Just come across a photo of an early (curvy) GWR railcar with a single
white lamp hanging (at a slight angle) just under the centre of the
windscreem. This would be the headcode for a stopping passenger train
however I do not recall seeing any other illustrations of these
vehicles (or the parcels type) carrying lamps and the angle on the
example I found suggests there was no proper bracket for the lamp.
Does anyone know if headcode lamps were normally carried on these
vehicles?
Regards
Mike
Mike@notigg.not.no - 29 Oct 2005 05:24 GMT
>Just come across a photo of an early (curvy) GWR railcar with a single
>white lamp hanging (at a slight angle) just under the centre of the
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
>
>Mike
Just realised it is a tail lamp, original question remains however,
were headcode lamps carried on these vehicels?
Mike
turbo - 29 Oct 2005 09:40 GMT
> Just realised it is a tail lamp, original question remains however,
> were headcode lamps carried on these vehicels?
>
> Mike
Not that I remember on the Midlands ones- It was a long time ago, so there
chance of memory lapse, but from the Fot's I took, and all the ones I have
seen (and Ive studied them a lot as i have modelled them in plenty) never
carried headcode lamps
John Turner - 29 Oct 2005 10:13 GMT
> Just come across a photo of an early (curvy) GWR railcar with a single
> white lamp hanging (at a slight angle) just under the centre of the
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> Does anyone know if headcode lamps were normally carried on these
> vehicles?
I've got a copy of the long out-of-print and difficult to find OPC book 'The
History of the Great Western AEC Diesel Railcars" compiled by C W Judge, and
although it includes numerous illustrations of the differing types of AEC
railcars, none are carrying headcode lamps. However, this would be an
unlikely scenario as I think all had (electric?) lamps built in to the
bodywork which I assume replicated the otherwise standard use of oil lamps.
There are several illustrations of railcars with tail lamps.
John.
Bevan Price - 29 Oct 2005 19:58 GMT
> Just come across a photo of an early (curvy) GWR railcar with a single
> white lamp hanging (at a slight angle) just under the centre of the
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
>
> Mike
I have a photo of W21W waiting to be scrapped at Swindon. It has (presumably
electric) lamps built into the body front, but it also has what look like 2
lamp brackets at buffer-beam level.
Bevan
Mike@notigg.not.no - 29 Oct 2005 23:06 GMT
>> Just come across a photo of an early (curvy) GWR railcar with a single
>> white lamp hanging (at a slight angle) just under the centre of the
[quoted text clipped - 14 lines]
>
>Bevan
A passenger version, when running with passengers on board, would have
a single light above the centre of the windows (equivalent to just
under the chimney on a syteam loco). The parcels version would have
two lights on the buffer beam, looking at it from the front one in
the centre the other to the left. It could be as these locomotives
operated within company bounds, and were inherently distinctive, they
did not require the RCH lamps. The tail light was a requirement on
all trains under RCH rules and would probably have been retained for
safety reasons - Note the later examples of the curvey type unit could
pull a trailing load and the signalman would need to check that
nothing have dropped off and been left behind in the section.
So it could be they had brackets in case the electric lights failed
but when built it may have been decided to go for the oil lamp tail
light as these were a known reliable bit of kit.
Thanks for the responses, I shall continue to dig on this and if I
come up with anything I'll post the results.
Regards
Mike