LNER Gresley Open Third (TO) No 43612 was built at York in 1934. It was withdrawn from BR service in 1963 and used as an office until condemned in 1977.
43612 came to the SVR from Norwich in 1979. For some years thereafter it was owned by Messrs. Gardner Shaw[1], a Brierley Hill soft drinks firm, although by 1998 it had been acquired by SVR(H)[2].
Following a lengthy and comprehensive restoration at Bridgnorth and Kidderminster, the carriage first appeared in traffic in September 1996.
Early in 2016 ownership was transferred to the SVR Charitable trust. Its scheduled for overhaul at Kidderminster Carriage Works in 2017 when its hoped that minimal structural work will be needed. However the roof canvass dates from the mid-1980s and not surprisingly a new one will be required, together with routine work to ensure that the roof planks are firmly attached to the framework. The 16 tables fitted as part of its 1996 overhaul were, for reasons of cost, not of a standard railway type and are now life expired, so a replacement set is on order, this time following the original robust LNER design that has been successfully used since 1997 in the other 3 SVR based TTOs.
Sources
Railway Heritage Register Carriage Survey
LNER (SVR) Coach Fund