Photo of S 61872 EPB motor coach : dia. 414 or 400 ... one or two periscopes ?

[HGR]

S 61872 was the one-off motor coach on lot 30641 that was put in 4 EPB unit 5302. Does anyone have a photograph of the roof of this unit with enough detail to tell if this vehicle had only one periscope, as it would for a dia. 414 vehicle, or did it have two periscopes ? Alternative may be an interior shot of the guard's van to see if it had the extra periscope in the middle of the van for when the driving cab was leading, as well as the one on the bulkhead used if the coach is at the very rear of the train. Some sources attribute dia. 400 to this motor coach, which implies two periscopes. If a roof shot after the periscope(s) removed, there would be rectangular blanking plates covering the slots in the roof where the periscopes previously were.

 

The significance is that the instruction originally was that the guard should ride in the rear-most van in the train. Southern region four-car units up to '57 stock had a motor coach with a van at each end, adjacent to the driver's cab. Consequently a four-car unit bringing up the rear of any train formation would have the rearmost van such that the guard would only need one periscope to look towards the middle of the unit, and hence forwards in the direction of travel.

 

A two-car unit only has one van, in the motor coach. It could be facing either way round at the rear of a unit formation, so necessitated two periscopes so the guard had a forward-facing view regardless of whether the unit was running motor coach leading or trailing.

 

5302 being a four-car EPB would have only needed a single periscope in the van, so this motor coach could well be to dia. 414. However, it later migrated to other units such as 2 HAP 6151, meaning that either it had two periscopes (or was modified to be so), hence dia. 400, or the use of periscopes had been discontinued by that time.

 

[Wickham Green too]

Interestingly, the replacement vehicle in unit 5302 started life in a 2EPB so would have had two periscopes ( originally at least ) - but presumably 61872 was ( also ) deemed already suitable for a two-car unit when required.