Going Loco - August 2024

23 AUGUST

Old School Full Brake

So when is a coach not a coach? Well, sometimes a vehicle looks like a passenger coach but doesn’t have any passenger facilities in it. No seats and the like. These are known as N P C coaches or Non-Passenger Carrying Coaches or sometimes as full brakes. The full brake thing referring to a non-passenger carrying coach that has a guard’s compartment and all the attendant systems like a handbrake and brake valve and so on. The oldest one we have in the collection dates to 1898 but as a design, this vehicle has a much longer history.

No 933 fully restored in all her glory, apart from the lettering

William Dean was the chief mechanical engineer of the Great Western Railway between 1877 and 1902. This was a tumultuous time for the GWR. The broad gauge had turned from a fantastic innovation in the time of Brunel to a millstone in the time of Dean. The big issue was that parliament had forbade any further building of the 7’ 0¼” broad gauge track. After that, the G.W.R. knew that the writing was on the wall for their system. This meant that they were going to have to convert to the 4’ 8½” standard gauge.

While running the system down for conversion, there was obviously still a need to keep the railway running. This is where ‘convertible’ vehicles came in. We have chatted about these before but the basics were that new vehicles were designed to be built to fit the 7’ 0¼” gauge but were capable of being rebuilt in some way to fit the narrower 4’ 8½” gauge later on. Our subject today has some examples that were built as ‘convertible’ stock.

The GWR’s first corridor train, which entered traffic in 1892, with the leading vehicle a full brake

There had been a collection of 4 and 6 wheeled full brake vehicles built to 21’ to 31’ lengths up to the 1860s and by the 1880s they were getting a little long in the tooth. Mr Dean applied his attentions to this problem and came up with a 40’ design that had two luggage compartments either side of a central guard’s compartment. The guard’s compartment had a pair of bulges on the sides that enabled the guard to look along the length of the train without poking his head out of a window. There are several names for these: lookouts, projections and duckets are all names used and argued about. Most were built with them fitted and some had them removed as time went on.

No 933 on the traverser

The first of these were built on a rigid 4 axle chassis. This is an anomaly of the broad gauge – they were not mounted on bogies. These were originally known as Diagram K.1 and had bodies built to take full advantage of the broad gauge dimensions. However, this required a lot of work to convert to standard gauge when the time came and the body was cut into slices, a section removed, and put back together. There were only six built to this design. Subsequent body designs were built to standard gauge dimensions.

These first 40’ full brakes had just two sets of double doors per side but the increase in traffic and to ease the loading and unloading of the vehicle, another set of double doors was added to both luggage compartments on both sides. 165 were built to the earlier design and another 120 to the later. There was one other built to basically the same design but this one had the two luggage compartments next to each other and a guard’s compartment at one end. There were another 10 very similar vehicles that were built without the guard’s compartment as essentially parcels and newspaper vans.

One side of No 933 has been painted red to act as an ambulance vehicle during the Rails on the Western Front event in 2017

The standard gauge chassis were built to run on Dean’s centreless bogie design. These were designed to not have a centre pivot, rather the weight of the vehicle rested on what is known as scroll irons on the outside of the bogie. Some were later converted to have centre pivot bogies of the volute, coil and American types. The vehicles were originally gas lit and had the corresponding cylinders and gear fitted to them. Some, much later on, were fitted with electric lighting.

The provision of end corridors depended upon the diagram. Ours is a K.14 which was built without corridor connections. Several of the cars had them added later on and some of the non-brake compartment versions were built with the wide offset gangway to connect to travelling post office vehicles.

The interior of No 933 during the Rails on the Western Front event in 2017

They were used on all parts or the network for a huge range of different duties. And as a result we’re very long lived. The last of this design were built as late as 1906, four years after their chief engineer had retired. Even once removed from their original purpose, they still had their uses. Conversions of all sorts were carried out. Some were used as stores vans. These were vehicles that travelled around the system and to and from Swindon that delivered consumables and replacement tools to the various outposts. These had shelving fitted and some even had a toilet compartment for the benefit (and relief!) of the stores attendant.

A full brake in use as a stores van

Another common post main service use was as tool vans. These were used by breakdown trains and engineering departments to transport tools to and from work sites. Some were provided with gear to remove ice from rails and there was a version converted to help engineers inspect the insides of tunnels. Mention must be made here of the use of the 40’ vans in WWI. If you look at some of these vehicles, you will see that the roof has a number of shell type ventilators in them. These were converted for use in home ambulance trains as both ward and pharmacy cars. The conversions were given official diagram numbers and if any of the vehicles still had the guard lookouts fitted, they were removed as part of this work. They were returned to the GWR after the war.

Some ended up as offices and it’s through this use that our example came to us. No. 933 was built to diagram K.14 in 1898. Like many of its fellows, it was fitted with dog boxes – exactly what it sounds like – at one end but these were later removed. It had heating and gas lighting from new and had the lighting updated to the incandescent type in 1917. It was withdrawn from service in 1949 but instead of being used until it fell apart and then being scrapped, it became an office at Hockley Goods shed. The unique thing about this was that the office was INSIDE the goods shed. Clearly a great idea for preserving the vehicle. You couldn’t ask for better! It was preserved and taken to Didcot in 1976 and it was slowly restored over a number of years. It required a great deal of work - the floor and lower frames were in poor condition despite living inside since 1949. The doors were all in poor condition too and needed to be fully stripped down, material replaced and rebuilt.

