A VICTORIA railway coach that was thought to have been withdrawn from service in 1930 is the latest exhibit at North Dorset Railway’s exhibition at Shillingstone Station.

The Cannington Coach would have previously been in regular use for third-class passengers on the Somerset and Dorset Railway but ended up as a changing room at a tennis club.

When railway buff Mike Hodge caught wind of its existence, he secured a deal to bring it to his home in Cannington in Somerset.

Shillingstone Station said: “Back then the land behind Mike’s bungalow was an open field and it was fairly straightforward to get it into the garden with the help of the farmer and some of his son’s mates.

“Unfortunately, it was too long to fit the space in Mike’s garden, and a bit was lopped off, but what was left was lovingly restored, and used as a summer house.”

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Fast forward to the present day, Mike sadly died and his bungalow was subsequently sold.

Picture: North Dorset Railway

New owners Sarah Cripps and her partner George Pike did not see an old railway coach as part of their garden plan but wanted it to go to a good home, so they got in touch with Somerset and Dorset Railway Trust (S&DRT) who agreed to take it on.

S&DRT in turn contacted North Dorset Railway to see if it could be accommodated at Shillingstone Station.

A spokesperson said: “But, and it’s a big but, in the years since the coach was installed, the area behind the garden had been developed, and getting it out required a very big crane to lift it over the house and onto a low-loader, watched by many villagers and a BBC Somerset news crew.

“Sarah Cripps was delighted that it would be ‘going back to where it should be’.

“It has no chassis and the missing portion has to be replaced, so at some point it will go off for some TLC.”

But for now this rare coach, one of only a handful known, is in residence at Shillingstone Station, which is open Wednesdays and weekends between 10am and 4pm, and entry is free.