Fleet No.:                F.51 (Formerly B.3 / B.5, Later R.1)

Configuration:      3 3 3 + 3 3 3

Makers:                   Metropolitan Carriage & Wagon Co., Ltd.

Year:                       1912 (Mounted On Bogies)

Status:                   Body Scrapped / Frames Off-Island 

The "pairs" coaches were so-called because they were constructed by placing a pair of original four-wheel coaches from 1873/1874 onto bogie underframes; this was carried out by the Railway Company between 1911 and 1926 and the coaches went on to be used for many years, latterly on the schools' trains.  The bracketed numbers above denotes the original coach number and configuration of the four-wheeler "3 3 3" being three open third class compartments, "3 / 3 / 3" three enclosed third class and so on.  F.51 saw service latterly on schools' trains and was one of those to have been broken up so that the underframes could by used in conjunction with the short-lived "Mantainor" scheme during the season of 1968 when Lord Ailsa was operating the network.  The bodies were initially discarded to the side of the yard at St. John's (where they feature on several photographs in the background of the dead loco line-up) before being scrapped completely later that year.  The scrapping by Lord Ailsa's men caused some consternation from the Railway Company whose permission had not been saught prior to scrapping, further straining relations with the operators.  The underframes were later sold the Ffestiniog Railway in 1974; for future fate please refer to the "R" class article in the freight stock section.