BR Westrn Region Loco Lamps

[Brinkly]

Hello gents,

 

Sorry in advance if this has previously been discussed, but I'm in the process of detailing some Locomotives for my Horrabridge project and I was wondering how many lamps a locomotive (ex GWR) would typically carry.

 

In a lot of my photographs, the lamp code (which I understand) would be displayed using lamps and typically one spare on the side. Would it be realistic for a lot of my locos (running on a branchline) to have only 3 lamps - one or two displaying the lamp code and a spare?

 

Some advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Many thanks,

 

Nick.

[timbowilts]

This is really one for The Johnster but if youthink about it a loco should carry four lamps as follows

 

One or two displaying the train classification;

One as a tail lamp;

One as a spare for either a headlamp or the tail lamp.

 

Tim T

[Il Grifone]

A branch code would only require one lamp plus possibly a spare. GWR locos had two brackets for spare lamps, so three would be a normal maximum. Only a royal train would require four lamps and would be subject to special treatment anyway. Normally a branch train would would carry B or K codes or possibly G.

 

https://www.warwickshirerailways.com/misc/headcodes.htm

 

As I understand it, train tail lamps were the responsibility of the traffic department and would have been kept in the guard's van.

[TheSignalEngineer]

GWR loco headlamps also had a red slide-in filter to convert them to a tail lamp, so normally three lamps (including a spare) would be sufficient for any job except if carrying the BR Station Pilot code with a red and white at each end needing four.

[The Johnster]

Lamps were allocated to each steam loco, which in BR days would carry 2 head lamps and a tail for light engine working; just 3 head lamps in the case of GW as they have removable red shades for tail lamp use as we have seen.  The driver is responsible for ensuring that the loco is supplied with the lamps and that they have been filled with paraffin and properly trimmed, that the lenses are clean, and that the shades are present if we are talking GW.  

 

Freight brake vans are supplied with 3 lamps, a tail and 2 sides; the sides have forward and rear facing lenses so that the loco crew can see that the van is still following them, so they shine a white light forward and have removable red shades.  They normally show red to the rear, but the shade is removed to show white on that side on loops, refuge sidings, or goods/slow/relief lines running parallel to faster lines to re-assure drivers of passing or overtaking trains that they are not closing rapidly on a train in the section and are about to be in a collision (this is very necessary on curves, were perspective can play some very unpleasant tricks with your nerves...   A driver who passes a freight train showing 3 reds to the rear will be, um, strident, in his comments regarding the errant guard, for good reason.  It is the guard's duty to ensure that these lamps are correctly filled, trimmed, and cleaned, and displayed correctly while the train is in service.

 

A fully fitted freight, and a passenger, parcels, or other NPCCS train, will carry a single tail lamp at the rear, and each brake compartment should be supplied with one; again this is the guard's responsibility.  A notable exception is the use of slip coaches, where all sorts of different arrangements were used that everybody concerned had to be familiar

 

So far as day to day timetabled branch line work is concerned, passenger trains will carry a class B headcode, a single lamp on the bracket at the top of the smokebox, but there are exceptions such as the class 1 lamps carried by the 45xx hauled Cornish Riviera Express on the St Ives branch.  There may, depending on local traffic, be class C trains of NPCCS or milk tanks, 2 lamps on buffer beam centre and right hand brackets, and everything else can be covered by class K, 1 lamp on left hand buffer beam bracket.  A light engine carries a single lamp on the centre bracket, and a tail lamp of course.  

 

Vacuum hoses were not bothered with on pickup freight trains; the brakes were not needed at the low speeds and the trains ran at 25mph maximum with the instanter couplings in the 'long' position for ease of shunting, so the various part fitted classes are not required, unless you have block through traffic to or from destinations off the branch other than the relevant main junction yard, where the branch traffic is normally reformed into main line transfer freights going in suitable directions; the incoming traffic is a reverse of this, made up of wagons contributed from various main line arrivals.

 

Mineral traffic, unless it is part of the pickup, is lamped and signalled in much the same way as the pick up, but may consist of block trains.

 

Some branch auto trains ran with locomotive lamps on both ends, with the loco lamp on the central buffer beam bracket; the shades were removed and replaced according to the direction the train was being driven in.  This was authorised in the relevant Sectional Appendix, and by no means a universal rule, but it saved time at termini.  Loco staff were in charge at both ends of the train in this instance.

 

Basically each loco has 2 heads and a tail, each passenger rated brake van has 1 tail, and each goods brake van has 2 sides and a tail.  Each complete train must confirm the fact that it is a complete train to the signalmen by having the correct head lamps and a tail lamp; lamps are lit during darkness, fog and falling snow or other conditions of poor visibility, or if there is a tunnel in the section requiring them to be lit (quarter mile + IIRC but I am happy to be corrected on this point).  

