London, Brighton & South Coast Railway
Stroudley 4w Brake Third No.676

Richard Salmon

Type: 4-wheeled Brake Third
Built: 1875 (or 6/76 ?) at Brighton
Number: 676
Seating: 30 3rd class
Length: 26'
Withdrawn: 30/6/1911
Preserved: 1998
To Bluebell: 17/5/1998

This coach body is owned by the Bluebell Railway Trust. Together with our Stroudley first, No.661, similar brake third No.949 and third No.328, they will form a complete LBSCR train dating from the same period as our two Terriers, also designed by William Stroudley.

Along with No.949 it was rescued from a farm near Cranleigh where it had been used as a storage shed since soon after the World War I. Originally oil lit, one lamp illuminated all three passenger compartments, which didn't have partitions above the tops of the seat backs.

A suitable Southern Railway van underframe has been obtained, and will be shortened to carry this body. Restoration work on the body of No.949 commenced in 2004 after completion of No.661 but it could be at least a decade before we see a complete Stroudley train with a Stroudley engine, which will then form the oldest standard-gauge train in the country.

The coach is stored on a temporary underframe under an overall tarpaulin.