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London Underground battery-electric locomotives


Tommy

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Hi All,

 

I would like to know if anyone has any scale drawings of a typical LUL Battery Car? I would like to build a pair in 3mm scale(TT) for a new layout I am planning to build. I have seen quite a few pictures on the net but little dimensional detail.

 

Hope someone can help

 

Tommy

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I have got about half way through either designing in card, or mastering for resin kits the three different styles of battery loco, but however far I get, the information always seems to dry up before I can get the things finished! I don't think any drawings have ever been published for them, they don't really seem to capture the imagination of the writers in the model railway press, and the only engineering drawings I have seen for them don't appear to be quite to scale, or in proportion!

 

There is also the problem of which of the 'typical' battery locos you want to produce. The design was developed over various batches from 1937 until (I think) 1974, each batch including some slight modifications over the previous one. A totally unique batch was built in 1985, which were found to be unsuitable for the work, one driver I knew had absolutely no good words to describe them operationally! They have since been withdrawn.

 

If you PM me your email address, I can let you have what information I have gleaned for them, although it is far from complete, but it may be of use.

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It might be worth contacting the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway - they have had LU battery electrics on their line for testing in the recent past, and may have again in the future?

 

 

I popped in there last year on my way to the 3mm society AGM. One of the guys I was travelling wilth wanted to go to a Bachman event being held there to pick up some loco's. Nice site and some great DMU's. I plan to go back this summer for a longer visit. I also liked your pictures of the battery loco, ugly but beautiful if you like that sort of thing.

 

Tom

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I've put out a query to someone I know who may be able to help. I agree that they're amazing beasties. I occasionally see them on the Central Line fitting in between service trains- presumably to position closer to that night's work. Several people have built LT layouts that include them and there is one preserved in the LT Museum depot but I've no idea about drawings.

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I've put out a query to someone I know who may be able to help. I agree that they're amazing beasties. I occasionally see them on the Central Line fitting in between service trains- presumably to position closer to that night's work. Several people have built LT layouts that include them and there is one preserved in the LT Museum depot but I've no idea about drawings.

 

Any help gratefully received. As I mentioned to L49 i have been to the museum at Acton but i didn't think on at the time to take a tape measure. As I live Manchester way its a bit of a trek to go back.

 

Tom

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The trouble with the old Harrow kit is that it only produced a generic loco. The overall style was based on the post 1947 variety, but for some reason the toolmaker made the side panels drop down to half cover the solebar, which was a feature only used on the 1937 batch.

 

I believe this was feature was something to do with the fact that on the first batch (as preserved at Acton) the access hatches for the battery compartment were in the roof, with a series of hinged flaps, and all the panels were equal along the side. Later batches were built with access from the sides, presumably to get rid of the need for a crane to remove and replace batteries. These had two blocks of six equal sized panels on either side, with the central panel being shorter (no idea why!). This is the type that are still running.

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The centre panel on some IIRC was not louvered, this was because there were no batteries behind it. There are some good photographs including the interior on the LTSV website http://www.ltsv.com/sv2

 

Phil, What an incredible library of pictures. I saw the picture of the interior of the battery loco. It seemed a bit chaotic to me. I expected to see banks of batteries and lots of linking cables.

 

Thanks for that

 

Tom

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Here's a pic of two of the locomotives, they are returning from Quainton Road having just delivered some CO/CP stock for preservation. http://www.flcker.co.../in/photostream

You will note the plain centre panels that I mentioned above, these were on one side only as the second loco.

EDIT for some reason the pic is not working.

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  • 1 year later...

I was in Leyton yesterday doing some jobs for my son (you know the thing: fit this, fit that, paint this, trips to the tip etc).  When passing over a bridge I saw some ballast working on the LUL lines below.  My camera was elsewhere, so I grabbed some shots with my phone.

20131102 Leyton 001

The rest of the shots are on flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/55938574@N03/10643637675/

If anyone is keen they might be still going on.

The wagons look like ex BR bogie ballast wagons (TURBOT)

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Here's a pic of two of the locomotives, they are returning from Quainton Road having just delivered some CO/CP stock for preservation. http://www.flcker.co.../in/photostream

You will note the plain centre panels that I mentioned above, these were on one side only as the second loco.

EDIT for some reason the pic is not working.

Try http://www.flickr.com/photos/24772733@N05/7118836213/in/photostream

 

Flickr not flcker

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  • 3 months later...

Hi Nivram.

 

I was suprised to see your reply, I hadn't looked at this section for quite some time. I have been spending most of my time and energy rebuilding my house recently. Anyway thanks for replying. Although I have had a number of replies as can be seen below the one big area of interest is what is mounted under the the vehicle. It is easy to see the detail of the body but not the undercarriage. I went to Acton last year to have a good look at the unit stored there but was only able to get at one side of the loco. I did take a few pictures (which weren't very good). It would be nice to have some detail of the configuration of the items fitted under the chassis with some dimensions and a few decent pictures. I understand that on one side are a banks of resistors with heat sinks etc but I have seen what looks like a cylinder and some enclosures (boxes) on the other. Any info gratefully received and shared with other like minded people.

 

Tommy

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Radley Models in fact produce four different battery locos.

1. A semi-generic 4mm scale model that, as was said, was inherited from the Harrow Model Shop.

2. Both 4mm and 7mm models of the two 1905 District Railway Renshaw- built surface gauge battery locos that were converted to 4-rail power pick up around 1915ish.

3. A 7mm model [with accurate side panels and underframe detail] of L35 as currently preserved at Acton.

4. A 4mm model [with accurate underframe detail] of the 1985 batch of battery locos [prototypes now all scrapped].

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Radley Models in fact produce four different battery locos.

1. A semi-generic 4mm scale model that, as was said, was inherited from the Harrow Model Shop.

2. Both 4mm and 7mm models of the two 1905 District Railway Renshaw- built surface gauge battery locos that were converted to 4-rail power pick up around 1915ish.

3. A 7mm model [with accurate side panels and underframe detail] of L35 as currently preserved at Acton.

4. A 4mm model [with accurate underframe detail] of the 1985 batch of battery locos [prototypes now all scrapped].

The battery locomotives mentioned in 2. above were always equipped to collect current from the live rail(s) as were all London Underground battery locomotives. The batteries were only used when no current was available and were re-charged when the locomotive was on the live rails. 

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Phil JW - You're right of course, I should have said that their batteries were removed during WW1 as they were the same 1ton Chloride Company type that were used on RN submarines - One of the reasons anyway.

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