Vintage Carriages Trust is able to offer its fleet of historic railway carriages for use in suitable film and television productions. Our carriages have appeared in over 80 productions to date.
This privately operated Heritage Railway is a perfect venue for film producers, featuring:
Will your carriages fit on another railway ?
The track gauge is the distance between the two steel rails.
The gauge for all carriages owned by Vintage Carriages Trust is 4 feet 8 1/2 inches, known as Standard Gauge.
The Isle of Man Steam Railway gauge is 3 feet 0 inches. In Ireland the gauge is 5 feet 3 inches.
There are many different narrow gauge railways (especially in Wales) with gauges of 2 feet 7 inches or less.
Will the brakes still work on another railway?
There are two different braking systems in use. Most steam locomotives and carriages on preserved railways use Vacuum brakes. All carriages owned by Vintage Carriages Trust use vacuum brakes. However, the Isle of Wight Steam Railway uses air brakes. The main line national rail network uses air brakes
Moving railway carriages by road need not be a daunting prospect. Before contacting a road haulier, make sure that you know the length and weight of the carriage.
It's worth building a couple of days contingency into your planning, to allow for traffic delays, floods, snow, etc.
Remember also that sometimes a police escort may be needed if the carriage is to travel on relatively narrow roads.
It normally takes about 1½ to 2 hours to load a carriage onto a road trailer, and a similar length of time at the destination to unload the carriage. If more than one carriage is to be transported, it is worth asking the haulage company if they will be using the same tractor unit and trailer or a different one. It is also worth asking if the road haulier proposes to sub-contract the job to another company.
Once the carriage arrives at the destination railway, it may need moving from the unloading point to the station where the filming will take place. Will the destination railway need any time to move the carriage? If the destination railway has a turntable, will the carriage need turning?
Is there a possibility of the filming over-running? If so, bear this in mind when booking the road trailer for the return journey. Also, check with the destination railway as to how long they will need to move the carriage from the station where filming is taking place back to the loading / unloading point.
The following road hauliers have experience of moving railway carriages by road:
DISCLAIMER: This information is provided solely as an aid to contacting road haulage companies. Vintage Carriages Trust will not accept any liability arising from the failure of any road haulier to fulfill a contract.
