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Southern Railway - Maunsell 1336 "Drop-light" Open Third (built in 1933)
Stripped of its interior before arrival on the Bluebell, its restoration commenced in 1998.
Richard Salmon

Type: Open Third
Built: 1933 at Eastleigh
Original No: 1336
Other Nos: S1336S, 081901, DS 70313
Seating: 56 3rd class
Length: 59'
Restriction: 4
Weight: 32 Tons
Withdrawn: 1961
Preserved: 1987
To Bluebell: 4/1988

This coach is an unusual design, with large opening windows, which drop into the bodyside. Its interior is an open saloon arrangement. Carriages of this design were used from 1930 in conjunction with kitchen dining cars to providing dining accommodation on prestigious trains such as the "Bournemouth Limited", and on services between London Waterloo and Portsmouth, Exeter or Weymouth, and Brighton to Cardiff services.

This particular carriage, built in 1933, ran until December 1961, being subsequently used as an office at Fratton until purchased for eventual restoration on the Bluebell Railway in 1987. The painstaking restoration commenced in 1998, and has been one of the most comprehensive ever undertaken by any UK heritage railway, involving the complete dismantling of the body down to the floor, and rebuilding using as much of the original material as had survived in good enough condition.

In the workshop, part-way through the reconstruction of the main body structure.
Richard Salmon