Still in Golden Arrow livery. Should be a bit of a challenge for the resto boys!
Yes and no! It comes complete with new ends made in teak. Apparently they were part way through restoring it at Carnforth, when it was decreed that there were too many 1951 cars going into the Orient Express and a 1928 car should be restored in it's place.
The cost of restoring Carina probably immaterial, although I think as well that it looks worse than it really is. The restoration is being funded by a very rich individual so that it can go to the Bluebell in exchange for their 5-Bel car "Doris", which is to be restored for main line running as part of the revived "Brighton Belle". We'll probably never know how much it is all going to cost but the scale of the work is epic, because they are effectively cutting the underframes out of the Pulmans and replaling them with the underframes and motor bogies from more modern EMUs, and also replacing the BS gangways with Pullman gangways. The paperwork this is generating to satisfy the ORR is monumental! The LNERCA is considering using the same company to shorten the underframe for ECJS 189 and I was shown the BB work when I went to discuss our project with them.
"Carina" is built on what is essentially an LNER underframe. Construction of the underframes was started before the war and was for a batch of cars originally intended for use on the LNER, so presumably it made sense to adopt the LNER design (plus it was probably the best around at the time). The underframes were stored during the war and by the time they were completed the need for them had switched to the Golden Arrow services .
I believe that the deal with the Bluebell was to swap the coaches but to bring Carina up to the same level of restoration as Doris, the latter is a complete coach but would need a good makeover before working on a preserved line, Carina also has a kitchen which matches the Bluebells needs, but unlike Doris they would not have to convert the coach from it's original electric use. As an Eastern enthusiast living in Sussex, also being a Bluebell member, apart from the Howlden saloon we're starved of anything Eastern, I'd prefer for us to have the LNE axleboxes although I'd probably be out voted by the purists down here. Although a while ago, seeing Green Arrow in BR green at Sheffield Park was a real treat, what a machine, pity all the focus and money is currently on 60103.
The cost of restoring any coach properly is not cheap, The Bluebells Fingall cost close on £200k to complete quite some time ago, but a fair bit of that work was outsourced. She is currently in the Horsted Keynes carriage works for some repairs but won't be out again until the end of 2012. If you have a chance to look in any of the older Pullman coaches it is well worth it. The woodworking, brass fittings and detail are phenominal.
They did, and I suspect that Carina's original compound bolster bogies are running under one of the restored cars. The bogies that Carina is now on probably came from one of the LNER BGs that VSOE bought to provide spares such as Pullman gangways and dragboxes - these were needed to convert former Brighton Belle cars that were fitted with British Standard gangways and screw couplings as built. A few years later the LNERCA descended on the remains of the BGs at Carnforth and recovered whatever LNER fittings remained before they were disposed of for scrap.
