The first camping coaches were built by the London & North Eastern Railway (LNER) in 1933, by using elderly four-wheeled coaches that had retired from mainline traffic and used to advertise popular hiking and walking locations. The GWR followed in 1934 with converting old coaches as camping coaches (known as "camp coaches") and the London, Midland & Scottish Railway (LMS), who called them "caravans", but the LNER soon introduced the first travelling camping coaches that same year. The Southern Railway joined in the "camping coach club" in 1935.

During WWII, camping coaches were used by the military as accommodations for soldiers in the "home front", leading to them not being available to the general public, mostly because of the British/Allied war effort to defeat Nazi Germany. After WWII, the camping coaches were once again used by the British general public, or event foreign tourists, after the Southern Railway reintroduced them in 1947, but the large scale return occurred in 1952 under British Railways (BR). In 1960, some Pullman parlour were converted to camping coaches and were found along the West Coast of England.

By the mid-1960s, camping coaches started to decline as international holidays started to get more popular with the British public. This also lead to the number of sites to decline and the last camping coaches in use were offered by the London, Midland Region of British Railways. Many more stayed as accommodation for railway staff at Dawlish Warren in Devon, and Marazion in Cornwall (both on the Western Region).

Some heritage railways and private railway companies (TOCs) offer camping coaches to the general public, while they are ideal for railway enthusiasts.

## Locations

### Formerly

#### Eastern Region

* Corton, East Suffolk
* Felixstowe Pier, East Suffolk
* Hopton, Norfolk
* Lowestoft North,
* Mundesley,
* Oulton Broad South,

#### North Eastern Region

* Robin Hood's Bay,
* Scalby,
* Cloughton
* Bolton Abbey
* Goathland, Yorkshire
* Kettleness
* Ravenscar
* Sandsend
* Sandsend (East Row)
* Stainton Dale
* Staithes

### Current

* Bere Ferrers, Devon
* Blue Anchor, Somerset
* Cloughton, North Yorkshire
* Coalport, Shropshire
* Dawlish Warren, Devon
* Ebberston, Allerston, North Yorkshire
* Glenfinnan, Highland
* Goathland, North Yorkshire
* Hayle, Cornwall
* Levisham, North Yorkshire
* Petworth, West Sussex
* Ravenglass, Cumbria
* Rogart, Highland
* St Germans, Cornwall

## Moorland Steam Railway camping coaches

The Moorland Steam Railway's camping coaches are all designs that pre-date the Second World War, leading to around three different company coaches being used. These are:

* Two Metropolitan Railway composite coaches at Northrop.
* One GWR Clerestory brake coach at Northrop.
* Two ex-LNER Gresley 61ft coaches at Burshton North.

## Trivia

   The camping coaches are a series of ready-to-run and kit-built rolling stock that have had their original interior replaced by camping coach interiors bought off Shapeways or scratchbuilt by Shane Sowter.

* The Metropolitan coaches are from Shapeways (a full third and a composite).
* The Gresley coaches are repainted Hornby Railroad Gresley Teak Stock (repainted following the arrival of the new teak coaches by Hornby in 2019)
* The Clerestory coach is a defaced and repainted Hornby 'Old Slow Coach' from the 'Thomas & Friends' range (discontinued in 2018) and features a Shapeways interior and the correct Dean 7' bogies.