HGR

The Wolverton Lighting patent goes back to 1931. In it's day it was cutting-edge technology. It's a remarkable piece of engineering. Lots of progress since then of course once semiconductor rectifiers became readily available and thus alternators came about in the 1960s. Mk.2 coaches with the B4 (or B5) bogies were fitted with an alternator hung off the inner end of the No.1 end bogie. Driven from an axle-mounted pulley by six 'V' belts. Because of how difficult the job of replacing the belts was, a spare set was stowed inside the pulley. If these had already been used, you had to jack up the bogie to get the weight off the springs at one end of the axle so you could winkle the new + spare set of belts in past the spring packing cones. B.R. seemed to have given up on this idea in the late 1980s / 1990s and a cunning setup to use link-belts came in so you could fit them without having to disturb the bogie suspension. TPO coaches with B4 / B5 bogies had two independent alternator / battery systems (one off each bogie) to cope with the extra loading for VHF radio etc. and provide a bit of hardware redundancy / fault tolerance.

The system is nominal 24 volts. The battery is 12 off individual lead-acid cells at 2 V each, or in the case of alkaline NiFe cells used with parcels vans, CCT / GUV, etc. 19 cells are used to obtain the same 24 V. The two battery boxes under the coach are connected in series, with six (for lead-acid) cells in series in each box. NiFe cells usually have one normal size and one smaller battery box - the capacity being much lower than the cells used on passenger coaches. When the dynamo is generating, the charging voltage on the battery can be as high as 30 V depending on coach speed, lamp load, and state of charge of the battery. To keep the lights at 24 V at the bulbs, the lighting resistance is cut in in two stages in series with the lamp bulbs as the dynamo / battery voltage rises. Each of the two stages drops about 3 volts at normal lamp load.

And finally ... Detail of the CMD regulator. The back and middle contacts of the cut-in relay are 'normally open' and are closed by the solenoid coil lifting the armature and pushing up under the contact arms. Similarly, the front contact is 'normally closed', and is opened by the solenoid armature lifting the contact arm up and thus breaking its circuit. Lighting trip / set relay, showing also the doubled main contacts, and the carbons.

CMD regulator. It says so on the lid ... but beware that the lid is not otherwise attached to the regulator inside, so may not have started life with it ! That riveted label looks suspiciously like it might be hiding an alternative identity beneath. You will excuse that this one's had a hard life from the look of it - a few bent fingers. Points to note : There's an extra little relay at the far left. This performs the reverse current release function as there isn't space on the cut-in relay for all of the required contacts, because ... The cut-in relay has two main multi-leaf contacts (back and middle) to share the higher current from the dynamo. There are more contact fingers (and hence resistance stages), 28 on the CMD. The lighting trip / set relay now has a double contact, again for the higher current rating.

MD regulator detail. First image is the left side of the regulator, with the cut-in relay. Note the three contact sets on the top of this relay - back one is the main current carrying contact that connects the dynamo into circuit. Middle contact is only a single leaf low current auxiliary contact (see CMD reg later). Second image is the right side of the regulator, showing the lights trip / set coils and contact mechanism in a bit more detail. Note that the multi-leaf copper contacts have a parallel carbon brush contact. This makes before the copper contact closes and breaks after the copper contact opens, thus ensuring that no arcing occurs at the copper contact that would weld it closed. The armature of the trip coil passes through a hole in the bottom of the case, allowing the lights to be manually tripped by pushing the plunger upwards to operate the trip mechanism in the event that the lights have been left on and the battery allowed to go too discharged for the 'off' coil to operate. We used to routinely press this when stabling stock just to be sure the lights were really 'off'.

MD regulator. The large coil to the left of the frame is the cut-in relay, that connects the dynamo to the battery once it is generating sufficient output. Regulator is in the middle. There is a hefty coil hiding within the iron yoke behind the contact fingers that alters the pressure on these fingers, opening or closing them in turn to progressively insert or bypass resistance in the dynamo field circuit, and thus alter the dynamo output obtaining. The two larger coils next to the right are the lights 'off' and 'on' coils (trip / set). These are operated by the lighting control switches throughout the train through the RCH jumpers. They toggle a mechanism underneath the multi-leaf copper contact to open or close it and connect the lamp load into the circuit. Differences of MC compared to CMD are : Only one 'main' multi-leaf contact at the back of the cut-in relay (CMD has two) Middle contact arm on cut-in relay is a single leaf. 21 regulator 'fingers'. Single contact on lighting trip / set relay.

