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Southern Railway
Maunsell Brake Composite No. 6575

No. 6575 in 'Bluebell Blue' with Stepney at the 50th Anniversary
of its arrival on the Railway, 17 May 2010 (Richard Salmon)

Built specifically to form a single-coach portion of the Bournemouth–Newcastle service to be detached to serve Bradford or Leeds, this coach contains all the elements required for a self-contained train, i.e. first- and third-class accommodation, lavatory, luggage space and a compartment for the guard.

6575 demonstrates well the advances made in coach design in the late 1920s. The high windows on the corridor side, in addition to allowing standing passengers a view of the passing scenery, also lend the coach a distinguished look, especially when married to the ornately lined sage green livery. Note also that, on the corridor side, half of the "doors" are not doors at all. Many's the hand that, in spite of the "No Exit" notice on the inside, has felt out of the window for the non-existent door handle!

In 1948 No. 6575 was formed, along with Third Brake 2792, into 2-set 'R' No. 23 for Waterloo-West of England services. The two photographs below show Set 23 in use in the Wadebridge area in the 1950s, first in Carmine Lake and Cream livery, and later in Southern Region Green.

S.C.Nash's photo shows 6575 as the rear coach behind Beattie well tank 30586 skirting the Camel Estuary with the 11.55 service from Padstow to Wadebridge on 2 July 1954. The later photo, from the collection of Peter Quilley shows the coach after being repainted into BR(S) green, behind Adams O2-class 30199 at Wadebridge.

One of the Bluebell's first two coaches (the only two for the first year), this vehicle was at first painted "Bluebell Blue". By 1974 it was practically falling apart, and was withdrawn from use until its overhaul started in 1979. Returning to traffic in 1981, having received a complete rebuild, 6575 was one of three vehicles selected in March 1992 for use in the feature film Chaplin. They were away from the railway for one weekend, being moved by road to the BR depot at Cricklewood, from whence they were used in the filming of a scene at the pre-Eurostar St. Pancras station. In the film, Robert Downey Jr. (as Charlie Chaplin) may be seen disembarking from the first-class corridor side door of the vehicle.

With a leaking roof and the general deterioration of both the interior and the structure at the brake end, 6575 was withdrawn from service at the end of November 2000 requiring an intermediate overhaul. The carriage was covered with a tarpaulin and remained in open storage until 2010, when it was given a full repaint into "Bluebell Blue" (having been taken back to bare metal) for the railway's 50th Anniversary celebrations in May 2010.

With little prospect of resources becoming available to overhaul/restore 6575, the carriage was allocated space in the new OP4 carriage storage shed at Horsted Keynes. On 30 November 2017 it became the second vehicle to be shunted into the new structure.

Under the auspices of the SR Coach Group a start has been made on its overhaul, initially stripping out and refurbishing/revarnishing the compartment interiors; we don't yet know when space will be found for it to enter the works for the structural and external elements of the overhaul to take place.

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Type: Corridor Brake Composite
Built: 1929 at Eastleigh (E363)
Original No: 6575
Other Nos: S6575S
Seating: 12 1st class, 32 3rd class
Length: 59'
Restriction: 4
Weight: 32 tons
Withdrawn: 1959
Preserved: 1960
To Bluebell: 17/5/1960

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