GCR carriages - Parker style

The GCR as a company was controversial in its day but as has been noted elsewhere, not all modern historians have served it well and when it comes to carriage design, there is a lot of confusion, especially about stock built by the early GCR.

Thomas Parker Junior

was the Carriage and Wagon Superintendent responsible for the elegant designs of the 1890s - not "Pollitt" as stated in BR Pre-Nationalisation Coaching Stock, Hugh Longworth, 2018 (he was the locomotive Engineer).

The Parker gangwayed carriages of 1898-99 were aimed at the soon-to-be-opened London Extension and were quite opulent and, apart from the clerestory catering carriages, had two body lengths:

- 46'6" for the normal carriages with bow ends,
- 45'9" for the brake-ended ones which had a flat guard's end.

The roof had a flat-top, similar to the GNR Howlden roof, but with a more generous radius above the sides.

George Dow got this right in his GCR trilogy but a length of "45ft" has been quoted by many hands for these carriages, including model railway kit-makers and Hugh Longworth, who inconsistently states both the right and the wrong lengths.

They were a significant step forward and became the company's house style for a dozen years. Parker's last design in 1900 was for a gangwayed 3rd Class Saloon and there were three significant developments:

- the length was increased to 49'
- bow ends gave way to flat ends
- a new roof, low elliptical.

Robinson's Parker-style from 1903

After Robinson took over carriage design in 1902, he maintained the company's house style established by Parker, the first appearing in 1903 (not "1906" as stated in J.G. Robinson's, A Lifetime's Work, David Jackson, 1996). His designs merely gave up bow ends and added a turn-under, plus a foot to the length of Parker's last design of 1900, making 50'. Gresley, on the GNR, was to retain bow ends, but he began to extend his gangwayed carriages to 52'6" and 58'6". Robinson eventually adopted gangwayed lengths of 56' and 60' but (apart from a one-off dining car) that was not until 1910-11 and advent of the matchboard stock.

Hence there was a period from 1898-1910 when the Parker style dominated the gangwayed expresses and this is an attempt to show the lie of the land.

New addition and several caption notes expanded: -

3rd brake (BTK)

I start with this design from Parker because it shows all of his features:

Click for full size image in a pop-up window. Use 'X' to close

This is the Diagram of the Parker design of 1898 and one of three virtually identical ones: 5A6-5A8. Note the assymetrical ends: bow-ended facing inside the train but the guard's end, flat-ended. Hence the body length of 45'9" (which I have rounded from the actual 45'9½"). As far as I can tell there were no rear facing windows. That feature was introduced later in Robinson's designs. The second one to this diagram, No 1000, was dual braked, vacuum and Westinghouse, for cross-country trains over the NER. The air brake was removed in the late 1920s.

I don't have a portrait of this design but can offer one in LNER service at Nottingham Victoria, although it's the far side to that shown in the diagram. The date is c.1929 judging by the loco details and it's interesting for two reasons:

- the lining is a compromise of the LNER former GNR style with full lining around the curves below the waist but, above, confined to the verticals. I was under the impression that all the lining was ommitted and that may have been a later simplification but as this photo and the next one shows, these carriages were lined at first.

- seen in the south facing bay at Nottingham Victoria from which GN-section trains departed for Grantham, this Parker carriage is twenty years old and it's been cascaded into secondary service and modernisation of much older ex-GNR carriages. If only we could see the rest of the formation! Mixtures like this were plentiful in secondary services but tend not to be "seen" by modellers. Photographer unknown, author's collection.

1st (FK)

I have good illustrations, and because most of these early designs lasted into BR days. The Diagrams were:

Built	Length	GCR	Numbers
------	---------	-------	--------------
1898	46'6"	5Q1	1261
1898	46'6"	5Q2	1260/2-91
-------	------	------	-------------------------
1906-7	50'	5Q3	5468/71-2, 5974-5
1907	50'	5Q4	5481

In 1938 the LNER introduced Hollerith Codes for the Diagrams and this led to the GCR Diagram numbers being removed and over-written, and promptly re-entered in pencil or biro!

Diagrams 5Q1 and 5Q2 were identical externally and I am showing the first one because the original is in better condition. It's a fine example of all the Parker concepts. First Class seating was 2-a-side with excellent leg room and despite being quite a short design with only five compartments, two lavatories were provided, one at each end, each with a WC and hand-basin. There was no end vestibule with an external door, a design feature which became something of a constant in GCR carriages right up to the Grouping.

Note the placement of windows on the corridor side in harmony with each compartment, something that Gresley designs didn't always manage. Diagram: Author's collection.

Livery - the Parker stock was painted brown & French grey, which began to be replaced from 1903 by brown & cream. In 1908 there was a switch to a varnished livery after which previously built stock was stripped, rubbed down and varnished. There is some debate as to whether the panelling of the painted carriages had employed mahogany (which takes paint well) rather than teak (which being more oily, does not). If mahogany had been used then the subsequently varnished livery would have stood out from the next generation of varnished teak carriages. A difference can sometimes be seen in b&w photographs and an observer from the 1930s commented on it to me but I have no further evidence myself.