You can now interactively search the database using any of the criteria below. We would ask all new users to first look at the Search Guide.
| Search Criteria |
| Sort Order
Location Designed For Year Ascending |
The Carriage Survey Project is a consortium of the East Anglian Railway Museum,
the Midland Railway Trust
Limited, the Scottish Railway Preservation Society,
the Embsay and Bolton Abbey
Steam Railway and the Vintage Carriages Trust, in partnership with the Heritage Railway Association,
The National Railway Museum and The Transport
Trust.
The project is being co-ordinated by Michael Cope, of the Vintage Carriages Trust and is supported with grant aid from the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust. Please send all corrections, additions, photographs, requests for information to us by email
Railway Carriages represent an important aspect of the history of our country and this project will allow them to take their rightful place within our industrial and transport heritage. As an indication, over 400 of the 4,000+ carriages "preserved" within our country are over 100 years old. This survey will allow them (also others, younger - but still of importance) to be identified and recognised.
An important aspect of the project is to survey each carriage's present condition and record sufficient information to be able to assess its historical significance. Information is recorded on a computer database, so allowing comparisons and information retrieval to be readily accomplished.
The ease and flexibility of searching a computer database greatly assists study of all aspects of the contribution of extant railway carriages to our industrial and social history. The survey also allows vehicles of special merit to be identified - also those which for some reason or another are "at risk".
Other benefits include helping towards "Collections Management" - by allowing an assessment of how individual carriages compare with one another, not only within any particular Railway's or Museum's collection, but also when compared with similar carriages located at other sites within the UK. This has already proved very useful when making applications for Grant assistance towards conservation or restoration of specific carriages, and by putting preserving groups or individuals in touch with one another for the exchange of information and for the joint purchasing of raw materials or specially made items.