History and period please

In the UK context the auto-trailer was a successor to the steam rail motor, a coach with a small steam locomotive built into one end of it and a driving compartment at each end: the driver drove from the leading end, the fireman stayed in the end with the boiler and stoked (and, in some versions) controlled the engine in response to instructions from the driver. Steam coaches/rail motors were one of those ideas which came and went periodically - first tried in the 1840s, a lot of railways had another go in the 1900s as a way of reducing the cost of running rural branch lines. The problem with steam rail motors was that the little engine installed hadn't enough power to haul much more than the unit itself and maybe a light trailer - this reduced flexibility, and was the reason that some railways - notably the NER - went instead for a control coach and an adapted tank engine instead. This was an auto-train, with the control coach(es) (there might be one at each end, with the engine in the middle) being auto-trailers. The GW invested heavily in rail-motors, but by the 1920s the small engines in them were wearing out. They were therefore converted to work with small adapted tank engines (generally the ancient Armstrong

517 class of 0-4-2 tanks). This seemed to work well, so new auto-trailers were built (and, from the 1930s, the 517s replaced by a mildly updated and slightly enlarged design, the 4800/1400 class).

Didcot Railway Centre are in the process of re-converting an ex-rail-motor which was later converted into an auto-trailer back into a rail motor.

thanks heaps for the detailed response!

Steve

There was a thread in this group in March 2003 that might be of interest to you. 'Googling' for "Auto-coach working" brings it up.

Another possibility is

The model is now made by Hornby so a look in a catalogue should give some info.

Alan

And just to show they are still alive and well, here's a pic from the Didcot Victorian Weekend a couple of weekends ago, featuring a pair of the little beauties.

Cheers, Steve

In addition to the other replies, I think the last ones in BR service ran until about 1964, the last operation being on the Gloucester - Stroud shuttle service. They ran mainly with 1400 class 0-4-2 Tanks, but elsewhere, they had sometimes also been used with small Pannier tanks - 5400 & 6400 classes if I recall correctly.

Bevan

That's correct. Some 4575 prairie tanks were also fitted for auto working after nationalisation. I think this combination was mostly restricted to the South Wales valley lines (e.g. the Maerdy branch).

The typical GWR branch-line auto train comprised a loco and a single coach, but on suburban services (e.g. in the Plymouth area) up to four coaches could be used, with the loco in the middle.

Andy Kirkham

In message , Andy Kirkham writes

Not just Plymouth area: there's a lovely picture of 6431 in the middle of three autocoaches taken by Sid Rickard at Abercynon on 3 August 1957.

In the *middle* of three autocoaches????? :-)

The natives aren't friendly down there and they had to circle the "wagons" and wait for the cavalry to come.

MBQ

No, they had Jones -y-Lant as fireman, and no driver would work with him... (J-Y-L was a Llanelli character who made his living collecting the waste from the pub urinals, and selling it on for the tinplate trade) Brian

In message , John Nuttall writes

I wondered how long it would take somebody to bite!

Yes, in the middle. There was one at one end of the loco, and two the other.

That's what I thought you meant, but that's not the *middle* :-)