Compagnie Internationale de Wagons-Lits - Night Ferry Sleeping Car No. 3801

Photo: Richard Salmon

The Night Ferry service from London to Paris was inaugurated in 1936. This coach, although built in Paris in 1939, was not completed until after the war, and even then the Night Ferry service did not resume until December 1947. It was on the last Night Ferry service in 1980, and was stored subsequently at Ostend.

It returned to the UK, again by ferry, after purchase by a group of the Bluebell's working members for use as overnight sleeping accommodation. It has been repainted from the later light-blue SNCF livery to the deep-blue CIWL colours. It is a somewhat unusual, but none-the-less appropriate, coach for the Bluebell's collection of predominantly Southern Railway stock.