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Black side-lamps for brake vans on unfitted freights


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The Johnster did indeed work the Waterston-Albions, between Canton and Llanelli down and Hereford up, but by my time brake vans had been dispensed with on class 6 fully fitted trains and they ran via Shrewsbury and Wolverhampton.  2x37s and 16x100ton tanks, 1,810tons all up.  I rode back cab on the leading loco, with the window open mostly to listen to the wonderful noise! 

 

There were Kingsbury tanks that worked via Gloucester and Worcester, 47 and 10 on.  I have no recollection of brake vans on trains of 100ton air braked tanks, one of the staples at Canton.  The tanks were 60mph restricted in those days.  
 

Brake vans on fully fitted trains carried a single tail lamp, but the van was ‘piped through’ rather than fitted, as the van had a sentient (in theory) brake operating mechanism aboard. 

Edited by The Johnster
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Cheers ...it was 69/70 when they ran via Worcester , there was a picture of a train passing through Cardiff behind 2 x 37 in that year on Ebay recently with vans.

 

PS The Kingsbury tanks were booked via Bromsgrove IIRC. Tanks from S Wales to Rowley Regis and Soho Pool went via Worcester 

 

Rowley Regis a type 4 duty, 100 ton cars, often a 47 but a Western certainly not unknown. Soho Pool 4 wheel Jobbies .... B tanks early 70s , a type 3 turn , Hymek or 37

Edited by Phil Bullock
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Pairs of 37s were also working trains of Pulverised Fly Ash, PFA, in MGR hoppers from Aberthaw Power Station to points progressively further down the B & E main line for the construction of the M5 motorway across the Somerset levelsl; the PFA was apparently ideal as a foundation on the marshy ground.  IIRC this started in 1968 and had finished by the time I started on the railway in 1970, so these trains would have had brake vans which I think I remember but wouldn't swear to prior to the implementation of the 1969 Single Manning Agreement which allowed guards on fully fitted class 4 and 6 trains to ride in the rear cab of the loco or leading loco. 

 

There are probably photos around showing the arrangement of lit tail lamps on part- and un-fitted trains, Kieth, but you'll have a job finding one!  Very few photogarphers were interested and of those that might have been, few had cameras capable of taking colour photos of this at night.  The basic display was of 3 red lights seen from the rear of the train as inverted triangle, with the tail lamp at the bottom middle.  The side lamps, mounted on the veranda pillars, could be put either on the leading or trailing veranda, but usually the trailing because the guard had to attend to them as I will shortly explain, and a leading veranda in a freezing headwind was not a pleasant spot, or for that matter on a sunny dry day when you would be grtiblasted by coal dust. 

 

These side lamps had a forward facing aspect which showed white, so that the loco crew could look back to see that the train was complete and the van still attached, an important consideration in pre-instanter coupling days when breakages were frequentl; about half a dozen a month nationally, and more common on hilly routes for obvious reasons, this being where they were most dangerous.  The rear facing red aspect had a removable red slide so could also be made to show white to the rear.  This was so that a white aspect could be displayed to overtaking trains, and was shown when the train was on a slow, goods, or relief line with a parallel line on which trains would overtake, including situations where a line in the opposite  direction intervened.  This was re-assuring to the drivers of the overtaking trains, particularly where curves played tricks with the perspective in the dark as you were closing rapidly, so if you forgot and the diver victim caught up with you later, he would express himself stridently on the subject and that of your parentage or your existence as a genital body part.

 

The white light to the side next to an adjacent road running in the same direction was also displayed when the train was standing in loops, refuge sidings, or reception roads.  There was a further configuration of lamps; if there was some circumstance in which you wanted to attract attention to the loco crew, signalman, or other railway staff who would see it so as to have the train stopped at the next box, you could reverse the side lamps, so that you were now showing two red side lamps forward and two whites to the rear.  The loco crew would pull up at the next box and any other staff, signalmen, lineside, or on other trains, who saw this would inform the next box to have you stopped.  I've had occasion to do this after some hooligans dropped a chimney pot through, yes, through, the roof of my brake van from an overbridge, which terminated proceedings for that evening's work...

