Gresley steel-panelled coaches
Separated from the Modelling section and expanded, this is taking shape in two parts:
1. Design features 2. The Diagrams in sequence - D.299 CL - D.310 BT-CL - D.311 C - D.312 BT-T
1. Design features
When Gresley designed his first steel-panelled coaches in 1935 (the gangwayed "steel quintuple sets"), for reasons unknown so far, he reverted to GNR-style opening toplights over the doors instead of ventilator bonnets - and among the non-gangwayed steel-panelled stock built from 1938 to lengths of 51'1 1/2" (and 54'1 1/2" for the odd Diagram for the GE Section) both kinds were provided, despite Gresley approving going over to the more modern design in May 1939. Matters are further complicated by division of construction between Birmingham RC&W, Cravens, Metropolitan-Cammell, R.Y.Pickering, and York, and that at least one Diagram is known to have had both types.
I have not been able to resolve everything yet so this aspect is a work in progress as information and pictures are found and worked up.
Michael Harris's second book on LNER carriages, the blue one of 1994, reprinted by Noodle Books in 2011, is useful for listing where many of these coaches were deployed.
An ex-works view from May 1938 of a 1st to D.252 shows the rectangular Gresley windows and steel panelling in place of teak. Two batches of this Diagram were built by York in 1939-40 for which the Diagram dated 1939 shows ventilator bonnets - yet a picture of a carriage built in 1940 shows the opening toplights. I have yet to get to the bottom of this.Photo: author's collection
A fine view of the opening toplight version is seen in this twin at Darlington in 1957.
It's part of D.269 (BT-T) that was built in 1938 (Metropolitan-Cammell) and 1939 (Birmingham RC&W and York) to D.269. The Diagram dated 1939 for the two contractors shows opening toplights, as seen here in a twin of 1939. The brake is to the left.
A pair of Thirds to D.276 at Penistone behind C13 67434 that shows the different ventilation arrangements over the doors in the same Diagram and the same train (in order from behind the loco):
T 3rd Pickering 1938 D.276 E82624E - with glazed, opening toplights over the doors.
T 3rd York 1940 D.276 E82618E - with ventilator bonnets over the doors.
{Click on the picture for an enlargement of the carriages}
Construction of D.276 had been as follows:
1938 R.Y. Pickering, for the GE Section 1939 R.Y. Pickering, for the GE Section 1940 York, for the NE Area
The Diagram I have refers to construction in 1938 by Pickering with opening toplights, as seen above, and it appears that York went over to the more modern type without a new Diagram being raised - this sort of detail change didn't always lead to a new Diagram, modellers beware!
Evidently, these D.276 3rds had been transferred from the GE Section and the NE Area, to the former GC Section.
When looking at train pictures in the West Riding, the bonnet version dominates according to two Diagrams built by York in 1941:
D.310 BT(5)-CL(3/4) D.319 BT(6)
Which Michael Harris recorded as having been built for the West Riding/Leeds District and Nottingham District.
Livery
Pickering must have been proud of the all-1st is coach which they built in May 1938 for they went to the trouble of painting out the background on the negative, which explains a little raggedness here and there. They also used old-fashioned Orthochromatic film which doesn't "see" red, so the simulated teak finish ended up almost entirely black: I have tried to correct this with Photoshop so that you can see the skill with which the work was done, and how individual panels varied slightly around the body. Personally, I feel that some of the preserved steel-panelled Thompsons went overboard a little... and I remember being told of an observer saying how the finish on a original was so good that at first he really thought that he was looking at a wood-panelled carriage!
Underframe
Steel angle trussing on all the 51' 1 1/2" stock, whether teak or steel panelled, was pitched higher than under 61'6" carriages with a long battery box on one side only and regulator box on the other side. I didn't fully understand this when I built the Kemilway models some years ago and fitted some with battery boxes on both sides. Gresley's regulator box had a diamond shaped front that was also carried by his TPOs. The steam heat pipe was insulated with white asbestos and highly visible whem new. Photo: LNER PRO, author's collection.
