643 is a Gresley buffet car built at York in 1937 to diagram 167. It was one of six built for Great Eastern section excursions and cross country expresses, and is believed to have been used on fast five coach Liverpool Street-Cambridge services (known colloquially as "Beer Trains"). In common with other Gresley buffet cars of the period it had electric cooking facilities powered by large axle driven dynamos (or landlines when stationary) with an attractive art deko interior finished in Rexine; in this case gold and red. Loose seating was provided in the form of tubular chromed chairs. Sometime during the late 1950/early 1960s period it was extensively rebuilt with gas cooking, enclosed bar, and MK 1 style grey Formica interior decor, in which form it survived in BR ownership until 1977.
643 arrived on the SVR shortly after withdrawal by British Rail in 1977 and in their then current livery of blue and grey. It was initially purchased for the SVR by Messrs. Gardner Shaw[1], a Brierley Hill soft drinks firm. Following arrival it was quickly restored externally to varnished teak livery, and saw service (with one largely cosmetic intermediate overhaul) until being withdrawn to be comprehensively restored over 4 years by LNER Fund volunteers to original internal and external condition in 1987. Just before withdrawal, it was one of the coaches used in the filming of the television series Hannay. It subsequently ran for a short time with the original loose chairs, but proved much more popular with passengers after these were replaced with BR Mk1 second class "2+ 1" seating.
By 1998, ownership had been passed to SVR(H)[2]. 643 returned to service in April 2014, following a 4 month visit to the paint shop[3]. In early 2016 ownership was transferred to the SVR Charitable Trust, and 643 regularly forms part of Set N, the LNER & GNR Teak carriages.
Sources
Railway Heritage Register Carriage Survey