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On a winning streak – The Rails Rapido Dynamometer Car


Silver Sidelines

2,891 views

It has just been announced that the Rails Rapido Dynamometer Car has won the 2018 first ever Hornby Best OO Scale Wagon or Carriage Awards. Deservedly I would say. My model was purchased long before the awards were announced. The model is highly detailed and very well made. I think more a scale model than an item of model railway rolling stock.

 

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Ex LNER Dynamometer Car - complete with magic wand (to turn on the lighting)

 

Over the course of a year I buy the odd item from Rails of Sheffield. This year Rails have been putting in their parcels, an advertising flyer for the ex LNER Dynamometer Car. It was made for Rails by Rapido, a Canadian business. The advertising flyer did not pass unnoticed by my wife who eyes, with a certain degree of suspicion, the various brown boxes delivered by our Postie. “Are you going to buy one?” she asked, followed by “I think you should get one”.

Well – how could I resist!

 

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Ex LNER Dynamometer Car

 

My layout is ‘60s based with the odd example left over from the ‘50s. I have attached here as an Addendum, a copy of the advertising literature put out by Rails. This literature provided courtesy of the National Railways Museum indicates that the Dynamometer Car remained in service until 1954. Rails offered two variants. The first represented the coach in 1938 on the occasion of Mallard’s record breaking run. The second modelled the coach at the start of ‘Nationalisation’ when it was used for the locomotive exchange trials comparing the performance of engines from the ’Big Four’ pre-war companies. I would buy the later version as used for the late 1940s locomotive trials and make believe that in the early 50’s the Dynamometer Car appeared behind some of my Early Emblem Pacifics.

 

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Ex LNER Dynamometer Car – 1950s view with Bachmann Commonwealth of Australia

 

I say ‘make believe’ because pictures of the Dynamometer Car in use for the locomotive trials show engines with what I will call ‘transition’ liveries. For example the images of A4s below show the engines with their British Rail number, ‘British Railways’ written on the tenders, but without any emblem or crest. Although the pictures are only black and white my guess is that the ‘Lord Faringdon’ 60034 at Kings X is painted in a version of the old NER Apple Green rather than the experimental Blue or later Brunswick Green favoured by British Rail.

 

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Ex LNER Dynamometer Car during Locomotive Exchange trials, Courtesy 'East Coast Pacifics at work' Townsend PN (1982)

 

The Dynamometer Car is highly detailed, for example it comes with full brake rigging for each bogie. The inside of the coach has also apparently been faithfully copied. Lighting is provided in the roof of the coach to assist with viewing the chairs, tables and instruments that are modelled within the coach interior. The lighting is switched on and off with a ‘Hi-Tech magic wand’ which has a magnet at one end to operate the reed switch in the roof of the coach. I have to say that operation of the lighting on my layout with Gaugemaster DS controllers appears erratic. Sometimes the lighting comes on straight away with the power from the controller. On other occasions the magic wand has to be waved over the roof of the coach to bring on the illumination.

 

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Interior of Ex LNER Dynamometer Car from Rails of Sheffield by Rapido

 

I have posted a couple of videos on YouTube showing the car in use behind Bachmann A4 Commonwealth of Australia in ‘daylight’ and in ‘the dark’. It runs very well. Although a minor detail, I have changed the couplings to close the gap between engine and carriage. The coach comes fitted with what look like Bachmann straight type (36-30) and I have replaced with Bachmann short straight type (36-61).

 


 

I spent a large chunk of my life working in engineering researching, at (I was told) the ‘Cutting edge of Technology’. At university computer input was from punched cards while data from experimental transducers was recorded manually. In my first position after university, agricultural engineers were trialling mini computers the size of big suit cases to collect data on board potato harvesters. Not many years later the first ‘Personal Computers’ appeared and I remember a trip to the outskirts of Edinburgh to buy an 8086 machine with 40Mb hard drive. Reading the history of the Dynamometer Car I had to smile that the vehicle was conceived prior to the First World War and was still in active service nearly 50 years later. One of my immediate thoughts was ‘how were the sensors calibrated’? The model sports a ‘measuring wheel’ beneath the centre of the car – I am guessing to record distance (and perhaps speed). If the wheel was nominally 3ft diameter, roughly similar to a standard coach wheel, it is fascinating to explore the magnitude of error due to a reduction in diameter due to wear. For example if the radius of the measuring wheel decreased by 1/16 inch it would have a smaller circumference and would have turned faster than when new and unworn. In these circumstances Mallard might only have been travelling at 125mph with instrument error accounting for the extra one mile per hour.

