Camping Coach

[pauly]

Has there ever existed a narrow gauge camping coach or where they all standard gauge?

Iv got a Bachmann Thomas range Clarabel that I got cheap on sale and Im not sure if I should make an honest coach out of it or convert it to a camping or grounded summer house coach.

[IrishPeter]

I have a dim recollection of reading somewhere that the NCC had sent one of the old Ballymena, Cushendall and Red Bay 'trams' to Ballycastle as a camping coach in the mid-1930s.

Ailsa converted F39 (the old Foxdale coach) as a camping coach for his own use in 1967/8. I remember it in blue and yellow either OOU or being used by the PW lads as their mess hut in 1977/8. It was restored and reentered traffic as a passenger vehicle in 1979.

Peter in AZ

[Marquis DeCarabas]

Yep; Peter's right there were a couple of 3' campers aside from F39, all on the Ballycastle ISTR.

[IrishPeter]

I racked down a reference to the Camping ("Caravan" in NC-speak) Coaches in Paterson last night. It was the Doagh Bogies rather than a couple of the old BCRB trams that went up to Ballycastle. They had been built as saloon carriages on a 40' by 6' pressed steel underframes, so width would not be an issue if you wanted to do an SM32 version. Their narrow width - 6'2" - suggests they were built to the Cushendall's loading gauge rather than the B & L's. The NCC boat train carriages were 8' wide at the waist, and most B&L section stock was 6'6"to 7' wide. Cushendall passenger vehicles were 6'3" wide.

Peter in AZ

[IrishPeter]

I got hold of a copy of Paterson's book on the Ballycastle Railway secondhand. It seems that there were four caravan coaches at Ballycastle which makes me wonder if they were all Doagh Bogies. I think there were only two Doagh bogies which makes me think the other two were probably Cushendall 'Trams.'

Peter in AZ

[pauly]

Thanks for the info, Iv finished the model by the way.