Continental

The first 4 images below were sold at the Sept 19th Vectis auction and I am grateful to Vectis for permission to reproduce them. I had never seen a real Darstaed (Suisse) coach before and I am stunned by how superb they are. No wonder Andries bought the name and tooling in 1992. We hope to start remaking these in 2011 and the first rake will be the Night Ferry, which ran from Victoria to Paris Gard du Nord from 1936. This was a very heavy train as the coaches were mainly blue CIWL Sleeping cars (Wagons Lits) plus one or two fourgons and until the opening of the Channel Tunnel was the only through train between London and Paris.

It used the newly constructed Train Ferry Dock at Dover and one of the three specially constructed train ferries. The first train left Victoria at 10.00am each day, arriving at gard du Nord at 08.55am the next day. The return journey left Paris at 09.50am, arriving London at 08.30am next day. In 1936, the inaugural year, a return ticket was £9 5/ - in First and £7 2/- in Second. The 3 train ferries spent the war on active service but the 12 cars were requisitioned by the Germans, from whom only 7 were recovered after the war. The service resumed in 1947 and in 1957 a sleeping car for Brussels was added. In 1967 a similar car for Basle was included but was withdrawn two years later. 

The price of these most beautiful coaches is likely to be £250-£300 each. The 4 below sold for around £500 each at the above mentioned auction. 4 other coaches in the auction on Nov 21 made around £475 each.