 

The lamp codes were replicated on the disc/lamp arrangements of prototype and 1955 Modernisation plan diesel, electric, and dmu, until replaced in the early 60s by the backlit headcode panels, though the earlier locos and dmus lasted much longer than that in traffic.  Modern trains use high intensity headlights and do not need to carry codes to identify their class, but battery electric tail lamps still show that trains are complete.  Heritage railways use paraffin lamps in the traditional way, though of course the freight classes are unusual these days.

Edited August 13, 2018 by The Johnster

[The Johnster]

Incidentally, paraffin tail lamps were carried by the first generation dmus despite their being equipped with red shades designed to fit over the white marker lights for such use.  These shades were designed to fit in a groove in a sort of semi-circular relief in the bottom half of the marker light housings, and were simply red glass discs.  They were kept in their own little wooden holder screwed to the wall of the driver's control desk.  A common error on layouts with green or early blue period dmus fitted with lights is the twin red tail lights; they should carry no illuminated electric lights at all at the rear and have a paraffin tail lamp.  Diesel and electric locos had electric red marker lights to use as tail lamps when running light engine, and the switches varied from being in the opposite end cab to being in the cab at the end you were at, and knowing where it was on any given class of loco was a matter of traction knowledge.

 

But diesel and electric locos hauled dead on running lines had to carry paraffin tail lamps, as the batteries were not being charged, and this is why lamp brackets were fitted.  

 

Another point I forgot to cover in the first post is that of propelling right line outside station limits, where this was permitted by the Sectional Appendix; a white lamp had to be carried on the leading vehicle facing the direction of travel as if there was a loco there; the propelling loco carried a red tail lamp of course.  If a brake van was the leading vehicle, the side lamps were used showing white to the frontal direction; this method was used when brake vans were being propelled, which they could be at up to 40mph anywhere without mention in the Sectional Appendix.  In the case of propelling wrong line, the red lamp was carried on the leading vehicle in the direction of travel, and the loco at the rear carried a white.

 

Locos employed on shunting or pilot duties within station limits carried a red and a white lamp on each end; IIRC the red was to the left in the direction of travel but again, I am happy to be corrected on this point.  Some industrial shunting engines still do this.

 

In normal working the brake van side lamps could be reversed to show red to the front and white to the rear as an alarm signal in an emergency that the guard wanted to bring the train to a stand as a result of.  The loco crew would pull up as quickly and smoothly as they could on seeing the red light facing forwards, and signalmen or other staff could react to it as well.  I once brought a class 7 train to a stand in this way at Llantarnam Junction (Cwmbran) after vandals had dropped a chimney pot (!) through the roof of my brakevan from an overbridge.

 

The Sectional Appendix, by the way, was an appendix to the Rules and Regulations issued on an area basis, and traincrew were required to carry one covering anywhere they signed road knowledge.  It was a sort of partner to the General Appendix, which covered instructions for different stock, brakes, couplings and other equipment.  These are available from book stands at shows and are fascinating reading, but you won't get much modelling done!

 

The oil lamp reservoir was designed to burn for 24 hours continuously if the wick was correctly trimmed, but might not last that long if the lamp was an old one that let in draughts!  Signal lamps were designed to burn for 7 continuous days.

[Captain Kernow]

Johnster - when a steam loco was resting on shed, or perhaps in the bay platform of a passenger station, would the crew have left the lamps in position or would they perhaps have been stored somewhere a bit more secure?

[timbowilts]

A supplementary question, mainly aimed at The Johnster, what as done or the tail lamp on an engine working as a light engine without a brake van? Would one of the “spare” headlamps have a red slide inserted?

 

Tim T

[The Johnster]

On shed, or while shunting in a yard, where movements are supervised by staff on the ground and the place is lit at night if any work is being carried out (not always well lit, I know, but lit nonetheless), lamps do not need to be displayed.  They are kept in the stores at the shed, and the driver has to sign them out.  This does not mean they were taken off the loco every time it shunted in a yard, but if a loco is stabled in the yard overnight lamps do not need to be displayed.  They are kept in the cab in a locker, or, on GW locos, on brackets on the running plate left of the smokebox.  

 

As for bays, if the bay concerned is a running line, and under the control of the signalman, any loco or train on it must display the correct lamps, and the bay itself must have a red lamp at the end of it.  Some bays, especially those used for parcels work and which do not have passenger carrying traffic routed into them, are classed as sidings under the control of the station staff, in which case the same rules as for sheds and yards apply.  Any road over which passenger traffic is routed must of course be fully signalled, protected by the interlocking and the block regulations, and be provided with facing point locks; it is a 'running line'.

 

A loco being prepared on shed for it's next duty, or being disposed and not yet stabled, may carry lamps, so a typical situation on a shed is that some locos have lamps displayed, lit and unlit, and some don't; matters are less formal than on a running line.

