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
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
wrote
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.
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
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
PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.