1.
British Rail corporate liveries
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The history of British Rails corporate liveries is quite complex. Multiple units were also green, although this tended to be a lighter and bluer shade compared to the colour used on steam. Corridor coaching stock was originally trialled in carmine and white before Crimson Lake and Cream livery was adopted across the network, all Class 42 Warship class diesels were delivered in green but some Class 52s were delivered in maroon to match the then-standard coaching stock livery. This livery suited these diesel hydraulic classes, and allowed the Western Region to once again show a degree of independence, the 25kV electric locomotives were painted from new in a striking shade of bright blue which was known as Electric Blue. They retained this livery for some years, before being painted in Rail Blue when that became the norm. In 1964, as part of a plan to develop a new image for British Railways. No. D5578 was painted in an unlined Light Electric blue, the first Class 52 Western class, No. D1000 Western Enterprise was painted in a pale brown livery known as Desert Sand livery when first delivered in 1961. Another Class 52, No. D1015 Western Champion was delivered in another, darker yellow/brown colour described as Golden Ochre and these non-standard liveried Western diesel hydraulics were also fitted with the cast aluminium lion and wheel emblem that was standard issue on the 25kV electric locomotives. The colours were chosen to be different from those of any of the Big Four pre-nationalisation railway companies while retaining a traditional aspect, however many people were not happy with the loss of the traditional historic regional colour schemes as used by the former private companies. From 1956 there was a move toward the return of regional colour schemes, for cost reasons, liveries were usually changed piecemeal, when coaches came in for scheduled maintenance. Coaches from different regions could also find themselves coupled together. Due to the consequent muddle of liveries, many began to get an untidy if not tatty appearance which added to the run-down image of the railway. The rebranding of British Railways to British Rail on 1 January 1965 was coupled with the introduction of a new national livery. The predecessor of the Rail Blue livery was an experimental train referred to as XP64 and this prototype train was used to test technology and carriage arrangements for the planned BR Mark 2 coaches. One locomotive, Class 47 No. D1733, was painted to match the coaching stock, eventually, it was decided to standardise on a colour which became known as Rail Blue. Introduced in 1965, and also known as Monastral Blue, the colour was defined by British Standards BR28/6001 and it was a dark, greyish blue tone which hid the effects of dirt well. The colour often appears inaccurately in photographs, generally appearing brighter and bluer than the real colour, in the early years the colour faded quite badly, becoming lighter and paler with time although this problem had been overcome by the late 1970s. United Kingdom paint code RAL5020 is a match to Rail Blue
2.
Derby Works
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The Derby railway works comprised a number of British manufacturing facilities designing and building locomotives and rolling stock in Derby, England. The first of these was a group of three maintenance sheds opened around 1840 behind Derby station. From its earliest days, it had carried out research and development in a number of areas, around 1840, the North Midland Railway, the Midland Counties Railway and the Birmingham and Derby Railway set up workshops to the rear of Derby station. Although the Midland Counties had a house at Nottingham, the main facilities for all three lines appear to have been, initially at least, those at Derby. That for the Birmingham and Derby was next to its line and it was about 140 feet long and 43 feet wide, with three lines and three wide archways at its entrance, supporting a water tank. In one corner was a smithy, the Midland Counties shed was rectangular and about 800 feet long to the north of the site. Adjacent to it were water and coke facilities, and locomotive repair workshops, the North Midlands became a full repair facility, with a smithy, lathes and other machine tools. These were associated with what is believed to be the first Roundhouse, on each side of it, in a vee, were workshops for locomotive and rolling stock repair. This experimentation was carried on with the use of an arch in the firebox to use the cheaper coal instead of coke. When the three merged in 1844 to form the Midland Railway, Derby became its headquarters and the workshops merged to become the Midland Railway Locomotive Works. The immediate task was to achieve some standardisation in the locomotives that it had inherited. Locomotives at that time were designed and built by manufacturers who might be lacking in actual operating experience with their products, the first Locomotive and Carriage Superintendent was Matthew Kirtley who persuaded various manufacturers to build to his own design and in 184950 six-coupled goods engines were delivered. After improving the workshops and facilities, including a roundhouse in 1847. New building began in 1851 with passenger engines to the Jenny Lind pattern and he then produced a large single with six foot six inch driving wheels. Throughout its existence the Midland never became fully self-sufficient, usually having its locos built by contractors to its own designs. Initially there was resistance on the part of Sharp Stewart and Stephenson. These were good enough, however, that Fowler built some more to a similar pattern, in 1861 he built four 0-6-0 banking engines for the Lickey Incline with four-foot drivers instead of the usual five feet. Kirtleys first 2-4-0 was a rebuilt 2-2-2 but he went on to six for use to Kings Cross
3.
