Nutty idea from 1980 at Waverley - KP Adventure Express 'train'

I'll probably be roasted for the dry jokes, but seriously can anyone cast any light on this bizarre installation at Waverley?
I looks as though it might have resided at several main stations in turn.

I was around at the time but don't remember seeing it (I'm sure I would if I had). Some sort of promotional kiddies entertainment apparently.
Jog any memories?

This is amazing. I too would like some more information about this train.

That looks to me as if BR have bolted an aesthetic streamlined nosecone onto the end of their "Exhibition Train", which performed a range of different roles during the 1980s, though I could be mistaken.

I don't have any further information on the BR exhibition train to hand at the moment, but might be able to have a look later on if nobody beats me to it - There seems to be plenty of mention of it for anyone that performs a Google search.

The "Exhibition Train" was a rake of old Mk 1 vans (note the giveaway ventilators along the roof line) from the 1970s-80s which could be kitted out by a commercial company and taken round the country. Each time it normally got a full repaint as well, as here. I presume the nosecone at the end was made of pieces of fibreglass or similar, and like the shrouds over the doors was erected on arrival. Edinburgh Waverley was a favourite for these (not too many) tours, the bays at the east end, which got very little use at the time, were the normal location for it to spend a few days. I don't remember the KP Peanuts one but saw a couple of others there, along with the prototype refurbished DMU on tour. Attendance depended on large promotion boards put up at the other (busy) end of the main station building. They normally did a press release to Modern Railways magazine who would stick in a short paragraph about the forthcoming exhibition tours with a list of points

on a side issue, did anyone go to any of the gigs on the Be Stiff tour in 1978 for which Stiff Records hired their own train to travel between venues?

Performers were:

Wreckless Eric
Jona Lewie
Lene Lovich
Rachel Sweet
Mickey Jupp

Taunton said:

The "Exhibition Train" was a rake of old Mk 1 vans (note the giveaway ventilators along the roof line) from the 1970s-80s which could be kitted out by a commercial company and taken round the country.

Click to expand...

If this is the same train as I think it is, the then Department of Trade and Industry used it for a tour around the UK in the early 1980s.

I worked on this for two days when it visited Cardiff. It was stabled at Queen Street in what was then the bay platform (at the time either platform one or three, I forget which). This was just used for the Cardiff Bay (then Cardiff Bute Road?) services, which they moved to platform two for the duration.

gordonthemoron said:

on a side issue, did anyone go to any of the gigs on the Be Stiff tour in 1978 for which Stiff Records hired their own train to travel between venues?

Click to expand...

There is, in fact, a picture of one of the branded coaches for this train on the following site:
http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brexhibitiontrain

It looks like this utilised an earlier incarnation of the BR exhibition train, formed of ex-LMS coaching stock, some of which dated to the late thirties.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Taunton said:

The "Exhibition Train" was a rake of old Mk 1 vans (note the giveaway ventilators along the roof line) from the 1970s-80s which could be kitted out by a commercial company and taken round the country.

Click to expand...

They weren't all converted vans; much of the later mark 1 stock used during the eighties was actually converted passenger stock, mainly TSOs and BSKs.

Digging into some old records, the converted mark 1 vehicles were numbered 99600 to 99661, and were converted in batches between 1970 (99600/601) and 1986. In 1987, there were forty two such carriages available for use.

99654 - 99660 were converted from departmental stock, after a previous existance as TSOs, as part of the 150th Anniversary of the GWR. They kept their chocolate and cream livery for a few years while used for other exhibitions:
http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brmark1/h4943EAF0#h4943eaf0

I remember when I was about 9 years old, a pair of what I think we're mk1s stabled in one of the motorail sidings at Waverley. They had been decked out as exhibition vehicles for the hunchback of notre dame Disney film that was released sometime in 95 or 96. I was more in awe of being on a static, unusual train that the relatively nonsense film it was tastefully decorated to promote!

Good friend of mine acted as Train Manager for a jaunt around Eastern Europe - including Romania in the 1970's on a Rank Xerox sponsored outing. It was derailed in a Polish Yard (not badly) - and the PKP Top brass were very apologetic about it. (they reversed it into a set of buffer stops!) .....quite an adventure in the Cold War era.