Carriages
We have four carriages which are used on passenger trains, all of which have been built on site here at Launceston but to the same design as older carriages.
'Toastrack' Carriages
These carriages both feature reversible crossbench seats with a seating capacity of 40. These are affectionately known as the 'Toastrack' carriages.
No.1 - Built 1983
No.3 - Built 1988/9
Based on a Manx electric railway trailer car of 1893, this vehicle is built upon an extended 1917 American bogie flat of which hundreds were built for service on the field railways of World War 1. Following the cessation of hostilities in 1918 this vehicle was used on a quarry railway near Nemours in France. Imported to the UK in around 1969 by the late Peter Rampton, it was acquired by Nigel Bowman in 1982.
At Launceston its underframe was extended and the 'toastrack' seating was built using steel salvaged from the bicycle sheds from Park Barn School in Guildford. Its WW1 bogies built by the American Car and Foundry Co. were later replaced with WW1 German built bogies, built by Freudenstein in Berlin in 1017.
This was the third carriage built for the railway after No.67. Carriage No.3 has a similar history to No.1 but using new steel in place of "cycle shed" iron. It is still running on American bogies but will be soon converted over to use the German equivalents which were acquired from a forestry railway in Poland.
This carriage has a lightbox at both ends of the upper left windows.
Enclosed Carriages
No.67 - Built 1986
A replica build carriage of one that once ran on the Torrington & Marland 3 foot gauge line in Devon - which in turn was a rebuild of an ex London horse tram. Built on an underframe by Cravens Ltd. this carriage was originally a 4 wheeler but was later mounted on a new bogie underframe designed by John Ley who also demised the plate frame bogies which utilise wheelsets and axelboxes from ex-Admiralty ammunition vans. This carriage has had balconies added at each end to allow for wheelchair and pushchair access.
Plynlimon Carriage - Built 1993
This is the largest carriage on site. It is a replica of a vehicle built by Milnes of Birkenhead for the short lived Plynlimon and Hafan Tramway in central Wales. Construction was inspired by the discovery of large glass plate photographic negatives of the original carriage, taken when it was rolled out of the makers works. The bodywork of this carriage was built by Mr. Chris LaBas who discovered some first rate timber in a reclamation yard near Launceston. The underfame is carried on two German WW1 bogies built in Berlin in 1917.