ex-LMS 'Electrification' BG

[TheSignalEngineer]

Probably exactly what the photographer who took the picture said - it does look as if the rearmost vehicle has something rather like an anemometer on a pole above it.  

 

That of course raises the supplementary question of why someone should want to measure wind velocity just there and why 18100/E2001 was attached to the coaches?  But then when we went along there with the Inspection Special just over 20 years ago the only reason we did so was because the line was there.  Maybe somebody else had done exactly the same years earlier and thought just to get folk asking questions in the future we'll tow that loco along as well; stranger things than that have happened on the railway over the years.

As not much was known in the UK about pantograph and catenary behaviour at high speeds a lot of filming was done from a specially equipped coach, usually as part of the testing before energisation. I would expect that the boffins would like to know the wind speed and direction during these tests so rail mounted equipment which could be parked by the test site would have been useful.

 

E2001 would have become redundant as production ac locos came into full use. It was parked at Rugby shed in 1965. There's a picture of it on the Warwickshire railways site. As to Akeman St, it was probably just a convenient place to dump it after the Euston electrification finished before a decision was made about its disposal. Many old lines were full of disused wagons at that time.

[Clive Mortimore]

They were in fact all-steel coaches ordered by the LMS to assist the steel industry during the late 1920's, the BG's also. Things to look out for are heavily riveted sides, ends and roof and becasue they were self-supporting, they had no trussrods. Battery boxes were suspended from the floor. They were far stronger built than contemporary wooden stock, in fact some were given flat roofs for men to work on the overhead.

Hi Larry

 

I have had a look at Paul Bartlett's photos (via the link provided by Bill) and most seem to be ordinary wooden coaches that have been reclad, most have the heavy trussing seen on LMS coaches. http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/lmrdepartmentalstock/h2ede29be#h7619356b is a good example. The test coach with the pantograph fitted and the obersvation "dome"  was an all steel coach as that lacks the trussing. http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/lmrdepartmentalstock/h2d6970a6#h2d6970a6