GWR VoR Summer Car

Detail of the chocolate and cream livery on a battered summer coach in VoR's Aberystwyth yards. In 1923 GWR commissioned four new steel-underframed "summer cars" for the VoR with an eye toward bolstering the line's tourist trade. Each car featured open side-panels, affording passengers both fine views and great drafts of mountain air. Carriage 5000 pictured here dates from that pioneering group of four. Four more such cars were added to the roster in 1938, and several remain in service to this day. My thanks to Richard Huss for helping to track down the history of this car.