When I first in the late 1980s began my research into the Great Western Railway’s Camp Coach scheme, using local newspaper appeals to try to find folk who had participated in the holiday provision in converted carriages, it was to be expected that the some of the responses I received might not necessarily be GWR, but would include contributions related to the LNER, LMS and the Southern. By far the greatest proportion of these non-GWR replies came from folk who had been on such a vacation in a coach provided by the London Midland & Scottish Railway. Many of the memories and photographs these people supplied were simply too special to ignore and came in such profusion as to easily form the basis of a separate in-depth study. And you soon learned why so many ex-LMS coach campers got in touch – it simply was a huge well-booked scheme, its total of 232 coaches available for hire just before World War II being far in excess of the combined total of its three rivals in the field, which it entered, along with the GWR, in the early summer of 1934. So there were still many people with 1930s camping coach experiences and in a position to respond.
Oddly, the LMS company initially appeared reluctant to enter the competition for holiday business. Early in 1933, when the LMS President Sir Josiah Stamp invited suggestions for improving its services, he received a reply from Papworth Hall in Cambridge, from the splendidly-named Sir Pendrill Varrier-Jones: “Why not institute a caravan service, that is, a small old-fashioned saloon coach which could be hired at any station near the sea or in Scotland and then used as a caravan for a period of time, bringing the family back when the holiday is over... this would beat the growing practice of motor caravans which now are so popular... I want a holiday of this kind myself.”
In his reply, Mr. C. R. Byrom, the Chief Operating Officer of the LMS, expressed scepticism at the idea, so the company at first dragged its feet on the issue, but when later that year the London & North Eastern Railway introduced its pilot ten-coach scheme and then decided to increase the number of coaches for 1934, followed by the GWR announcing plans for starting up with its inaugural nineteen coaches that year, the LMS clearly felt under pressure to follow suit. The LMS and the GWR shared common territory in North Wales, with a similar situation in Scotland between the LMS and the LNER, and there was concern that potential holiday and passenger traffic might be lost to its rivals in those areas. A letter from General Manager Ashton Davies to the COO of 26th March 1934 reflected the changing attitude of the company:
“...I think the time has arrived when this Company should follow the lead of the other Companies... as a result of collaboration with Mr. Stanier, arrangements are