The imitation teak, the clerestory roof and ‘north eastern style’ duckets all point to times long gone. Fifty years on from Mallard’s 126mph record run I used to travel frequently on HSTs from Newcastle that regularly topped 125mph between Darlington and York. These train sets worked day in and day out, with diagrams taking in Aberdeen, Bournemouth and Glasgow, often all in the same day. This progress was all made without a dynamometer car. The advent of the computer chip had encouraged the development of miniature transducers and compact data collection units that enabled performance monitoring to be carried out ‘on board’ trains with minimal interference to train crews and passengers.

 

No longer is there a need for a dedicated and somewhat cumbersome special carriage.

 

Addendum - Prototype History - Courtesy of the National Railway Museum.

 

Designed and built by the North Eastern Railway, at the railway's York Carriage Works to diagram 10IA at a cost of £1500, the dynamometer car entered traffic in March 1906 in the NER's Crimson Lake livery with the running number 3591. The vehicle's first working was on the 6th March 1906 behind R class locomotive No. 2109.

The purpose of a dynamometer car was to measure drawbar pull and speed, from which drawbar horsepower could be calculated. Over time the vehicles became more sophisticated and could evaluate coal and water consumption, along with combustion efficiency (by analysis of smokebox temperature and gases). All such data enabled designers and engineers to develop more efficient locomotives.

In June 1924 the vehicle was repainted into imitation grained teak livery and was rebranded LNER with the running number amended to read 3591Y. Its first run in its new guise took place on 26th June 1924 behind No. 4419 on the GN section.

The next notable event in the vehicle’s history took place on 3rd April 1928 when it entered York works for overhaul. During which time it received Gresley bogies and had corridor connections fitted. It also had a full repaint in imitation teak livery and received the running number 23591, before being released into traffic on 25th August 1928.

Further alterations took place to its external appearance in late 1936 when NER style window duckets were fitted. On 3rd July 1938 a 'high-speed' brake trial brought class A4 locomotive No. 4468 'Mallard' and the dynamometer car to prominence with the record breaking 126mph run down Stoke Bank. Version one of our model portrays the car as it would have been seen on this famed journey. Soon after 3rd July 1938 the dynamometer car went into storage, where it remained throughout World War 2.

Late in May 1946 the car re-emerged bearing the new running number 902S02 (as worn by version two of our models). It appears that no further work was done on the vehicle during storage. On 30th May the vehicle undertook a staff training run behind locomotives Nos. 484 and 1766, after which the vehicle saw constant usage on the LNER culminating in several runs on the GE section between London Liverpool Street and Norwich between 8th and 24th October 1947.

On 26th February 1948 the car moved to Derby for calibration along with the GWR and LMS dynamometer cars. 8th April 1948 saw the start of the locomotive exchange trials. During this period the car saw extensive use and could be seen as far apart as Inverness and Severn Tunnel Junction. In September 1948 the car entered the works for overhaul, during which it received a full repaint, 'British Railways' branding and the running number E902502. It was eventually released to traffic in April 1949.

 

The dynamometer car's last recorded journey was in October 1951 when it travelled from Stourton (Leeds) to Lancaster and return behind a Hunslet 500HP 0-8-0 locomotive, No.E6 that was destined for Peru.

 

During the car's working life it undertook a recorded 1872 journeys, many behind locomotives such as Gresley W I 'Hush Hush', AI, A3 and A4 pacific's, Thompson A2's and B1's, plus an assortment of LNER freight and mixed traffic locomotives. During the locomotive exchanges of 1948, it could be seen behind SR Merchant Navy and West Country classes, GWR Kings and LMS Royal Scot and Coronation class locomotives as well as an assortment of freight and mixed traffic types.

