A MUSEUM has unveiled the result of a five year project to restore Britain’s busiest rail vehicle.

Locomotion in Shildon gave visitors a chance to climb inside the refurbished 2HAP carriage, which travelled a record-breaking 2.7m miles and has carried an estimated 5.3m passengers in its career.

Timed to coincide with the carriage’s 60th anniversary, the museum held an open event for visitors to see behind the scenes of the workshop and learn about volunteering.

The project to restore 2HAP was started in 2014 by railway enthusiast Chris Osman from the Network South East Railway Society. After assembling a restoration team, initially at the National Railway Museum in York, the project moved to Locomotion in 2015. At Shildon, the inhouse workshop team and volunteers, began stripping the carriage back to bare metal ready for repainting.

Once all the repairs were complete, the carriage body was repainted with Network South East livery on one side and British Rail blue and grey on the other and by October 2018, the floor and and seats were reinstalled.

Mr Osman said: “Without our team of volunteers who were active in York and Shildon, the restoration could not have been completed.”

Yesterday’s 2HAP day was part of a season of public events and activities at Locomotion for its 15th anniversary which falls on September 22.