New light shed on 'curious find' of LNER carriage in Belgium's second biggest city

New information has come to light following the "curious find" of an LNER carriage more than 500 miles from the East Coast Mainline.

Based in York, LNER connects London with Edinburgh, with several trains passing through Newcastle Central Station every day - some of which stop at Morpeth, Alnmouth and Berwick. However, a wooden removals truck bearing the company's name was unearthed during an excavation in Belgium's second-biggest city, Antwerp, last month.

A team from the Urban Archaeology department of the City of Antwerp unearthed the train carriage in the north of the city under a wall of an old fortress known as the Northern Citadel. The archaeologists were excavating the area in collaboration with organisations building the 'Oosterweel' link, a ring road around Antwerp.

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Femke Martens, consultant archaeologist, said: "It’s a mystery as to how the carriage came to be in Antwerp, and unfortunately there’s very little left of the relic as it disintegrated while being excavated. Upon closer examination, its only identifiable features were the inscriptions which included ‘FURNITURE REMOVAL TO HOUSE,’ ‘Enquire at any station,’ ‘BK769,’ (which identified the truck’s size – B – and its use, for furniture, - K) and crucially ‘LNER’."

LNER's internal research suggests that the "truck" was the first model of LNER removal, which was briefly in service around the year 1930. A much more common model was a blue edition, which was used more widely, making the discovery of the earlier model all the more rare and unique.

Stuart Thomas, LNER communications director, said: "This curious find has certainly generated lots of interest and we are delighted the team from the Urban Archaeology department of the City of Antwerp have helped shed more light on the discovery. We’re fascinated by LNER’s history, and we’d like to thank the team for their help in unearthing more information about LNER’s proud past."

Despite the interest in find, the carriage will not be making a return to the UK. There is said to be "very little left of the relic", which disintegrated while being excavated.