GWR railcars

[snowy1051]

Hello, I'm sure this topic has been covered before, but all I would like to know is what tail load could the ex GWR railcars pull in BR days and was there a greater allowance for the parcels only version compared to the passenger railcars? 

Many thanks. 

[The Johnster]

Not an expert on this and I'm sure better information will be forthcoming to fill this out a bit, Snowy, but there were 2 types of gearboxes fitted to these railcars, a low ratio one for branch work and a high ratio one for main line work.  Some main line cars had buffet facilities, and were used on routes such as Cardiff-Birmingham and Bristol-Weymouth; they could run up to 70mph.  The branch types were geared to run at 40mph, and could presumably handle a greater tail load.  AFAIK the parcels cars were geared for main line express parcels work and were not really ever used much on branches.

 

The twin car set which was extended to a 3 car with a Collett coach trailer could run at 70mph as a 3 car set.

[Andy W]

Railcars 1-17 had no capability for hauling anything, and to confirm this, they didn't even have buffers. This includes parcels car 17

Railcar 18 was intended to haul a short tail load, and was the last of the "streamlined " design body style to be built. It had buffers.

19-38, with the more angular design bodies, had buffers and could pull a tail load. However some cars were single ended and could only work in pairs (intentionally) or with a specially adapted loco hauled coach inserted between the two powered vehicles. The haulage capacity would be different if running as a 2-car or 3 car formation, and the single units were different again.

Personally I never saw one hauling anything bigger than a Pasfruit D van, but I've also never seen the actual loading table, which I suspect varied by route to some extent.

[The Johnster]

Loading tables are contained in Working Time Tables, and are indeed dependent on the 'ruling gradient' of a route.  Extra running time between signal boxes was allowed for some classes.  As this applies to railcars, loading tables would differentiate between the high and low geared cars.

 

I think I've seen a photo of one hauling 4 horseboxes somewhere.  AFAIK passenger carrying vehicles were never hauled by them as tail traffic, and any tail traffic had to be 'XP' rated.  Again AFAIK, they never worked 'mixed' trains with loose coupled wagons and goods brake vans.

[johnofwessex]

One Railcar was specifically designed for the Lambourne branch that meant the ability to haul several horse boxes which is probably what was in the photo you saw

[melmoth]

18 was frequently used on the Lambourn branch. There is at least one photo of it on the branch hauling an auto-trailer and a clerestory brake.

[ThePipersSon]

I have just been browsing the two 'bibles' from OPC and Wild Swan.

 

No 18 was tested on the Brentford branch with up to 4 trailers (124 tons).  It was also tested Southall to Banbury with up to 2 trailers. There are photos of it with an autotrailer plus all-third coaches, as well as 7 horse boxes (with the comment that this would put it over the limit).

 

There are also test results with one of the dual-ratio cars between Southall and Westbury. The results compare the different ratios with different loads of no,1 or 2 trailers.

 

I have a picture of parcel car no 34 trailing 2 BGs.

 

Tom