GWR Three car AEC Railcar sets

[dibber25]

Others will be better equipped to answer your question about steam on the Oxfords, however, there are two books which give much info about the railcars:

Great Western Diesel Railcars (J.H. Russell/Wild Swan)

The History of the Great Western AEC Diesel Railcars (C.W. Judge/OPC)

The Swindon-built cars (From W19 onwards) were fitted with electro-pneumatic gear changing so that they could run in multiple. One of the reasons that the railcars came to the London area branches in the early 1950s was because of a shortage of locomotive crews, so the last thing they would have wanted was to have two drivers on a two-car train! Here's a shot from my collection of two cars at Yeoveney on the Staines branch on 23 June 1967. The photographer was P. Waylett. (CJL)

[dibber25]

That date 1967 must be a typo. It would be 1957. (CJL)

[Tallpaul69]

On 08/12/2021 at 22:34, dibber25 said:

That date 1967 must be a typo. It would be 1957. (CJL)

Thanks for the correction, although I think I must have "auto read" the date as 1957 because I hadn't noticed the error until you pointed it out!

How things have changed over two years:-

Difficulties with layout building due to Covid (I am no layout builder/wire man) so am reliant on others; have resulted in my layout moving from the Thames Valley Line to the High Wycombe area and from an intent to accurately portray (part of) a station area (Maidenhead) to a built (Well track and electrics), of a imagined station for a real life village called Bradenham. 

 

If you, dibber25, or any other readers of this thread are interested in my progress, then please look at my layout thread which is still called Lower Thames Yard, although long overdue for a renaming!

 

Meanwhile, I wish all who read this a Happy Christmas and a Safe New Year, and look forward to your input to "Lower Thames Yard" in 2022.

 

Kind regards

Paul