Carriage 2060 is a WHR one-off. Its continental heritage is immediately apparent.
It was bought second-hand in Romania and partially refurbished before being brought to Boston Lodge in 2007 where it underwent a lengthy process of fitting out before finally entering service on the WHR where it has mostly been employed in the secondary train set.
At the time it was purchased it was reported that there were a number of similar redundant carriages in Romania and the idea was these vehicles might be a quicker and cheaper way of increasing the fleet ready for the re-opening of the section from Rhyd Ddu to Porthmadog. (Quicker and cheaper, that is, than building carriages from scratch at Boston Lodge.)
Our model is made from a Worsley Works brass scratch-aid kit.
As with all Worsley products the model you end up with reflects the amount of work you're prepared to put into it, and Himself put a lot of effort into making the roof and blending it into the sides of the carriage to make it look like a smooth, welded bodyshell. The ribs along the top of the roof are also particularly effective, as is the paint job around the window frames.
The carriage runs on bogies from an N gauge Farish BR Pullman Carr, the Commonwealth Bogie being a pretty good match for the bogies bought over from Romania and re-gauged for use on the WHR.
Fortunately, in my opinion, and for various reasons, 2060 has not sparked an influx of immigration from Eastern Europe while Boston Lodge has continued designing and making indigenous modern WHR carriages and a new generation of FR 'Superbarns'.
Much taller and slimmer than the other WHR stock it is far too continental looking for my tastes and a fleet of these Romanian carriages would make the WHR look too much like the Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway of the 70's and 80's, with their Alpine and African carriages, before they embraced their GWR heritage with those lovely Pickering replicas.
(No slur intended on the W&LLR, by the way.)
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