Donegal guard coach

[16miller]

On the Wee Donegal there were bogie coaches with a passenger compartment at each end, the rest being for the Guard. They were used on freight trains. Were passengers permitted to travel on them when in use as a freight guards van? 

 

It surely would of been a slow journey! 

[airfixfan]

Yes indeed passengers could use the passenger brake coach espevially enthusiasts in the last decade. The Swilly did the same thing

Edited March 20 by airfixfan

[jhb171achill]

These were fully brake passenger coaches, rather than a goods brake with a few seats. 

Normally, a brake passenger vehicle had seats at one end, van at the other. But sometimes the van was in the middle, and the CDR standardised on this. The Bandon had a broad gauge one, and from memory the GSWR had a couple too, though I’d have to check. 

[airfixfan]

3 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

These were fully brake passenger coaches, rather than a goods brake with a few seats. 

Normally, a brake passenger vehicle had seats at one end, van at the other. But sometimes the van was in the middle, and the CDR standardised on this. The Bandon had a broad gauge one, and from memory the GSWR had a couple too, though I’d have to check. 

The Swilly used btake 3rds usually

[16miller]

On 24/3/2026 at 1:58 PM, jhb171achill said:

These were fully brake passenger coaches, rather than a goods brake with a few seats. 

Normally, a brake passenger vehicle had seats at one end, van at the other. But sometimes the van was in the middle, and the CDR standardised on this. The Bandon had a broad gauge one, and from memory the GSWR had a couple too, though I’d have to check. 

Did the Donegal freight trains stop at the relevant goods yards on thier journey to load and unload goods? 

[airfixfan]

Usually

[Galteemore]

What tended to happen was wagons were loaded for each station and then dropped off/collected en route. The unloading would happen by station staff  in slow time after the train had left. 

 

 

[jhb171achill]

9 hours ago, 16miller said:

Did the Donegal freight trains stop at the relevant goods yards on thier journey to load and unload goods? 

Yes, they were general goods trains. Some services were mixed, and railcar passenger services often had a couple of goods vans on the back which were picked up / dropped off at various stations en route.

[16miller]

On 27/3/2026 at 7:07 AM, Galteemore said:

What tended to happen was wagons were loaded for each station and then dropped off/collected en route. The unloading would happen by station staff  in slow time after the train had left. 

 

 

As I thought, a long journey for any passenger after the shunting to dropoff and collect wagons.