Work has started at the Tanfield Railway near Stanley in County Durham to restore a 150-year-old railway carriage.

Work is taking place in the railway’s workshop at Marley Hill to restore North Eastern Railway Carriage No. 1173, a wooden-bodied four-wheel First-Class saloon that entered service in 1870.

The carriage was fully overhauled in 1892, then in 1897 it was converted into an Officers Saloon for use by Mr. Philip Burtt, who was Superintendent of the North Eastern Railway.

Burrt began his career on the North Eastern Railway in 1882 as a junior clerk in the Goods Manager’s Office before progressing to Chief Clerk in the General Manager’s Office until being promoted to Superintendent in 1897.

Philip Burtt continued to use carriage No. 1173 until 1911. By then, he had been promoted to General Traffic Manager.

During its conversion to an Officer’s Saloon, Carriage No. 1173 was fitted with seating to accommodate ten people, three windows were installed at one end of the carriage, and the other end of the carriage was fitted out as an attendant’s compartment with a small gas cooker and gas ring.

After Philip Burtt’s retirement, 1173 was allocated for use by the District Engineer and for the next 30 years it was often stationed next to platform 1 at Hull Paragon Station.

One of the reasons why 1173 survived long after other carriages of similar age and design had been withdrawn was that it continued to be used in active service.

It was also used in the 1970s film the Railway Children starring Jenny Agutter, part of which was filmed on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway in West Yorkshire.

Among the tasks required to reinstate Carriage No. 1173 to operational use are fitting a replacement buffer beam that is currently being manufactured, a full mechanical overhaul, and complete repainting.

The interior will also be sympathetically restored to provide a First Class Party Experience for visitors.

The carriage will also provide useful extra seating on the Railway’s popular Afternoon Cream Tea train services that run from March to the end of September.

The Tanfield Railway is hoping that the restoration of Carriage No. 1173 will be completed in time to celebrate the line’s 300th anniversary in 2025 when it will be 155 years old.

Restoration is not a new venture at the Tanfield Railway, as it had previously started restoring a narrow gauge Black Hawthorn 0-4-0ST locomotive Portugesa and built a shed to house the locomotive, although its restoration is being completed at the Statfold Barn Railway in Staffordshire.

The Tanfield Railway has also benefitted from the new Tyne and Wear Metro depot recently constructed at Gosforth, as it received a considerable amount of redundant materials from the Gosforth site.