The Quad Arts are unusual in that 'normal' carriages have bogies (wheels) at each corner
and are individual units. However these are unique in that, as their name implies, the
carriages are 'articulated' so that each coach in the four coach set shares a common bogie
with the adjoining coach: so the 'set' of four coaches has only five bogies rather than
the more normal eight. The only other train that operates within the UK with this
configuration is the 'Eurostar' whose manufacturer claimed that the design was a great
leap forward. Obviously they were unaware that in 1923 coaches were built in the UK using
the same design! |
| By the time you read this the Quad Arts will
be at Carnforth beginning their two-year restoration. Having sat at Holt for almost a
generation it was decided last February that in the wake of the success with the Heritage
Lottery Fund with both Sheringham station and the B12, an application should be made for
the Quad Arts. With organizations like the HLF it is only half the battle to identify a
worthwhile cause, the other half is to qualify as an organization responsible enough to
run an HLF aided project. |
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Due to our recent record, half the job was already done and therefore all our energies
were put into demonstrating that the train was important enough to be worthy of a grant.
Our cause was considerably helped by the National Railway Museum in York which had done a
point scoring exercise on all the coaching stock in preservation, numbering now in the
thousands. In an order of importance of stock requiring restoration the Quad Arts came out
as Number 1, scoring over double the number of points of the vehicle that was second.
(Continued on page 6)
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