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Arrangements of short trains


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Supposing you have a light railway which only owns two passenger coaches, one is a brake 3rd, and one is a 3rd/1st. How would you marshall them?

Conventional logic as I understand it would have 1st nearest the station exit, and the brake definitely not at the front or rear, which means the train would be:

Loco + 1st-3rd + Brake-3rd

But I also think that having 1st behind the loco would be rather noisy, so it might please those passengers more if it was moved, meaning we have the following possibilities:

Loco + 3rd-1st + Brake-3rd

Loco + 3rd-Brake + 1st-3rd

Loco + 3rd-Brake + 3rd-1st

 

And what if you decided to run a mixed train using one of the coaches and some wagons? Would you use the brake 3rd coach? And if you use the coach, would that need to be marshalled at the rear, like a brake van would?

Loco + wagon + wagon + wagon + wagon + wagon + 3rd-Brake

Or would you use a brake van and the 3rd/1st?

Loco + 3rd-1st + wagon + wagon + wagon + wagon + brake van

 

What (if any of these) would be the most likely?

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Take your pick on the loco and coaches combo. The mixed trains would have the coaches next to the loco with the wagons beyond. How many wagons would be the question, but without another brake it would not be many.

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Unless the railway has a circular route, or the train is turned on a triangle, American style, at each end of the route, what is furthest from the locomotive in one direction will be nearest in the other, so some of the options don't work. In any case, light railways weren't known for this type of attention to detail.

Is the light railway standard or narrow gauge?.

If standard gauge, given that most of the freight rolling stock that might work onto it from the rest of the country would be handbrake only, by law it had to be marshalled behind the passenger coaches, and the passenger coaches had to be continuously braked from the loco. (Regulation of Railways Act 1889). Should a vacuum fitted wagon appear it could be marshalled anywhere in the train. By the time most wagons were fitted, most Light Railway lines had lost their passenger services.

There would be limits on the number of loose-coupled wagons allowed behind the passenger stock, depending on the gradients of the line. Exceed this and another brake van had to be provided at the actual end of the train.

If narrow gauge, some of the Welsh lines (not technically light railways) had no continuous brakes at all, apparently because the Board of Trade hadn't noticed. Others built after WW1 (such as the Romney Hythe & Dymchurch) had all rolling stock fitted with continuous brakes so there was no restriction on freight or service stock being between the loco and the passenger stock.

All this said, light railways had a notoriously relaxed attitude to the rule book and unless forced by external authority would always do things the cheapest or easiest way.

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The logical two coach formation is to have the first class end of the composite marshalled against the van end of the brake third. i.e. [3rd-1st] + [Van-3rd]

 

These are the bits that it is desirable to stop nearest Station entrances/exits (which were generally half way along platforms) and it works in both directions of travel. 

 

Light railways were a law unto themselves but BR would not have countenanced unfitted wagons being tacked onto a passenger working without a brake van to control them. Indeed, for many years, only a maximum of two fitted vehicles (e.g. milk tankers) could be attached behind that containing the guard's accommodation, any others requiring to be placed next to the locomotive. This is illustrated by various published photos that show such wagons marshalled at either end of the passenger portion. 

 

The regulation was relaxed (I think) in the 1964 Rule Book, when it became permissible to run fully fitted trains with the guard's van anywhere in the formation.

 

John

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There are also issues with wagons that were vacuum through piped but themselves only handbraked, which had their own rules as to where in the train they can be marshalled.

Then there's steam heating - assuming your Light Railway has ever heard of it. Unless whatever stock is marshalled between the loco and the passenger carriages has through steam heating pipes, winter trains would be distinctly chilly. Of course a lot of passenger stock on light railways never even reached the footwarmer stage.

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Conventional logic as I understand it would have ... the brake definitely not at the front or rear

 

Pardon my ignorance, but why not?  I've always assumed that the guard's compartment would be at the rear.  To me, it feels awkward having half a coach of passenger accommodation after the van section.