WC dynamo. The terminal box cover is missing, showing the dynamo field and armature fuses. Three brushes per box. The arrangement of the flexible tails that control the rocking brushgear are visible at the back, beyond the brushgear. The setup on a WA is slightly different, but achieves the same result. The drag of the brushes on the commutator surface causes the brushgear to rotate 90 degrees if the machine rotation is reversed, thus ensuring that the polarity of the output of the machine is the same regardless of the direction of rotation (that being, direction the coach is moving).

WA dynamo. Note that it has two brushes per brush box.

Before going exploring inside the dynamo or regulator, clean around the edge of the cover so no dirt drops in as you lift the cover off. Be particularly careful with the regulator - the cover is very heavy, and the electro-mechanical regulator inside has lots of delicate parts that are precisely set up and easy to damage if clattered by the cover. When refitting covers, make sure they seat properly into the felt seals. The equipment has a fairly large type identification & serial number plate (see photos to follow) - which if still legible should tell you which you have. You may have to chip off many layers of paint and crud to decipher it The capacity of the batteries is not connected with the dynamo / regulator type as such, but in general the WA / MD is usually used with smaller batteries for coaches with lower lighting load, and WC / CMD with higher capacity for higher loading on the presumption that the combination of that and the different lighting load means you get roughly the same time 'on battery' after the coach stops moving. This is the WA dynamo under a CCT, with the larger axle pulley used on 70 / 75 MPH stock. The CCT has an MD regulator, with alkaline NiFe cells. Alkaline was the standard fitment on CCTs, GUVs and other vans that might stand idle in sidings for extended periods, as the battery can be allowed to go completely discharged and not suffer damage or the electrolyte freeze in the winter. Lead acid batteries in contrast should be kept reasonably charged at all times to prevent freezing and / or sulphation, so vehicle must be moved regularly or batteries charged from the emergency lighting shore socket periodically.

Beware that the WA and WC dynamos have to be used with the correct regulator. The WA uses an MD regulator, and the WC uses the CMD regulator. Both regulators are the same size and physical appearance inside the box, but the field resistances are quite different. B.R. swapped many coaches over to WC dynamo / CMD regulator and fitted the higher capacity 400 Ah battery cells. Do not rely on what it has cast onto the lid of the regulator box ... I've seen a few of these with the wrong cover fitted ! The cells are the same height and width, but the 250 Ah ones were a square footprint, and the 400 Ah rectangular (more pairs of plates inside). As modern battery cells are much better capacity-wise than the original rubber-cased Wolverton ones, you can get plastic cased Crompton cells that are square, but high capacity, so for the deeper battery boxes the cells are supplied each in a wooden crate to make them take up the required space in the larger (deeper) battery boxes. Output-wise, you don't get much at all until the coach gets up to about 25 MPH, at which point the dynamo should be producing enough voltage to get the cut-in coil to energise and connect it to the battery. It will then hold in until the speed drops below about 15 MPH. The output available increases with speed, so you don't get the full output till speed is quite high. I seem to remember 'B' stock such as suburbans that were limited to 75 MPH maximum originally had larger axle pulleys (needing longer belts), but many of the ones on the GN KX sets in later days presumably had undergone a few wheelset swaps throughout their lives and ended up with 'standard' 90 / 100 MPH 'A' pulleys. Some heritage lines have done similar, fitting oversize axle pulleys to get an increased dynamo RPM / output for the lower (25 MPH) max speed on such lines.

RAR is the TOPS code for the vehicle. 'R' group is railway operating vehicles (that being, not traffic). RA is listed on the diagrams as 'Propelled Warning Vehicle'. One end has a visor / shield above the verandah opening ... helps protect the occupant from the rain to some extent, as well as from those that might entertain themselves throwing / dropping stones and other assorted objects off bridges as the van approaches. As well as the guard's brake valve / 'setter' which can be used to stop the train in an emergency, the van also has air horn(s) this end to warn of its approach. A horn valve is fitted to the end in the verandah walkway, and a valve to control / dump the air brake. The van used on the Redmire stone workings wasn't so fitted - just a repainted CAR traffic van, so I did witness the guard giving a damned good Brian Blessed rendition from the 'stage' on the verandah one day. The third letter of the TOPS code is the BRAKTY, brake type. 'R' is air and vac (dual) piped, whereas 'Q' is air piped only. Diagram CA006F is the traffic equivalent CAR brake van fitted with air horn(s) one end and wire mesh over the glass in the van doors. When converted, B 954552 started out as ZTR (a departmental brake van, diagram ZT007C), before eventually ending up as RAR as described in earlier posts, and later to CAR diagram CA006G. Its partner in crime was B 955204. I noticed it is branded 'NO SMOKING' on the van body end inside the verandah (and the stove removed from inside). Maybe wise as the next vehicle behind is a petrol / oil tanker, and you're about to get pushed into an oil terminal. They would be put onto the front of the two halves of an arriving oil train to drop them down into the Petrofina terminal off Hendon Junction at Sunderland South Dock.

