from.... THE ROBERTS COLLECTION Pt 2: A SOUTH EASTERN RAILWAY SELECTION – (RA4)
This photograph is thought to have been taken at Eltham, soon to be renamed Mottingham. These are the carriages of the ‘Club Trains’, run by the SER and LC&DR between London and Dover. The trains ran until the end of 1893, so the pictures must have been taken soon after this date.
The carriages were hired from the Wagon-Lits Company and shipped over from the continent. Each train comprised two First Class Saloons and a Fourgon (Baggage-Brake), running in competition with each other! Needless to say, both ran at a loss so the service was discontinued and the trains were stored at Eltham pending their return to France.
One of the Fourgons was later used on the Ostend-Vienna express. These are the only good photographs of these carriages known to me, with the exception of another of Roberts’ pictures, which shows a small part of a Fourgon behind a Class ‘F’ just arriving at Dover.
~ Phil Coutanche collection
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