#2339
GWR Super Saloons
🇬🇧 United Kingdom ·built by Great Western Railway· from 1931· class of 8 first class cars built to replace Pullman parlor cars
1 photo from Wikimedia Commons · credits & licences
- 1. GWR Super Saloons: Murgatroyd49· CC BY-SA 4.0
what is it?
The Great Western Railway Super Saloons were eight railway carriages developed to service the boat train traffic from London to Plymouth. Built to the maximum loading gauge to be more opulent than the rival Pullman Company coaches offered by rival railway companies, and all named after members of the British royal family, their success was short-lived due to the onset of the Great Depression of the 1930s. Taken out of service by British Rail in 1967, today five of the original carriages survive in preservation.
who runs it
base stats
Bars compare against all trains: 600 km/h (maglev), 1,700 seats; power, weight and number built on a log scale up to 20 MW, 1,000 t and 20,000 built.
fun facts
- First built 95 years ago, in 1931.
- Top speed is 1.2× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
- At full speed it would cover Amsterdam–Utrecht (≈ 40 km) in 15 minutes.
- 18.6 m long: about 4 cars parked nose to tail.
- Served for 36 years (1931–1967).
carriage / wagon: Unpowered passenger coaches or freight wagons, pulled by a locomotive.
spec sheet
- built
- 1931
- in service from
- 1931
- retired
- 1967
- status
- retired
- number built
- 8
- kind
- carriage / wagon
- origin
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- builders
- Great Western Railway, Swindon Works
- operators
- Great Western Railway, British Rail, Western Region of British Railways
- top speed
- 161 km/h
- power
- —
- gauge
- 1,435 mm standard gauge
- length
- 18.6 m
From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q17018562, Wikipedia: GWR Super Saloons (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-25.