Three former British Rail Mk.2 carriages, which were built between 1964 and 1975, have been refurbished at the Wensleydale Railway in North Yorkshire, just in time for its Christmas train services.

The refurbishment of BSO No. 9417 and TSOs Nos. 5279 and 5337 were carried out by a small team of paid staff and volunteers.

They took just over 3 months to carry out a detailed overhaul and refurbishment of the carriages, including significant repairs to the bodywork, refurbishing the interiors, and repainting each carriage.

Internally, the lighting was upgraded to LED, and a new set of batteries was installed.

The seating was refurbished and improved by removing the life-expired springs and armrests, upgrading the seat bases to memory foam, and improving passenger access.

Grinsty Rail Interiors of Nottingham completely reupholstered the seats.

Visitors will be able to experience the refurbished carriages in this year’s POLAR EXPRESS™, the 6th year that it has been in operation.

The Wensleydale Railway’s THE POLAR EXPRESS™ is one of the largest outside of North America, and is Yorkshire’s longest established, officially licenced, Polar Express Christmas event, and since 2019, over a quarter of a million have travelled on the Wensleydale Railway’s THE POLAR EXPRESS™ trains.

Matt Jervis, Director at Wensleydale Railway PLC, commented that a small team of paid staff and volunteers worked miracles, with results that not only improved the railway’s offering for Polar Express but would benefit the railway year-round whenever it used our locomotive-hauled coaching stock.

“This project was led by Rob Cooper-Williamson, our railway’s engineering and operations manager. It highlights the incredible work that our largely volunteer workforce does and their commitment to improving our customer experience. Grinsty Rail Interiors has done a great job reupholstering our seats. The work was done to a high standard, and to a tight budget and deadline. These seats are incredibly comfortable and a vast improvement on the older ones. I’m certain that our customers will agree too!”

Nick Keegan, Marketing and Fundraising Manager at Wensleydale Railway