New kitchen car for the SR's Wessex Belle luxury dining train arrives!

News item - dated 30th April 2001 - Photographs are copyright to Andrew P.M. Wright

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Swanage Railway's acclaimed Wessex Belle luxury dining train takes a major step forward with the delivery of its new tailored made £50,000 kitchen car for use on the Purbeck Line.

Pictured with the new kitchen car are Wessex Belle luxury dining train manager Pat Welham, kitchen car project manager Keith Lambert, trainee catering assistant Gemma Fox and catering assistant Richard Brake. Pat Welham's daughter Alice is the Wessex Belle's bar manager.

The new vehicle arrived at the Norden station road and rail interchange, just north of Corfe Castle, on a low-loader from the East Somerset Railway late on the afternoon of Monday, April 30th, 2001.

After the last service train of the day, rebuilt Merchant Navy Bulleid Pacific No. 35027 Port Line travelled from Swanage to Norden light engine to pick up the new Mark I kitchen car and take it back to its new base at Swanage.

"I'm over the moon - we can now upgrade and go forward to do more catering than we've ever done before as well as for special occasions. We've even got weddings booked on the Wessex Belle this year," said Wessex Belle manager Pat Welham.

The new £50,000 kitchen car is due to go traffic on the evening of Saturday, May 5th, 2001, when the Swanage Railway's new season of Wessex Belle luxury dining trains begin.

Overseeing the conversion of the new kitchen car in just six weeks has been Swanage Railway volunteer and retired project manager university lecturer Keith Lambert of Kimmeridge near Wareham.

"I got involved with the project following an article in the Swanage Railway Magazine saying that volunteers were required so I joined the audit committee," explained Keith.

"When we started on the carriage, there was nothing inside it at all - not even walls or ceilings," he added.

A former Mark I buffet car carriage with a kitchen at one end and seating at the other, the Swanage Railway's new kitchen car is No. S1937 which was built at BR's Birmingham Carriage & Wagon Co Ltd during 1959 as part of lot number 30513.

"We now have a complete kitchen on wheels and probably the most up to date kitchen on any railway. There's a state of the art kitchen in there," explained Keith.

"Conforming with the latest health and safety specifications, the kitchen car has new easily wipe down cleanable ceilings, floors and walls, new catering equipment, work surfaces and extractor fans, as well as a new electricity, gas and water supply.

"The whole idea of the design is to maintain total flexibility so if we want to make changes in the layout we can do so easily," he added.

The new kitchen car has two large gas cookers, enough preparation and cooking capacity to cater for up to 150 people, a dishwasher, several sinks for cleaning and vegetable preparation, plenty of preparation areas, a deep freeze, a refrigerator and power sockets all the way along the carriage so it can be easily updated with other pieces of equipment.

"This carriage has been around the railway for some ten years," explained Pat. "The railway drew up a plan for it to be a kitchen car about five or six years ago but it was shelved. This carriage went to Cranmore on the East Somerset Railway and there it stayed for lack of funds.

"Then a Stockpot Appeal was launched - which raised £2,000 - and the Swanage Railway pumped £50,000 into the project. The result of that is the magnificent kitchen car that you see here today," she added.

The new kitchen car replaces a cramped Mark I kitchen car not designed for the level and variety of catering needed for the Wessex Belle luxury dining trains which run on Saturday evenings from May 5 and throughout the summer.

"We realised that we had to have our own kitchen car designed to fit our own needs. I redesigned the original kitchen car plans, put a price on it and put it to the board which agreed to fund it," explained Pat.

The conversion work on the new kitchen car has been carried out by Cranmore Train Care and Maintenance Services based on the East Somerset Railway.

"We are indebted to them because they've had some hard times but stayed aboard with the project to produce such a brilliant quality job for us," explained Pat.

"It has been a very tight deadline - we did this in just over six weeks. We were always positive about it and expected it to be delivered on time. I didn't need to be relieved, I knew it was going to be here," said Keith.

"I'm looking forward to a really busy season on the Wessex Belle so we can give something back so another project can be done for the railway," added Pat.

The Wessex Belle luxury dining train is available for bookings all year round and runs regularly on Saturdays throughout the summer.

For more details:
- call 01929 427904 or leave a message on 01929 425800 extension 23
- or write to the Wessex Belle manager, Swanage Railway, Dorset BH19 1HB
- or visit our illustrated Wessex Belle pages for details of timetables and menus.