The B.R. ones were to diagram B.R. 1/620. There is a copy of this diagram in the B.R. 1 freight stock diagram books on Barrowmore web-site.

The other book in the photos is B.R. Book 6. These are not too common, so well worth looking after (and scanning). The diagram books were intended for the users of the vehicles such as control, planners, area freight offices, agents and so on to show dimensions, weights and other operating characteristics. In the case of freight stock, it allowed you to select the right / appropriate vehicle for the load that you had in mind, and be suitable for the route it was intended to take / what class of train it would have to go in. Before computers (that being, pre TOPS / 1973), the diagram books were mainly all you had to go by. You might expect that the onset of TOPS would reduce the need for printed diagram books, but bear in mind that the 'magic box' was nowhere near as accessible and not everyone had one, until TOPS 2000 came about and you could run it on just about anything with MS Windows and a VPN connection. Although all of the vehicle information / data is in TOPS, the computer terminal is text-only ... it doesn't do pictures. Although they only normally depict the left or 'A' side and one end ... the 'A' or no.1 end of the vehicle in the case of B.R. diagrams (or TOPS ones copied therefrom), or the opposite end in the case of freshly drawn TOPS diagrams (reason being to do with changes in drawing office practice over the years, first / third angle projection), the dimensions can be useful for modelling, but beware - there are errors ranging from the obvious to some very subtle, inconsistencies and cases of draughtsman's licence applied in good measure so you can't beat photographic comparison, or better still the real thing. Nonetheless it's a very useful starting point. By way of example, look carefully at the NPCCS diagrams. In the TOPS book 240 some drawing office staff hadn't realised that BGs are handed ! Braking / running gear is often lacking in detail on B.R. diagrams and does not usually warrant the issuing of a new diagram until you start getting into the 1970s, but is more detailed and accurate on TOPS ones and variants of braking, suspension, buffers etc. will always raise a new diagram / design code.

Hi Matt, Over the past years I have been doing a lot of research into British Railways / British Rail rolling stock and have built up a collection of various diagram books to go with the ones that I had been issued in the '80s. I'm always on the lookout for them coming up on eBay etc. as often you find that they can include random pages that don't always appear, or variations / amended diagrams. I am aiming to get PDFs of mine over to Barrowmore MRG at some stage, but working from home is seriously affecting my access to a scanner with auto sheet feeder - my own scanner is one page at a time flatbed. Good quality scans, not many pages per minute though. If possible, could I ask for a list of what you have please, to see if I can fill any missing 'holes' ? As my knowledge is more 80s - 90s I have been trying to research the transition between the B.R. diagrams (the book you have depicted, where the diagrams have page numbers), and the initial issue of TOPS diagrams (where the pages are now Design Codes associated with the TOPS codes such as FFA / FGA etc.). Reason of my interest is I remember many and interesting vehicles floating around in the 70s particularly unfitted or vac braked, and by the time I got into the industry everything was going air brake and mass withdrawals of the older stock. Regards, Martyn

Note that because a BG has no toilet(s), there's no tank fillers on the ends. The other use served by the tank filler pipe is to act as a handrail for the end / roof access steps. So non-toilet ends have handrails instead of the filler pipes. They are made from the same steel tube / pipe as the fillers, but have flattened ends bolted to the body, instead of being mounted through flat brackets. On a BG, there is also a short grab rail on the roof on the 'step' side in place where the tank filler pipe would otherwise be. In many cases, the grab rail was removed from the roof and the handrail on the step (left) side end panel cut back to just above its upper bracket when all but the bottom step were removed from the ends to keep staff away from the overhead line.

The diagrams for the ex. PARROT conversions that were YV 503 and YV 504 were not drawn up and issued far as I know. The conversions were carried out just as the TOPS codes were being allocated, and would have been in Book 350, which covered the Departmental / Service vehicles. There were two basic types - one had supports for two cable drums, the other had three, which could hold a larger cable drum on the middle support and smaller drums on the outer supports.