Crewe Works
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Crewe railway works is a British railway engineering facility built in 1840 by the Grand Junction Railway. It is located in the town of Crewe, in Cheshire and it is currently owned by Bombardier Transportation. The railway also built 200 cottages establishing a new community in what had been the rural township of Monks Coppenhall, among the first workers to arrive were those from the old works at Edge Hill producing an increase in the towns population by some 800 men, women and children. The first locomotive built at Crewe went into service in 1843, by 1846 the demand for space was such that wagon building was moved, first to Edge Hill and Manchester, then to a new works at Earlestown. By 1848 the works employed over 1,000 producing one locomotive a week, in 1845 the Liverpool and Manchester Railway was merged with the Grand Junction. These, in turn, merged in 1846, with the London and Birmingham Railway, all four had their own workshops but, in time, locomotive building was concentrated at Crewe. In 1857 John Ramsbottom became Locomotive Superintendent and he had previously invented the first reliable safety valve and the scoop for picking up water from troughs between the tracks. He went on to improve the precision and interchangeability of tools, in 1862 locomotive work was transferred from Wolverton. Wolverton became the works, while wagon building was concentrated at Earlestown. In 1853 Crewe had begun to make its own iron and roll its own rails. In 1868 it became the first place to use open-hearth furnaces on an industrial scale and it also built its own brickworks. Later the works was fitted with two electric arc furnaces, as traffic density increased there was a need for longer trains and more powerful locomotives to haul them. In 1932, William Stanier became Chief Mechanical Engineer and set out to rationalise production, since Crewe had experience with heavier locomotives and had its own steel making facilities, he chose it as his main production location. There followed the Princesses and Duchesses, along with the Jubilees, Crewe produced all the new boilers for the LMS, and all heavy drop stampings and forgings. It also produced most of the steel components for the track. During World War II, Crewe produced over 150 Covenanter tanks for the army, after British Railways was formed in 1948, Robert Riddles introduced the BR standard classes, and Crewe built Britannia and Clan passenger engines and some of the Class 9 2-10-0 freight locomotives. At the end of steam, it had built over 7000 locomotives in its long career, from 1957 it built a succession of diesel locomotives including the Class 43 High Speed Train power cars and over 200 Class 47 locomotives. Much of the site at Crewe was cleared in a redevelopment in the mid 1980s
4.
Darlington Works
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Darlington railway works, was established in 1863 by the Stockton and Darlington Railway in the town of Darlington in the north east of England. The main part of the works, the North Road Shops was located on the northeast side of the Stockton and Darlington Railway The first new locomotive was built at the works in 1864. Though the railway had amalgamated with the North Eastern Railway in 1863, in 1877 the first North Eastern designs appeared. Additionally works where constructed west of the S&DR railway in the Stooperdale area of Darlington, grandiose offices for the NER were also constructed in the Stooperdale area in 1911, to the design of William Bell. The offices were used by NER head engineer Vincent Ravens until 1917, in 1914 a class of NER Bo+Bo electric locomotives were built at the works to run between Shildon and Newport. Ten of these 1500 volt direct current locomotives were completed, sir Vincent Raven designed the NER Class T2 0-8-0 freight locomotive in 1913, and by 1921 the works had built 120 of the engines, which were later designated Q6 by the LNER. The heavier and more powerful Raven NER Class T3 0-8-0 followed in 1919,15 engines being completed by 1924, under the LNER it continued to play a major role, producing a new engine each week, with Gresleys K3 class 2-6-0 appearing in 1924. Both the class V2 and A1 express locomotives were also built, by 1927 the works was the towns largest employer. Darlington works built six LNER Class K4 2-6-0 locomotives in 1937/38 for operation on the West Highland Line, no.3442 The Great Marquess has been preserved in full working order and in 2009 was still hauling special steam trains on the UK main line network. After nationalisation, Darlington built both steam and diesel locomotives, including BR standard class 2, the equivalent of the NER Class E1 0-6-0 tank locomotive had been built, virtually unchanged since 1898. In 1954 during the modernisation of British Railways the works was enlarged, the land of the Stooperdale part of the works was sold to Whessoe in 1962. The Stooperdale offices were grade II listed in 2001, Stockton and Darlington Railway Carriage Works, also known as Hopetown works Darlington TMD Hoole, K. North Road Locomotive Works, Darlington, 1863-1966. Hatch End, Roundhouse,1967 Larkin, E. J, the Railway Workshops of Great Britain 1823-1986
5.
