John Quick, GCR historian and Trustee of the GCR Rolling Stock Trust

Intended as the primary historic train set of the greater Great Central Railway, the fleet of four "Barnum" carriages collected at Ruddington, operated by the GCR Rolling Stock Trust, is part of the growing movement to undertake restoration on this substantial GCR vehicle fleet. Consisting of nine carriages, the earliest is a 6-wheeler dating from 1888. How did the "Barnum" carriage evolve?

The "Barnum" saloons began to enter service during 1910. Their introduction marked the beginning of the final period of GCR passenger carriage design. Although internally they were rather austere by comparison with earlier London Extension stock, externally they broke all previous rules of construction and manufacture. The traditional panelled sides and ends were

absent and would not return. The body sides were quite plain the lower section being relieved by distinctive bevel edged match boarding in teak. At 60ft length over the headstocks, 9ft wide and nearly13ft in extreme height, these carriages used the company's load gauge to the maximum.

American practice

During the early part of 1905, four officers of the company visited the USA in order to represent the GCR at the Washington Railroad Congress. Although Chief Engineer John G Robinson was not a member of the group, he was clearly impressed with the reports of his colleagues regarding railroad practice and the innovations that came with production engineering. Other outside influences that may have affected the design were the NER in the shape of its former C&W engineer H Worsdell and H Lord formerly of the L& Y.
The "Barnum" nickname originated in the design of the staff carriages built in Stoke for the American Barnum & Bailey's circus touring train. Features in the design were repeated in the GCR carriages and this resulted in the GCR saloons having a distinctively American appearance.


New carriages from new works

The new saloons were built for excursion traffic, the income from which must have formed a very useful proportion of the pre- grouping companies' passenger receipts. At their meeting on 8th October 1909, the locomotive and wagon committee approved the construction of 30 saloon carriages -"to take the place of some old excursion saloons now being converted for use in the conveyance of emigrants". The same committee gave approval for the other type of "Barnum", a batch of 6 brake saloons, on17th December 1909. They were all built at the company's brand new works at Dukinfield, being the first passenger vehicles to be built there to take advantage of the latest production methods.

High, wide and roomy

Passengers entered via the recessed doors at the ends of the bodies. Here was a vestibule with a water closet on the left and. a lavatory on the right with both hot and cold water. The floors of these compartments were covered with mosaic tiles and the windows with 1/4 inch obscure glass into which was etched the company's coat-of-arms. Provision was made to prevent the water, which was stored in under-roof tanks from freezing in severe weather. Entrance to the main saloon was made through a single sliding door. The saloon contained four pairs of tables that could be folded away when not in use. With 64 seats in the saloon, an unusual feature was that alternative seat covering was provided, with rattan woven seats for the summer and upholstered seating for the winter. An electric bell push for summoning an attendant was fitted with an ash tray/match striker. Access to the second identical saloon was through another lockable sliding door. The brake saloons, which featured unusual recessed sliding doors to the brake compartment, were half brake, half saloon with a capacity of 32 seats.
Those GCR excursionists must have enjoyed an uninterrupted view because the seating was perfectly aligned between the massive 4ft gin wide widows. Now compare this with present day stock. The under frame common to both saloon and brake was made entirely of steel. It was insulated from the body by cushions in an attempt to minimise the transmission of vibration. The bogies were another Robinson innovation with a massive wheelbase of 10ft 6in set at 41ft 6in centres. They were made from pressed steel and were carried on Brunswick steel disc wheels of 3ft 7Y2in diameter. The result was an exceptionally smooth ride. To enable the "Barnums" to work over other companies' lines they were fitted with both vacuum and Westinghouse air brakes, although the latter were removed in later years.

Versatile in use

There are very many photographs of trains containing one or more of these saloons. They could be used as dining cars as one published view shows but they were also employed in ordinary express services or even, in their later lives, in stopping trains. Their size however posed serious restriction on certain lines as they were outside the loading gauges of some companies.
As saloons however, they were allocated to main stations on the GCR system and strict instructions were issued that they had to be returned to their home stations after a journey. London, Leicester, Nottingham, Sheffield and Manchester all had "Barnum" allocations though Mexborough too had an allocation of 2 vehicles which is a good indication of how much excursion traffic originated from that place.

Varnished teak and brass

With the arrival of the new stock on the system in 1910 came a new livery. The first GCR two-tone colour scheme of dark oak and French white, subsequently replaced by dark oak and cream had never been successful or indeed very practical. The teak wood that now took the place of mahogany of the earlier panelled bodies has an oily surface, which does not readily accept paint, so Robinson decided that the new vehicles would have a natural finish protected by varnish. At the same time the old styles of applying the various numerals and class designations were dropped in favour of brass letters and numerals fixed to the match boarding.
So the whole product projected the image of the GCR passenger carriage very firmly into the 20th century. Earlier passenger stock, despite the attractive liveries and traditional construction style belonging to the 1890s started to leave the higher costs of maintenance behind by adopting a new varnished wood look.
The "Barnums" suffered little change over the years with the exception of the window mechanisms and ventilation. The original droplights were considered to be too draughty in operation, so these were replaced with a conventional fixed window and a rather disfiguring top light, another of those quirks that matched the LNER's insistence on the coffee pot chimney in place of the stylish Robinson originals.
The "Barnums" remained in their basic livery and survived into BR days - the last one being withdrawn in late 1958. Some even received the carmine and cream of early BR days but is probable that most were taken out of traffic in LNER livery. Some were seen with BR prefix and suffix which being rather smaller that the transfers used by the LNER looked a little out of scale.

The Barnum survivors

Today we are very fortunate in that no less than 4 vehicles have survived into preservation, these being 3 saloons and a brake. The GCR Rolling Stock Trust owns three of these and the fourth is on lease as part of the national collection, being from the National Railway Museum. On withdrawal from revenue traffic, E5664 and E5666 were altered for use in departmental work. The former became DE320540, the Darlington tool van. E5666, renumbered DE320709, a mobile workshop for the Peterborough area. DE320540 was purchased from BR in 1971 went to the preserved Severn Valley Railway. It changed owners in 1979 and was taken to Loughborough where it spent some years. It was then sold by Main Line Steam Trust and moved to Ruddington for restoration.
DE320709 was in use at Doncaster for some time before moving to Wrawby Junction. There it was used as an office and was installed on an isolated piece of track opposite the signal box. Its historical significance was recognised and it became stored at Loughborough. The brake saloon formerly GCR 695 in left traffic to become the Newcastle mess van. It subsequently moved to North Yorks line during October 1970, with extensive work on the running gear being undertaken by the "Barnum" group there. It too now rests at Ruddington.

The final vehicle to enter preservation, GCR 228 was "found" in Alexandra Docks in Hull. While its use there was with the Hull Docks Engineers it was latterly converted into a tomato-growing hothouse with three stoves! It became a part of the Kim Booker collection and was bought at auction for some £350.00, or it was to go for scrap.
This vehicle was moved to Ruddington in October 1997 and substantial work has been progressed on it since.