Following withdrawal from service, M30272M was claimed by the National Railway Museum (NRM) for its collections in 1974. Initially the vehicle was stored at Brighton until moved to York in 1977 for storage. In 1984 M30272M was on the move to Tyseley. If anyone has details or pictures of M30272M's early years in preservation then the group would be interested in hearing from you.

During 1995 the NRM undertook a review of its collection and decided that M30272M no longer formed part of its plans. At this stage they informed the NVR, no doubt along with all other railways, museums and interested parties, that it was available subject to a full proposal being put before the NRM. At this stage Brian White, a member of the NVR became aware of the NRM's intentions and asked the NVR Board if they would be prepared for the NVR to put a case forward. The NVR's Board agreed and asked for Brian White along with Brian Hallett to inspect the vehicle and present a case to the NVR Board for approval.

This was undertaken in late 1995, with an additional NVR Board meeting taking place in October 1995. A document was put before the NVR Board which outlined the potential project and its costings. The NVR Board approved for the case to go forward to the NRM provided that all fund raising was undertaken by the 'TPO Group' and that no burden was placed on the NVR.

A case was presented to the NRM by the end of October and a few months of waiting followed. The NVR had become aware that there were at least two other organisations that were interested in the vehicle.

On the 19th February 1996 the Nene Valley Railway received a letter from the NRM which stated that they would like to donate the vehicle to the NVR. We had been successful. - Now the work would really start. Having been donated the coach the group had a 'minor' problem. It had no money! Immediately a fund raising programme was started (a tombola). However, a member of the NVR, who asked to remain anonymous, donated some £500 towards the project. This along with other donations gave the project the start that it needed, the coach could now be moved to Wansford without need to ask the NVR for a loan, or any kind of monetary loan.

Arrival at the Nene Valley Railway