Just noticed, someone has added B.R. Freight Stock Diagram Book (B) parts 1 and 3 on Barrowmore MRG web-site. Initial look through these are that they have been updated to quite a late version so don't include the obsolescent diagrams. These two parts covering BA - CH and JA - SP.

Thanks SED Freightman for all your help with these. The locomotive diagram books usefully had the issue date shown on each individual diagram page. Unfortunately the various carriage and wagon diagram books didn't. However there are some clues of the rough vintage of a diagram based on the layout of presentation of the information on it, as the style applied by the drawing office changed a few times over the years. By way of example, the diagram for ST 009N is in the last format to come out of BR. Originally, the load or carrying capacity of a wagon was the quoted figure on diagrams and on the cast identification plates on the wagon solebar. For vehicles that carried no notional load - brake vans / runners, etc. the tare weight would be stated. Coaching stock is similarly plated by the tare weight, disregarding the potential weight of carried passengers and their luggage. Originally, pre-1973 and thus just in time for TOPS, weights were in Imperial Tons (denoted by upper-case 'T'). We went Metric in around 1973 and the weights were recalculated in Metric tonnes (lower-case 't'). A Ton is slightly heavier, being 1.016 tonnes. The upshot of this is all of those seemingly obscure instances of the extra 0.5 t that appeared after many of the new vehicle weights. Up to and including 15 T, it's the same in Metric. From 16 T to 44 T you add 0.5 t to get the equivalent Metric, so 16 T MIN became 16.5 t, brake vans became 20.5 t, etc. For 45 T upwards, add a whole tonne, so 50 T STURGEON becomes 51 t. And so on, till finally, for 100 T, add two whole tonnes. There is a method this is based upon as the weights are always rounded up to the nearest half tonne. So far as I can find, all TOPS diagrams that were originally allocated codes in 1970 / 1971 and hence were given in Imperial Tons, but the diagrams themselves were not drawn up until 1973 / 1974 by which time they were Metric. Later, there was a change from quoting load / carrying capacity to instead quote the gross laden weight (G.L.W.) of the vehicle, that being load plus tare weight. So more recent issues of diagrams list GLW in the title after the vehicle type. Most of the stock in the air braked number series are typically presented this way, as in the COV AB vans above. So looking again at what was originally a 22 T TUBE wagon in diagram ST 009N, this would be plated 22.5 t in metric, but the diagram lists it now as 34 t GLW right up front before the vehicle type as it's quite a late variant of the wagon, though not had a look yet to see what change brought this particular variant about.

That's interesting ... your loose pile appears to be the holder of later diagrams. The FV 003 A that you have scanned is the revision ISSUE 1 that put it into the MOTORAIL fleed (AARKND changed to FVW-M). I think the original version of this diagram from before 1983 was FVW-D ? FW 001 A as a BOFLAT was the second holder of this Design Code, which was initially allocated to the CONFLAT I.S.O. conversions of RECTANKs. Not sure how long these lasted, for example if long enough to carry TOPS codes in service. The BOFLAT appears to be the fate of BOPLATEs that didn't get converted into CONFLAT 'E'. Incidentally, while in amongst the hoppers, would you have any diagrams for HYV ? These would have been for ANHYDRITE hoppers, post 1983 re-coding after the 'U' group was disbanded. Presumably HY 001 A & B if both plain and roller bearing types lasted into that period ? They are conspicuously absent in the 1986 listing though.

BORAILs BR 001A & B are a bit of an anomaly ... why they would have been allocated design codes ahead of the B.R. examples, instead of being coded after them as was the usual practice. Also, BR 001B has the AARKND used for the BORAILs that looked more like BOPLATE - curb rails (very low sides as seen on some BOGIE BOLSTERs, etc.) and no bolsters, however the vehicle depicted clearly fits neither ? I seem to remember the same confusion occurring with certain bogie SALMON in the engineers fleet that some diagrams showed bolsters, but the wagons themselves had sides / curbs and no bolsters or vice versa. BR 005A I think was the later vac braked version of B.R. diag. 482 and 483 that picked up this modification, but not sure what they were then used for ?

