Great Western Coffee Shop

Hi,

How long have the disused carriages been at Thingley Junction? Were they used locally or are they from another part of the country?

as long as I can remember which is at least 7 years

They are scrap carriages that many many years ago were used on regional passenger trains.

Not much chance of them getting reinstated though!!

Many years ago Thingley Yard was used by a certain Professor John Kennedy to store his large collecton of preserved locomotives coaches and wagons untill suitable homes could be found.
these coaches were part of his collection which was vandalised and were deemed beyond repair and just abandoned on site

I'm not sure, but I think that at least some of the old Mark 1s abandoned at Thingley once bore the infamous Network S.E. 'Toothpaste' livery

Thanks for your replies everyone  ;) are they actually going to demolish all of the sidings at Thingley? It looks like they have taken alot of the track away and the platform inside the shed.

Thingley was being used by network rail as a scrap recovery site for rail ,whereby scrap rail from all over the place was being dumped there cut up into small bits and sold for scrap

... by the local pikeys?

All scrap worth anything has probably now been stolen!!!   ::) :'(

there was some stock in "toothpaste" livery.  I think the stock is still there but the coaches are in such bad contidition the livery is no longer visable. 

There is of course an argument that scrap stock gives the railway an uncared for look and only serves to attract thiefs and trespassers.  NR have done a fairly good job of clearing it away from some locations recently.

Thingley sidings of course have had a much more interesting existance previously.  They were heavily used during and after the war for marshaling when the box mines were a hugh amunition store.