LNER Quad-Art Set

The Quad-Art set is the railway’s most historically important rake of coaches and has been described as “the most important coaches in preservation to not be housed in the national collection”. The reason for this importance is articulation. In the 1920’s & 1930’s all of the “big four” railway companies designed articulated coaching sets i.e. two or more carriage bodies sharing intermediate bogies. This allowed a reduction in weight, a reduced number of components and therefore maintenance, and closer coupling of individual carriages allowing a higher passenger capacity where train lengths had to be limited.

The Quad Art sets, as the name suggests, were four carriage articulated sets, built originally for the Great Northern Railway under Nigel Gresley who continued to build them under the London North Eastern banner post 1923. Our example, set 74, emerged in 1924. Gresley’s Quad-Arts were designed for the short platforms of the Kings Cross former Great Northern suburban lines. Steep gradients down the tunnels to Moorgate in London further exacerbated the need for such stock, especially given the universal problem of overcrowding from which all London suburban lines suffered from.

The Quad-Arts ran in permanently coupled pairs, creating a formidable eight coach train with an impressive capacity of over 600 whilst still fitting in the 350ft long platforms. The reduced weight allowed successful operation into Moorgate and also allowed fast acceleration of the steam locomotives in use at the time on the way in and out of the capital when making the frequently required station stops.

The interiors were basic: plain unbuttoned moquette on very thin bench seat backs and bases. The side and door panelling was oak matchboard. The bulkhead partitions had mahogany panelling below cornice level with three picture frames and wired luggage racks.

Set 74 spent around half of its life in original varnished teak livery but the London smog and continuous operation in tunnels and behind hard working steam engines meant the woodwork was perpetually dirty and increasingly hard to maintain despite regular re-varnishing. By the early 1950’s, having been passed onto British Railways the coaches were painted into crimson livery (and later maroon). The 1960’s saw the steam motive power replaced by diesels but the wooden Quad-Arts were now dated and showing the effects of a hard life.

Following over 40 years’ intensive use, the last sets were finally withdrawn from the Great Northern lines in April 1966 having latterly been retained to cover as spares for their replacements: the steel bodied Mark 1 suburban sets. The last Quad sets (67, 79 and 90) were transferred to Sheffield and worked local summer specials until their final withdrawal in September 1966. The others, including set 74 withdrawn in early 1966, had never regularly strayed from the lines on which they were built for.

Preservation