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The logical two coach formation is to have the first class end of the composite marshalled against the van end of the brake third. i.e. [3rd-1st] + [Van-3rd]

 

These are the bits that it is desirable to stop nearest Station entrances/exits (which were generally half way along platforms) and it works in both directions of travel. 

 

Light railways were a law unto themselves but BR would not have countenanced unfitted wagons being tacked onto a passenger working without a brake van to control them. Indeed, for many years, only a maximum of two fitted vehicles (e.g. milk tankers) could be attached behind that containing the guard's accommodation, any others requiring to be placed next to the locomotive. This is illustrated by various published photos that show such wagons marshalled at either end of the passenger portion. 

 

The regulation was relaxed (I think) in the 1964 Rule Book, when it became permissible to run fully fitted trains with the guard's van anywhere in the formation.

 

John

Actually the Requirements regarding the marshalling of mixed trains applied on Light Railways - thus a freight brakevan was always required to be marshalled behind the freight wagon section of a mixed train and the ratios regarding additional brakevans for greater numbrers of wagons also applied.  However there is photographic evidence that some railways observed the regulations in the breach with one photo showing a mixed train with the two passenger coaches formed behind over 20 wagons (no doubt to make shunting easier at intermediate stations).

 

The BR Instructions (in the General Appendix( regarding the number of passenger vehicles allowed behind a brakevan in a passenger train were amended and considerably relaxed c.1966/67 however prior to then some trains on the WR and East Coast MainLine had been running with specially authorised formations which allowed a single brakevan within the formation.  

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The regulation was relaxed (I think) in the 1964 Rule Book, when it became permissible to run fully fitted trains with the guard's van anywhere in the formation.

 

IIRC fully fitted freight trains could run with up to ten wagons behind the brake van provided that the automatic brake was functional on the last three vehicles.

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The Kent & East Sussex Railway didn't use brake vans, and hung a LV (Last Vehicle) sign on the rear wagon. There was apparently an agreement with the BoT for this, with limits to the number of wagons. There's a photo of a mixed train in the early 1900s with three four wheel coaches with a guards compartment at each end, and five wagons behind the coaches.

 

A quick flick through the nearest book to hand showed two bogie coaches with the guards compartment at the rear with one wagon behind, sometime after 1932, two bogie coaches both with brake compartment to the rear with at least eight wagons behind in 1946, and a 1957 hop pickers special with two non brake bogie coaches with a four wheel luggage van in the middle.

 

Other than that, I could only find mixed trains with one coach.

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As others have said, light railways were a law until themselves, at least until they were caught out after an accident. Just looked at some books on the Kent and East Sussex Railway and the Selsey Tramway, and occasional they would hang up to seven wagons behind the passenger coaches, with no goods brake van. The Selsey even managed to run with a goods wagon between the loco and the coaches, and one that was definitely not fitted with any through pipe, so no automatic brake on the train!

As far as the arrangement of passenger coaches I would go with the brake-third/first-third plan. As others have noted, the engine will run round the train at the terminus, so will be at either end of the train. It should be noted that many of these lines tended to acquire a pair of third-brakes, to provide a sandwich. When they acquired second hand bogie stock it was often just a single vehicle, ideally a brake composite - a complete train in one.

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.

 

Expanding a bit on what Dunsignalling said, station facilities have an impact.

 

ASSUMING that there is a footbridge (light railways may not have one, particularly if there is a level crossing) then a train stopping on the opposite platform from the booking office may well stop such that passengers can quickly get to the footbridge, e.g. the couplings between the two coaches as near as possible to the bottom of the footbridge stairs.

 

Likewise where single line tokens have to be exchanged trains MIGHT stop near the token machines (I saw this on occasions).   And LAST on the list of priorities might be the poor porter/goods receiving clerk - if there are large quantities of goods to be regularly off-loaded from the brake van, some drivers might be nice enough to stop at a location which minimised his work (!) 

 

.

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