The ends started to be removed when the lengthways cradles were fitted. Looking at some of the wagons in service around the time, like they had been butchered quite brutally with a gas-axe. The purpose was to make loading over the ends easier, to stop the crane operators putting the nut on the wagon ends on the way in. The cradles on the BAA / BAB wagons with AARKND ending 'F' as they had been previously were described as 'removable' so presumably a nut-and-bolt job, whereas the couple of BBA diagrams issued specifically for cradles don't seem to include the removable feature, and AARKND bumped up to BBA-G.

That's interesting ... I did wonder if the first batch of BAA were also candidates for the 'flimsy' / removable transverse cradles as were the other batches, before they were all transferred to various other diagrams. Some were already given BKA with the 'kinky beams' for lengthways loading of four large coils. There was a later conversion with much more substantial (and presumably permanently fixed) transverse cradles - think it was four per wagon ? The existence of ISSUE 3 of the BA 001A diagram at least means there was an intent, though not necessarily that any wagons were actually fitted with the cradles in the end. Presumably there was a pool of cradles that could be swapped freely around the different wagons. That the code BA 001A was then cancelled means that all of the wagons in this batch had wandered off elsewhere as a result of conversion, destruction, or transfer to other type codes. Of the other diagrams in my list, you will probably find many of them are pre-nationalisation or very early British Railways types. The B.R. (B) diagram books that I have do appear to have had the early cancellations removed, but then the later ones left in.

Many Thanks, SED Freightman. Much appreciated. Having set away to make a spreadsheet of the Design Codes and what books the various revisions of them lurk in between the books I have, those on Barrowmore and the gaps that your scanning has usefully filled, I hadn't contemplated just how long it would take ! Anyway, I now have a list that makes some sense of the B.R. (B) and Book 320 parts. What I'll do is add some titles to the code groups to make it a bit more 'readable' and then post it on here. Could I trouble you please for a further trawl through your books and loose diagram pages to see if any of the following come to light ? They are mainly from parts 1 / 2 / 3, before the ones you have been scanning that were in the most my missing part 4. These first two might be too 'new' for your book if it wasn't updated after the first revision, but : BA 001 A looking for ISSUE 3 of this to see if it was given the removable coil cradles as for the other variants of BAA, or if they all got transferred to the engineers fleet without having this. BB 001 F anything prior to ISSUE 4 please ? Now for some older stuff ... BC 003 B BC 008 A BD 005 A BE 002 ? BE 003 ? BF 001 ? BF 002 A, B ISSUE 1 BF 003 A, B BH 001 B BK 001 A, B BM 002 B Bogie Bolster 'B' BP 001 D, E BR 001 A, B BR 005 A BS 001 A BS 002 A BT 001 A, B BT 002 A, B CA 001 B CA 005 G, K, L CA 018 A, B were these ever allocated to G.W.R. / B.R.(W) TOADs - before being re-used for S.R. Queen Mary bogie brake vans ? CA 019 A likely another G.W. TOAD CB 001 B 1st. / ISSUE 1 CC 001 J, K, L 1st. / ISSUE 1 CD 001 A 1st. / ISSUE 1 CD 001 B 1st. / ISSUE 1 or 2 CG 001 ? CH 001 P CM 011 A CP 001 G CT 009 A CU 001 A, B re-coded bogie tanks - these might not have been redrawn ? CX 001 A, C CZ 003 ? CZ 004 A FA 003 D FA 004 A, B FB 003 A ISSUE 1 FF 002 A FF 004 A FG 002 A FG 004 S, T FI 001 A, B, C FJ 001 A FP 002 A FT 001 A, B FV 002 A FV 003 A, K, M, W FV 013 ? did someone superstitious skip this one ! FW 001 A CONFLAT ISO TANK (ex RECTANK) FZ 015 A HA 002 G, J HC 001 C HI 002 A HT 005 B HT 021 A JX 001 A KA 001 A, B KG 001 A think this was altered slightly as well as being re-coded from KI KJ 001 A, B KN 001 A KR 001 A KT 001 ? KT 002 ? KT 003 A KY 002 A MS 002 K, L, M, P MX 001 B, D OV 001 B SP 011 A, B you may have looked for these already / I missed them first time round ? ST 009 J, L, N VA 001 B the first version 45 tonne from lot 3686 VB 001 C first version, 45 tonne from lot 3764 with centre doors (COV CD before re-coding) VB 003 C, E, F VD 002 A VE 001 A

Many Thanks, SED Freightman. Much appreciated.

SED Freightman : As well as VW 002A that you had spotted I had missed off my list, I've also missed off VP 004A - can you have a look if you have that one as well please ?