{Click on the picture for an enlargement}
2. The Diagrams in sequence
D.299 CL semi-corridor lavatory composite
The Gresley semi-corridor lavatory composite, as steel-panelled. No E88290E, built 1940. Next to it is a pre-Grouping carriage, an ex-GCR matchboard.
Click on the picture for an enlargement of the carriages
A fine view of how slowly modernisation took place. G5 No 67308 is at Ledston (ex-NER between Leeds City, Garforth and Castleford) in August 1948 with a 4-set in which half the train is still made up with ex-NER carriages. One replacement dates from c1940 and another the late '40s. Photo: Real Photographs.
{Click on the picture for an enlargement of the carriages}
An enlargement of the train shows the formation:
BT |
3rd brake |
52' |
ex-NER |
CL |
1st/3rd lavatory |
51'1 1/2" |
Gresley steel-panelled |
T |
3rd |
52' |
ex-NER |
BT |
3rd brake |
52'4" |
Thompson steel-panelled |
Note how the first carriage to be modernised had the 1st class seats and how it added lavatories to the train.
D.310 BT(5)-CL
N1 No 69452 gets a West Riding service under way from Leeds Central in 1953 with a Gresley 51'1 1/2" steel-panelled twin t D.310 at the head, followed by a Thompson 3rd brake. The twin has ventilator bonnets over the doors and the number appears to be E80327 but I cannot find it in the Harris listings!
{Click on the picture for an enlargement of the carriages}
C13 67445 is between Leeds and Wakefield with a neat 3-set:
BT |
3rd brake |
D.319 |
CL-BT |
1st/3rd - 3rd brake |
D.310 |
Both have ventilator bonnets over the doors.
PS - There was another BT(6) which was built in 1940 for the GC Section's suburban traffic in Manchester as part of a BT-T twin to D.312 and it's likely that the bodies were the same: on the Diagrams, they are indistinguishable.
A single twin waits at Keighley on the Queensbury lines system behind a smart N1, No 69494:
CL-BT |
1st-3rd - 3rd brake |
D.310 |
For more examples in West Riding secondary services see links below.
D.311 C
{Click on the picture for an enlargement}
The Diagram for this C(4/3) is essentially a steel-panelled version of D.51 and pretty unremarkable except that by this time relatively few stand-alone 51'1 1/2" carriages were being built - these were required to fit between 3rd class twins with minimal 1st class seating in a single carriage.
Compartment widths in this carriage (and D.51) were a little unusual, luxurious, even. In normal carriages, whether gangwayed or not, the 1st class compartment was normally 7'3" wide, and the 3rd class one, 6'2". In this design, where a compartment had to be sacrificed, both compartments were enlarged - to 7'6" and 6'8 1/2", respectively. It made the lower class compartment almost as wide as the normal higher class one (and a far cry from just over 5ft in the King's Cross Suburban quadruplet sets)! One wonders if regular commuters on discovering the generosity of leg room in this design made a bee-line for it?
The number of seats is puzzling, however. Harris quoted C(32/30), that is with four 1st class compartments each seating 8 passengers; and three 3rd class ones for 10 passengers each. But the Diagram quotes 40 Third Class seats , which is self-evidently not divisible by 3. It's a Drawing Office "typo" chaps - not for the first time I remind modellers to use their grey cells when looking at official documents: they were not cast in stone and all man-made artefacts can be mistaken or misleading.
Four were built for the GC Section (first digit "5") in 1940, plus another two in 1943 for the GN Section which Michael Harris noted as "SP Replacements", reason unknown; they would have fitted in with the twins built at the same time for that Section:
57800-3 (Thompson/BR 88323-6) 45958-9 (Thompson/BR 88321-2)
A fine service picture taken in 1947 shows C13 No 7424 with a train for Hayfield leaving New Mills tunnel. Only the leading carriage can be seen, possibly marshalled outside a formation with twins in it. Photo: R.D. Pollard, author's collection.