[The Johnster]

A supplementary question, mainly aimed at The Johnster, what as done or the tail lamp on an engine working as a light engine without a brake van? Would one of the “spare” headlamps have a red slide inserted?

 

Tim T

Yes, on the GW; on other railways a normal tail lamp would be carried at the rear of the loco.  3 lamps were normally carried, one for tail lamp use and 2 for the headcode, which consisted in later years of arrangements of no more than 2 lamps (Royal Trains excepted).  

 

An engine working light, or two or more coupled together, is to all intents and purposes a train so far as the signalman is concerned, and it needs to carry a head lamp showing the class of train (light engine) and a tail lamp at the rear.  On a GW loco the tail lamp would be a head lamp with the red shade inserted, but there was no reason an ordinary tail lamp could not be used, so long as a red lensed tail lamp was shown at the rear of the loco.

 

A distinction was made for the headcode of a light engine proceeding to the assistance of a failed train, or a Royal Train pilot loco (these ran ahead of Royal Trains in pre-grouping times to 'clear the line' for the Royal Train.  But these locos still had to display tail lamps.

 

What I cannot definitively state is whether non GW locos allocated to the Western Region of BR carried GW type lamps with removable red shades; if they didn't a normal tail lamp was presumably carried on the loco.  My own layout has a 94xx whose prototype was not built until 1954, and I have provided it with Springside BR type lamps accordingly on the assumption that a new loco would be supplied with new BR lamps from the lamp store at Swindon, complicated by the fact that this loco was not built at Swindon but by an outside contractor; I have no idea if this is correct, or if lamps got swapped about a bit in service and migrated from one loco to another.

 

Soon as you start looking at something you think is simple, it turns out not to be!

[two tone green]

Fascinating stuff, keep it coming.

[Brinkly]

It really is, thank you all for your replies. It has broadened my understanding hugely.

 

Kind regards,

 

Nick.

[timbowilts]

Thanks for you response re light locos and tail lamps.

 

In return I’ve been looking at my copy of Pannier Papers No1 covering the 94/84/34xx panniers. ALL of them, whether built at Swindon or by outside contractors, carry GWR pattern lamp irons! This nothing more than I would have expected, given that it is unlikely that smaller sheds would have carried stocks of both BR & GWR pattern loco lamps.

Sorry, you’ll have to ditch the BR pattern lamps

 

Tim T

[TheSignalEngineer]

The ones allocated to Bromsgrove had a mixture of lamp irons. Some had all changed from GW to LM pattern whilst at least one, 8405 I think it was, carried a full set on each at the front.

[timbowilts]

The ones allocated to Bromsgrove had a mixture of lamp irons. Some had all changed from GW to LM pattern whilst at least one, 8405 I think it was, carried a full set on each at the front.

Yes maybe but the one The Johnster is modelling is based at Tondu.........

[The Johnster]

Thanks for you response re light locos and tail lamps.

 

In return I’ve been looking at my copy of Pannier Papers No1 covering the 94/84/34xx panniers. ALL of them, whether built at Swindon or by outside contractors, carry GWR pattern lamp irons! This nothing more than I would have expected, given that it is unlikely that smaller sheds would have carried stocks of both BR & GWR pattern loco lamps.

Sorry, you’ll have to ditch the BR pattern lamps

 

Tim T

 

You are quite right of course, Tim; even the WR hydraulics had GW irons and I'd forgotten about this.  So much for modelling by assumption!  GW lamps for 8448.

[The Johnster]

Yes maybe but the one The Johnster is modelling is based at Tondu.........

It is.  8448 was supplied new to Tondu shed from Bagnall's on 30/6/54, and withdrawn from the shed 31/8/59, a service life of 5 years and 2 months.  As far as I can tell, it is the only loco that spent it's entire working life at this shed, albeit not a very long one, and is, as such, the quintessential Tondu loco, the obvious choice of prototype in my case,  Number plates are en route from Modelmaster Jackson Evans, who seem to be pretty comprehensive as far as 1950s Tondu denizens are concerned.

[The Johnster]

My stuff about lamps seems to have attracted quite a bit of appreciative attention; thank you everyone for your comments and feedback; makes an old drunk feel as if he's still of some use occasionally...

 

The central buffer beam headlamp on a Royal train was a one off item with a decorative crown on it, presumably kept with the train or by the Royal household staff; another spare had to be used as well as all the brackets were used, 4 lamps in all.  

 

As a further postscript, I am less familiar with the arrangements for tail lamps on trains conveying slip portions, especially more than one slip portion; each portion had to carry a tail lamp and some sort of supplementary head lamp to indicate to signalmen that it was a slip portion; the train from which it had been detached of course had to carry a tail lamp to show that it was complete.  This is a whole subject of it's own which needs somebody who knows what they are talking about (which by definition excludes me!) to write a magazine article about, unless someone's already done it...