 

Replicating all this on a model is difficult.  It is possible to show a train running with the correct tail lamps but not if the aspects have to be changed or if the  train reverses direction; for this one needs a lamp with a power source aboard it and an led, and AFAIK there is not yet such a thing.  I believe somebody does market a system where the light is carried in an optical fibre which doubles as the lamp iron, but of course this is again unsuitable for situations where lamps or aspects have to be changed, but this is fine where the setup is that the train leaves the fiddle yard, runs around the layout, and returns to the fiddle yard.  It's no use to me with my BLT!

 

Sidelamps were carried by trains of passenger stock in the days before continuous brakes.  As there is no need for the loco crew to check if the train is complete by observing the side lamps on the rearmost vehicle, the brake van, on trains fitted throughout with automatic brakes, because the train will come to a stand if it parts as the automatic brakes apply anyway, there is no need for side lamps on fully fitted trains.  Sidelamps were sometimes a problem in service as they could be shaken out continuously by the violent rocking of some brake vans, accentuated by the working loose of the brackets which made matters worse.  You could tell if a van was a rocker before it moved as the sidelamp brackets had always worked loose.  A rocker was bad news; as well as the rough ride, the wooden planked body would have 'worked' and there would be draughts everywhere; I've had vans that have taken me over an hour to find all the draughts and seal them with last night's South Wales Echo, one of the most essential pieces of a guard's equipment along with a box of matches in a sealed waterproof tin.  Last night's Echo (substitute equivalent for your area) was used to give the 'right away' tip to the driver in daylight as well.

 

Despite this, I enjoyed brake van work, proper railway work, and challenging on a black foggy night when your road knowledge was put to the test; overbridge because of the different sound, count 3 rail joints, you're straddling the top of the bank at Penllerpenni, between Little Mill and Nant-y-Derry, wind the brake on, wait for the brief rumble as you cross the bridge over the little stream at Nant-y-Derry and ease it off; you'll feel a little tug as the driver puts the power on to climb out of the dip, but, if you've got it right, not a violent snatch, and if you're lucky you'll just make out the lights of the signal box, wait for the sound of the short tunnel at Llanover and crank the brake back on again until you hear the rumble as you cross the Usk at Penpergwm, where you should have released it by the time you see the light that the old stationmaster who bought the station house has left on in what is now his front room for you as a marker, and sit down ready to change the shade in the side light if you are put inside at Abergavenny.  Otherwise, you can relax as much as the rocking van will let you, but keep an eye on where you think you are as you are climbing Llanvihangel bank now, the train slowing and the ride improving temporarily as the chattering 47 that you and the entire valley can hear but not see 50 odd wagons in front feels the load and digs in, and the echo of your train reflected from the stone wall of the refuge siding for the bankers, long lifted, but the trackbed's still there, will be all you have to alert you to the fact that you are at the summit and the driver will appreciate all the brake you can give him for the descent; you are going too slow for the road overbridge to make a discernable difference to the noise and the outside world is blacker than the inside of a cow.  On goes the brake, and speed picks up as you begin the descent, but the train is controlled and making it's point to points...

 

Later, as you catch up with the driver in the messroom at Hereford, he nods appreciatively and says 'good ride, guard?' as he pours your tea (you made yours coming off shed at Canton, it's his turn).  'Yeah, no problems' you reply, 'van was a pig but that can't be helped'.  No more would be said, but honours were satisfied, skills appreciated, and you could talk about something else; this was very satisfying, especially if it was the first time you'd worked with this particular driver; they were understandably a little suspicious of us new boys, back cab jockeys as they called us until we'd proved ourselves, which some of us didn't (I did, and quickly!).

 

Happy times, but I prefer my warm bed deze daze!

Edited by The Johnster
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I'd be interested in the unloading arrangements for those PFA trains for the M5. Did the intermediate stations still have their goods yards, or were temporary sidings installed? 

 

Presumably the PFA was transferred to site by road, which must have been a local traffic nightmare. Even in the 1980s, the local roads wouldn't really have been up to it. 

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7 hours ago, PatB said:

I'd be interested in the unloading arrangements for those PFA trains for the M5. Did the intermediate stations still have their goods yards, or were temporary sidings installed? 

 

Presumably the PFA was transferred to site by road, which must have been a local traffic nightmare. Even in the 1980s, the local roads wouldn't really have been up to it. 