The interior of No 933 in now kitted out with various types of luggage

The coach is finished now used as a static display to represent this hugely important type in preservation. It sits in a beautiful state with the panel lining and chocolate and cream livery that it would have had in its early life. Despite its humble origins, it is massively historically important and is well worth a look the next time you venture into the display in the carriage shed.

2 AUGUST

The Forgotten Forebears

The overhaul of the now unique No 1363 is coming along nicely. This feisty little 0-6-0 is the sole-surviving Swindon-built saddle tank locomotive and is the oldest GWR-designed locomotive in our collection at Didcot. Except, she kind of isn’t … The 1361 class were not a pure bred Swindon design. Sure, she looks pretty GWR from a distance, but if you look closer, the whole thing doesn’t quite gel when examined. What’s going on here?

Well, the design was allegedly concocted when the then Locomotive Superintendent of the GWR, George Churchward, went to one of his engineers, Harold Holcroft, and explained the situation. They had taken over this little railway in Cornwall and the engines operating on the line were approaching the end of their working lives. Apart from realising that they were worn out, Churchward also recognised that the design – which had been operating on the railway for a long time – was the right tool for the job. His solution was simple. He told Holcroft to basically make a Swindon copy of the engines. This became the 1361 class and later Collett built a second batch, this time further modernised, the 1366 class. But what were they copying? What had been so successful that Swindon didn’t think they could do any better?

No 1393 which was Cornwall Minerals Railway No 2 and was withdrawn in March 1936

The imaginatively named Cornwall Minerals Railway was exactly what it sounded, a railway who’s main purpose was to transport the mineral wealth of the county to either join up with other railway companies or to get it to waiting ships at Newquay, Par and Fowey. Despite its name, it did have a small passenger service as well. It was based around a horse-drawn tramway and slowly absorbing a number of other small railways in the area. The switch from horse power to steam power began in the 1860s and by the early 1870s, an order had been given by the railway to Sharp, Stewart and Company.

To say that the owners of the railway were ambitious is clear in their approach to motive power, as for the 45 mile system they ordered no less than 18 locomotives! These were to be housed at the very unusual 9 road semi-roundhouse at St Blazey. Two locomotives per road off the turntable. This reflected the predicted use of these little locomotives. As built, while they clearly had a lot in common with the 1361 class, they were not saddle tanks. They did in fact have small side tanks that went from approximately the middle of the centre driving wheels to almost the rear of the engine.

The Cornwall Minerals Railway’s engine shed at St Blazey

The other big difference was that these engines had no cab. They were apparently intended to be operated as back to back pairs. The stark reality was that the railway had never, and never was, going to generate the levels of traffic that would support that kind of operation. Indeed, the huge investment in the modernisation of the railway never really made any money. So much so that the Cornwall Minerals Railway was often in financial difficulty. It spend a period of time in bankruptcy and eventually the line was first leased to and then taken over by the Great Western Railway in 1896. When this happened, the GWR took a metaphorical axe to the locomotive fleet and chopped it in half.

No 1398 which was Cornwall Minerals Railway No 9, then GWR No 1400 and finally renumbered 1398 in December 1912. She was withdrawn in October 1936

Nine of the engines were sold off to other railways. No 10 was sold to the Colne Valley and Halsted Railway which has become the Colne Valley Railway in preservation. Nos 11 to 18 were sold to the Lynn & Fakenham Railway in Norfolk. The remaining locomotives on the line gained GWR numbers. No 1 became No. 1392 and the numbers carried on through to No. 9 which became No. 1400. They also undertook the rebuilds that gave them cabs and the familiar saddle tanks as well . They also received a number of standard GWR fittings and systems in order to simplify maintenance and overhauls.

The little 1870s engines soldiered on and on. While the first one, No 1392, was withdrawn in 1906, the rest saw the introduction of their supposed 1361 class replacements. The original No 1398 was sold to work at Sharpness Docks in 1883 and was withdrawn in 1924 but the rest were still working into the 1930s. No 1400 was renumbered as No 1398 in 1912, to allow the use of the 14XX number series for new classes. It and No 1393 were the last two to be withdrawn in 1936 after Charles Collett introduced the pannier version of the same design in 1934.

No 1363 working at Didcot in January 1979

This is quite the record for a little contractor-built engine such as these to be so well regarded as the right machine for the given line by no less a company than the Great Western Railway. That the design was simply ‘Swindonised’ by Dean upon acquisition of the line and then copied in two slightly updated versions by both Churchward and Collett says it all. While it is a shame that none of these original engines survived, in a way one did. We do have No 1363 and No 1369 to look at and enjoy. They may be gone but their spirit is strong and still with us.

• Going Loco - Latest Blogs

« Back To Going Loco Index