 

In the post exchange period before withdrawal, the dynamometer car was used on the Southern Region to test Bulleid's ill-fated 'Leader' No. 3600I, before going to the GE section to work behind Britannia No.70006 and B1 No. 61270 on the London Liverpool Street to Norwich services.

 

The vehicle was finally withdrawn in December 1954 and subsequently preserved by the Science Museum. The dynamometer car is currently on display at the National Railway Museum, York, and wears LNER imitation teak livery which it has carried since 1963.

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An interesting read, Ray - not least your thoughts about the effects of wear on the measurement wheel!

 

The video in the dark shows the effect of the lit interior well. Only problem is, you'll now have to install lighting in all the other coaches too!

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Thank you Mikel

 

I don't think so.

 

..... Only problem is, you'll now have to install lighting in all the other coaches too!

 

However given its age I will be waiting to see how you modify it to fit with Farthing.

 

Cheers Ray

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I have ended-up with both versions of this coach. I'm considering converting the first version into the original NER configuration. Livery aside, the details to change seem to be the removal of the duckets and alterations to the bogies.

 

  • What are the correct bogies - and where might they be obtained I wonder....?
  • Is there any known information source for the coach as built.....drawings...........and livery....?

Any info' gratefully received.

  • Thanks 1
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3 hours ago, Methuselah said:

I have ended-up with both versions of this coach. I'm considering converting the first version into the original NER configuration. Livery aside, the details to change seem to be the removal of the duckets and alterations to the bogies.

 

  • What are the correct bogies - and where might they be obtained I wonder....?
  • Is there any known information source for the coach as built.....drawings...........and livery....?

Any info' gratefully received.

Thanks Methuselah for the comments.  If Bachmann had offered a maroon livery coach at the start I may well have chosen to buy that one. However rereading my potted history above suggests that the coach was withdrawn in Decemeber 1954 so I am thinking to myself why was it painted in all over maroon - and when., since blood and custard would have been the standard coach livery up until 1956 or more.

 

As to your questions I am sorry but I know not the anwers.  I wrote the Post in 2018, so five or more years ago.  There will probably be more information on the web.  You might find that the LNER Coach association can help  https://www.lnerca.org/home/about-us/  They have a list of drawing sources.  They should have someone more knowledgeable than myself.

 

Regards  Ray

 

 

Edited by Silver Sidelines
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2 hours ago, Silver Sidelines said:

Thanks Methuselah for the comments.  If Bachmann had offered a maroon livery coach at the start I may well have chosen to buy that one. However rereading my potted history above suggests that the coach was withdrawn in Decemeber 1954 so I am thinking to myself why was it painted in all over maroon - and when., since blood and custard would have been the standard coach livery up until 1956 or more.

 

As to your questions I am sorry but I know not the anwers.  I wrote the Post in 2018, so five or more years ago.  There will probably be more information on the web.  You might find that the LNER Coach association can help  https://www.lnerca.org/home/about-us/  They have a list of drawing sources.  They should have someone more knowledgeable than myself.

 

Regards  Ray

 

 

 

     Thank you Ray.

 

     Quoting from the history earlier in this thread ;- 

 

     'Designed and built by the North Eastern Railway, at the railway's York Carriage Works to diagram 10IA at a cost of £1500, the dynamometer car entered traffic in March 1906 in the NER's Crimson Lake livery with the running number 3591. The vehicle's first working was on the 6th March 1906 behind R class locomotive No. 2109.'

 

     I'm really focussed on the GWR & LNER, but I like to create set-piece trains from other pre-grouping companies too. The NER loco's seem to have been green - very much like the subsequent LNER livery. Frankly, I had no idea that the NER coaches were Crimson Lake....! A colour-change is no biggie, but the lining-out promises to be challenging. There is also a shortage of transfers available for some of the more obscure pre-grouping companies.

 

     Hopefully I can dig sufficient info' up.

  • Interesting/Thought-provoking 1
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