Was the GWR really so conservative?

[LMS2968]

Which side?

[jim.snowdon]

4 hours ago, johnofwessex said:

Presumably though it would have been possible to do what the Southern Region with their EMU's did and move the steam & Vacuum pipes to the sides of the vehicle so you dont have to go between them to couple up?

The UIC and others before them have been considering automatic couplings for freight stock, at least, for decades without, so far, having come up with a positive proposal. They have, though, got far enough that it is normal for European wagons to have their drawgear mounted in a removable cartridge that will allow an automatic coupler to be easily substituted. The real problem, I suspect, is not that it can't be done, but the financial and logistical complications of dealing with both the railways of at least 28 different countries and the many independent companies that lease rolling stock. Europe doesn't have the same imperative as the Americans did of having to do something better than the link and pin coupler. It was positively dangerous.

 

Jim 

[D9020 Nimbus]

18 hours ago, Pacific231G said:

Apart from the transition period needed, I think one reason why such couplers weren't adopted was the Anglo-European addiction to small four wheel goods wagons that made the higher cost of automatic couplers relatively higher per tonnage capacity.

Yet the NSWGR in Australia adopted AAR style couplers, despite having a lot of 4-wheel stock…

[The Stationmaster]

The GWR did in fact use buckeye couplers on some passenger stock building a set of coaches for use on the South Wales route in the 1930s.  But - for whatever reason - it never seems to have gone beyond that initial experiment.   Somewhat peculiar was the opposite situation in Modernisation Plan times when Swindon was uniquely the only works constructing DMU vehicles with buckeye couplings.

[kevinlms]

8 hours ago, D9020 Nimbus said:

Yet the NSWGR in Australia adopted AAR style couplers, despite having a lot of 4-wheel stock…

As did Victoria - not sure about other states. Probably SA did on their broad gauge (to be compatible with Victoria?)..

[jim.snowdon]

9 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

The GWR did in fact use buckeye couplers on some passenger stock building a set of coaches for use on the South Wales route in the 1930s.  But - for whatever reason - it never seems to have gone beyond that initial experiment.   Somewhat peculiar was the opposite situation in Modernisation Plan times when Swindon was uniquely the only works constructing DMU vehicles with buckeye couplings.

And, if I remember correctly, constructing the only DMUs fitted with buckeye couplings.

 

Jim