For the 2022 season, the Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway (LCLR) needs a third passenger vehicle so it can run three-coach trains to cope with growing passenger demand.

A short coach is required as there is a limited platform length at Walls Lane station. The only one of the railway’s unrestored coaches that is suitable is the Nocton shooting coach known as the ‘Queen Mary’. It is now being restored without windows to provide a semi-open-air coach for this year’s train service.

Until now, the Nocton ‘Queen Mary’ coach has been unsuitable for use on the railway as a passenger vehicle. Access was from the ends over the bogies via sliding doors, but such access is no longer acceptable on health and safety grounds.

The name ‘Queen Mary’ came from estate workers at Nocton as the coach was for the owner and friends only. Hauled By the LCLR’s Simplex loco ‘Paul’, Queen Mary was used to transport shooting parties out to the estate with an ex-WWI ambulance van for the beaters, dogs, and the shot game.

The coach was built onto a steel-framed WWI War Department Light Railway Class D bogie wagon. It originally had sliding doors at each end, and is reported to have either had six ‘office’ type chairs or ten leather chairs. There was also a rack for drinks and a gun rack for the use of the estate shooting parties.

After the Nocton line closed around 1969, the coach was used as a taxi office in Boston which preserved the wooden body. It was later presented to the LCLR at Humberston but has never been used to carry passengers. When donated to the railway, it was in blue livery with white window frames.

The pressing need for a third ‘short’ passenger vehicle for the 2022 season called for a redesign of the vehicle to include a side entrance and a total overhaul of the bodywork, chassis, and bogies. To allow for a good circulation of air, no glass will be used in the windows. The resulting semi-open coach should prove a popular addition to the passenger fleet alongside a World War I Class D open wagon and an enclosed former Ashover Light Railway coach.

When it arrived at Humberston the coach was in a very dilapidated state and part of the underframe had been cut away to allow it to sit on the ground without bogies. The underframe was repaired and the main cross member and truss rods replaced but its conversion to a passenger vehicle was never completed and it was used instead as a stores van.

The Queen Mary being restored in 2022. Credit: Chris Bates

Whilst the van was in storage, the roof was recovered the roof, the sides re-clad with thin matchboard, and painted green and cream. Later, the panel and window frame which had been removed were subsequently reinstated. Since then the coach has been stored but until recently no work has been done on it, although it has seen occasional use on the railway on special demonstration trains alongside other ex-Nocton locos and rolling stock.

The railway hopes that the restoration will be completed in time for the coming season. When the job was started, it was found that most of the bottom bodywork framing was rotten. That has all been replaced, along with some of the body side framing. A completely new floor has been made and is ready for fitting, as is a new side door and a full set of seating. The ‘bogie men’ have also been working on a refurbished air-braked and an un-braked bogie for the vehicle.