I NEVER cease to marvel over our amateur sleuths' ability to pick up on the remotest of clues.

Answers have come in thick and fast following a plea from a Moss Bank pensioner for details about a so-called glass train, turned out by the Pilkington glass empire more than 60 years ago.

And the most definitive reply has been forwarded by Ken Melling of Chancery Lane, Parr, who enclosed an article from the firm's 'Cullet' magazine dated October, 1937.

Rather than a glass train, as commonly referred to by the workforce, the project comprised a couple of exhibition coaches, destined to call at 39 towns and cities throughout the country, beginning with Liverpool.

The enterprise was carried out at Doncaster - dubbed 'the other St Helens' because of its major Pilkington presence - although experts and craftsmen from St Helens itself were also involved in the set-up.

The idea was to give a shop window to the vast range of Pilks products and increase the 'glass-consciousness' of thousands of people in the quickest possible time. There was, of course, no TV advertising to get the message across to the nation in those pre-war times.

Two LNER dining coaches were stripped down to their skeletal remains before being re-lined and built up in stages, glass being used as constructional material as well as for refinement and decoration.

Some of the old trade names will be familiar to Pilkington old-timers. A model bathroom in Vitriolite, a cocktail bar and a miniature wall of Insulite glass masonry, and Vitroflex made a major contribution, large panels of this material, in 'pale blue mirror' being fitted to the exterior of each coach.

The properties of armourplate and toughened glass were demonstrated on the tour - carefully plotted through the various railway timetables and including a St Helens stop around the New Year for the local workers to have a view.

MANY thanks to Ken and all others who contributed to this fascinating theme.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.