Doncaster Works
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Doncaster railway works is a plant located in the town of Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. Always referred to as the Plant, it was established by the Great Northern Railway in 1853, replacing the previous works in Boston, until 1867 it undertook only repairs and maintenance. In 1866, Patrick Stirling was appointed as Locomotive Superintendent, at this time the works also began building new coaches, in 1873 the first sleeping cars, in 1879 the first dining cars in the United Kingdom, and in 1882 the first corridor coaches. In 1891,99 locomotives,181 carriages and 1493 wagons were built and these have hauled such trains as the Flying Scotsman, Silver Jubilee, Coronation and the Elizabethan. Doncaster also constructed the carriages for the last of these, the works continued building all kinds of rolling stock. During the Second World War, like other workshops it joined in the war effort, producing, among other things, the carriage building shop was destroyed by fire in 1940. New buildings in 1949 were designed with the BR standard all-steel carriages in mind, in 1957, the last of over two thousand steam locomotives was built and carriage building finished in 1962, but the works was modernised with the addition of a diesel locomotive repair shop. Under BREL, new diesel shunters and 25 kV electric locomotives have been built, plus Class 56, in July 2003 The Plant celebrated its 150th anniversary, with an open weekend, a link to the picture gallery for the weekend can be found below. Then owner Wabtec closed the engine plant in 2007. In early 2008 the main locomotive repair shop which was built on the Crimpsall was demolished to make way for housing, Wabtec continues to do passenger fleet refurbishment at the Doncaster site. Larkin, E. J. Larkin, J. G, the Railway Workshops of Great Britain 1823-1986. The Railway in Town and Country, official website Photographs of Doncaster Works 150th Celebrations
6.
Horwich Works
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Horwich works was built on 142 hectares of land bought in April 1884 for £36,000. Rivington House, the first of several workshops was 106. 7m long by 16. 8m wide, the long brick built workshops had full-height arched windows and were separated by tram and rail tracks. Work to construct the three bay,463. 3m long by 36m wide, erecting shop began in March 1885, two small 0-4-0 tank locomotives were bought from Beyer Peacock in 1887 to haul stores trains around the site, and six more were acquired at intervals to 1901. The first of these was bought from Beyer Peacock, but the remainder were built at Horwich, from 1930 they were gradually withdrawn from service, the last, Wren, was withdrawn in 1961 and is preserved at the National Railway Museum. The first locomotive built by the LYR at Horwich was a 2-4-2 tank engine designed by John Aspinall and this locomotive was LYR No.1008 and is now preserved at the National Railway Museum. By 1899 a further 677 locomotives had been built, and another 220 under Henry Hoy, between 1891 and 1900,230 0-6-0 tender engines designed by Barton Wright were rebuilt as 0-6-0ST saddle tanks, LYR Class F16. In 1899, the Aspinall-designed Atlantic 4-4-2 express passenger locomotive was introduced, Horwich works produced its thousandth engine in 1907, a four-cylinder compound 0-8-0. In 1923 when the became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway. In 1926 he was responsible for the design of a 2-6-0 mixed traffic locomotive of unusual appearance, the class proved extremely successful, and 245 locomotives were built,70 at Horwich, including the first 30 examples. The Crabs continued in service with British Railways London Midland and Scottish Regions until the last two survivors were withdrawn in early 1967, during World War II, the works built nearly 500 Cruiser, Centaur and Matilda tanks. After nationalisation in 1948, locomotive construction at Horwich continued at a level for ten years. During 1948 twenty LMS Ivatt Class 4 tender engines were completed, twenty-seven followed in 1949, with twenty-four in 1951,120 LMS Stanier Class 5 4-6-0 tender engines were built at Horwich by the LMS and British Railways between 1945 and 1950. The last BR Standard design steam engine to be built was outshopped in 1957, BR continued to overhaul steam engines for several more years. The last steam locomotive was despatched after overhaul on 4 May 1964, Horwich continued in use as a works for other rolling stock up to 1983. The foundry and the shop continued in use after this date. The site was sold by BREL to the Parkfield Group in 1988, the site is now an industrial estate, appropriately named Horwich Loco Industrial Estate, with most of the buildings still in use. The railway station in Horwich town centre, primarily used by employees at the works was opened in 1887 and it closed in 1965 with the last passenger train departing on 27 September 1965, hauled by 2-6-4T number 42626. The locomotive works site was designated an area by Bolton Council in 2006
7.