{Click on the picture for an enlargement}
An enlargement shows the ventilator bonnets over the doors well and the painted "teak" finish is elegant. The number can just about be read and is either 57800 or 57803.
In a scene from 1953, ex-GCR C13 No 67403 (GOR) has a Manchester outer suburban coming in from Macclesfield, near Romiley. The slide is quite dark and I have done my best to correct it but, even so, the very last carriage cannot be seen. The visible part of the formation is made up with an ex-GCR matchboard carriage which may have been painted crimson or is still in varnished teak, followed by Gresley 51'1 1/2" steel-panelled stock. Photo: Colour-Rail BRE109.
Click on the image for an enlargement
An enlargement suggests that the carriages are:
BT |
3rd brake |
56' |
ex-GCR matchboard |
|
C |
1st/3rd |
51'1 1/2" |
Gresley steel-panelled |
D.311 |
T-BT |
3rd-3rd brake |
51'1 1/2" twin |
Gresley steel-panelled |
D.312? |
not visible | ||||
It has the appearance of a 4-set with a strengthener on the rear.
D.312 BT-T
The arrangement of D.312 to BT(6)-T(8) is seen above and the basics are similar to the Composite to D.311 with shielded ventilator bonnets and steel angle trussing. Compartment width in the BT(6) was the normal 6'2" and in the T(8) very slightly wider at 6'3 1/16". Note the standard (light) bogies at the ends and heavy bogie in the middle.
The title for both Diagrams is worth a comment, too: not "suburban" as the RTR trade (and thus a lot of modellers) is wont to call all non-gangwayed carriages, but "Ordinary". There's a lot to be said for plain English!
Again both batches were built in 1940 (8 for the GC Section) and 1943 (4 for the GN Section):
BT : 54000/2/4/6/8/10/2/4 (Thompson 86967/9/71/33/5/7/9/81) T : 54001/3/5/7/9/11/3/5 (Thompson 86968/70/2/4/6/8/80/2)
BT : 44421/31/41/51 (Thompson 86959/61/3/5) T : 44422/32/42/52 (Thompson 86960/2/4/6)
{Click on the picture for an enlargement}
The next batch of steel-panelled carriages was built in 1943 and 1949 as part of continuing modernisation of suburban services without lavatories around Manchester, and somewhere on the GN Section which I have yet to identify. Both were built by York with ventilator bonnets above the doors and the indications are that they were intended to run as complete 5-sets. But first, two general views of the stock in service:
A classic view of a non-lavatory 5-set behind C13 No 7401 on a Manchester-Hayfield working, a distance of around 15 miles, near Strines on 6th September 1947. Modernisation of a complete train was rare, it was normally done in stages, but as can be seen here, an effort was made for the Manchester services and it appears that four trains were made up with recently built 51'1 1/2" steel-panelled twin and single carriages:
T-BT |
3rd-3rd brake (twin) |
D.312 |
C |
1st/3rd |
D.311 |
T-BT |
3rd-3rd brake (twin) |
D.312 |
The carriages were seven years old when this picture was taken and it's an impressive formation, albeit with one of the twins inside out. Reflections off the sides conceal that the livery would have been simulated teak. They would soon be re-painted crimson. Photo: R.D. Pollard, author's collection.
{Click on the picture for an enlargement}
An enlargement which shows the leading twin and the composite in the middle of the formation. Note the deeper trussing on the twin (same as 61'6" stock) and shallower on the stand-alone composite. Battery boxes were one side only on alternate sides. The running number on the leading 3rd appears to be 54009. The Manchester set number is painted on the end, although whether No 8 or a number in the 80s I cannot tell.
Related links:
Modelling the stock - is here.
More examples as used in West Riding secondary services - are here.