There was a siding at Highbridge, built through the former S&D station. You can see three photos taken at Highbridge station in this album. I don't know how long the siding was, but the line clearly rises immediately beyond the station, so I imagine that the drops were fairly close by. 

 

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Hi Guys,

Joining late on this one.

I am working on an Edwardian GWR layout of a fictitious small country station set in Welshest N. Wales - all passenger stock is 4 wheel but the train will carry a milk siphon at the rear. My understanding of the rules is the milk siphon should carry a rear lamp and side lamps on both sides. Given that the siphon is behind the brake/3rd coach and there being no corridors, how does the guard get to the side lamps to do his stuff or is this a complication that was discretely ignored in the days of yore?

Cheers,

Rowan.

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My understanding would be: (however I model BR)

1. If the Milk Syphon attached to the rear of a passenger train is fitted with working continuous brakes it would only need to carry a tail lamp and it would not need side lamps.

2. If the Syphon was unfitted then there would need to be a brake van with guard onboard behind it so there would be a guard to carry out the side lamp requirements. 

Note: 1 is not a mixed train, but 2 is.

Edited by JeremyC
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There was a big change in operating procedures regarding continuous brakes with the introduction of new laws passed following the Armagh accident, a runaway of unbraked passenger-carrying vehicles because of a failed brake van handbrake hit by a following train.  Many of the victims were children as the train was a Sunday School excursion, and there was considerable public outcry.  This was in 1889, so is relevant to your Edwardian layout.

 

All passenger-carrying trains had to have continuous brakes (operated from the locomotive, and capable of being applied by the guard in the brake van), and carried a single tail lamp on the rear of the rear vehicle.  Up to four axles could be marshalled behind the brake van, two four-wheeled vehicles or one bogie, and had to be continuously braked and the brakes tested and proved working at the time they were attached.  Such vehicles had to have screw couplings and be 'rated' for passenger train work, 'XP' branded in later parlance.  What this means for your passenger train of four-weelers is that the Siphon can be simply attached anywhere you like in the train, but of course it isn't as simple as that because for much of the year steam heating is required and supplied by the loco, so the Siphon cannot be marshalled ahead of the coaches. 

 

Normal practice was to have a brake 3rd, brake compartment facing 'outwards' at each end of the train, which would be made up BT/F/T/BT, with the Siphon bringing up the rear and displaying a tail lamp at the rear.  This is known as 'tail traffic' and can consist of any automatically braked vehicle with screw couplings and a lamp bracket, marked 'XP' by the GW and LNER, and standardised by BR, but I do not know when this was introduced.  Vehicles with no automatic brake or lamp bracket, which included all mineral or tank wagons, could not be attached to passenger trains in this way. 

 

Tail traffic is distinct from 'mixed trains'.  These were trains on which unfitted goods and mineral traffic was attached behind the passenger portion, and had a goods brake van attached to the rear of the train with a guard riding in it.  The train thus had two guards, a passenger guard and a goods guard.  The goods guard controlled the unfitted portion of the train with the handbrake in his van.  These workings did not occur 'just anywhere' and were authorised by instructions in the 'Sectional Appendix' (to the Rule Book, it you get hold of one don't read it unless you want to lose a day, they are absolutely fascinating).  Typically, they would feature in areas where long single track branches with scant passing places served isolated communities; this sounds like the Welshest part of North Wales to me...

 

That part of the country had another variation, the Bala Jc-Blaenau Ffestiniog branch was the supply route for concrete for several large construction projects in the early 60s, including the Treweryn Dam, Trawsfynydd nuclear power station, and the Ffestiniog pumped storage scheme which flooded the Ffestiniog Railway.  The Sectional Appendix authorised fitted Presflos, classed as mineral wagons, to be hauled on passenger trains as tail traffic, as the delivery of powdered cement is time-critical. 

 

There were, because the railway wants to confuse you and all the rules are rules except when there are exceptions to them, many local workings that involve running unfitted wagons without a brake van, sometimes propelling, so long as there were no gradients that they might run away down if they were heavily shunted or a coupling broke.  These could be 'wrong road' with a red tail lamp on the front of the train and a white one on the rear.  The BR standard drawhook was designed with a 'flat' in the shank and the standard lamps had a shape to the handle so that they could be securely placed on the drawhook shank if needed.  Rule 1 has a basis in real-life operation.

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