A picture of the Weardale Coach

The handy thing about blogging is that you can involve people as a team working in a public dimension. John Askwith of the Weardale Railway heard about my enquiry and has furnished the first image I have seen of the coach (above). He says "I obtained it from the old British Railways Photographic Unit , West Offices, York circa 1978". There was no caption or details on the print. So when was it taken and where? The likely hunch is outside the old museum? Perhaps before it was destroyed as "worm eaten"? But marvel, here was this wonderful Weardale artefact that after surviving decades disappeared with very little trace from a museum sometime in the 1950s. Progress may be slow but as the other threads suggest, there are still a number of leads to follow up and if you read this and think you can add anything to the story of the Weardale coach do comment. Something I might add is to mention the Rolvenden coach. This was a similar sort of vehicle from the south east and which has also ended up associated with a preserved railway. In its case the British Transport Commission fully restored it. Some net searching will quickly get results :
1975-7059
Horse-drawn omnibus, Kent & East Sussex Rly, ex Tenterden Station, green and yellow road coach.
National Railway Museum, Station Hall
NRM; SH; TRACK06 from http://www.colonelstephenssociety.co.uk/NRM%20artifacts.html