This Restaurant Unclassified, built to diagram 23, and subsequently modified to diagram 29 with the removal of 4 seats and the addition of a small buffet counter cut in a partition, was purchased primarily as a source of spares, but has not in fact been stripped, due to the subsequent availability of suitable parts from other sources. For the previous decade it was in departmental service as HST barrier vehicle ADB 975982.
The passenger area is in original 1960's condition, apart from the removal of its fixed tables and loose chairs. With its body structure also unaltered in departmental service, it is eminently restorable to original condition.
With no use for it on the Bluebell, thanks to our two operational RMBs, and a Southern Railway Maunsell Restaurant/Buffet also in the queue awaiting restoration, this coach was sold to the Kent & East Sussex Railway, leaving the Bluebell in August 2003.
Type: RU(B) (Restaurant Unclassified with Buffet), Diagram 23, later 29
Built: 1961, Underframe at Ashford, body at Swindon (Lot (30)632)
Original No: E1987
Other Nos: ADB 975982 (HST barrier vehicle)
Seating: 29 unclassed (originally 33)
Body Length: 64' 6"
Weight: 38 Tons
Preserved: 1993
To Bluebell: 1993
Left Bluebell: August 2003
Current status: see Carriage Register entry for this vehicle