Whyte notation
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The notation counts the number of leading wheels, then the number of driving wheels, and finally the number of trailing wheels, groups of numbers being separated by dashes. Other classification schemes, like UIC classification and the French, Turkish and Swiss systems for steam locomotives, in the notation a locomotive with two leading axles in front, then three driving axles and then one trailing axle is classified as 4-6-2. Articulated locomotives such as Garratts, which are two locomotives joined by a common boiler, have a + between the arrangements of each engine. Thus a double Pacific type Garratt is a 4-6-2+2-6-4, for Garratt locomotives the + sign is used even when there are no intermediate unpowered wheels, e. g. the LMS Garratt 2-6-0+0-6-2. This is because the two units are more than just power bogies. They are complete engines, carrying fuel and water tanks, the + sign represents the bridge that links the two engines. Simpler articulated types such as Mallets, have a frame under a common boiler where there are no unpowered wheels between the sets of powered wheels. Typically, the frame is free to swing, whereas the rear frame is rigid with the boiler. Thus a Union Pacific Big Boy is a 4-8-8-4, four leading wheels, one group of eight driving wheels, another group of eight driving wheels and this numbering system is shared by duplex locomotives, which have powered wheel sets sharing a rigid frame. No suffix means a tender locomotive, T indicates a tank locomotive, in European practice, this is sometimes extended to indicate the type of tank locomotive, T means side tank, PT pannier tank, ST saddle tank, WT well tank. T+T means a tank locomotive that also has a tender, in Europe, the suffix R can signify rack or reversible, the latter being Bi-cabine locomotives used in France. The suffix F indicates a fireless locomotive, other suffixes have been used, including ng for narrow-gauge and CA or ca for compressed air. In Britain, small diesel and petrol locomotives are classified in the same way as steam locomotives. This may be followed by D for diesel or P for petrol, thus 0-6-0DE denotes a six-wheel diesel locomotive with electric transmission. Where the axles are coupled by chains or shafts or are individually driven, thus 4wPE indicates a four-wheel petrol locomotive with electric transmission. For large diesel locomotives the UIC classification is used, the main limitation of Whyte Notation is that it does not cover non-standard types such as Shay locomotives, which use geared trucks rather than driving wheels. The most commonly used system in Europe outside the United Kingdom is UIC classification, based on German practice, in American practice, most wheel arrangements in common use were given names, sometimes from the name of the first such locomotive built. For example, the 2-2-0 type arrangement is named Planet, after the 1830 locomotive on which it was first used, the most common wheel arrangements are listed below
8.
0-6-0
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This was the most common wheel arrangement used on both tender and tank locomotives in versions with both inside and outside cylinders. In the United Kingdom, the Whyte notation of wheel arrangement was often used for the classification of electric and diesel-electric locomotives with side-rod coupled driving wheels. The 0-6-0 configuration was the most widely used wheel arrangement for both tender and tank steam locomotives, the type was also widely used for diesel switchers. On the other hand, the lack of unpowered leading wheels have the result that 0-6-0 locomotives are less stable at speed and they are therefore mostly used on trains where high speed is unnecessary. The tank engine versions were used as switching locomotives since the smaller 0-4-0 types were not large enough to be versatile in this job. The earliest 0-6-0 locomotives had outside cylinders, as these were simpler to construct, however, once designers began to overcome the problem of the breakage of the crank axles, inside cylinder versions were found to be more stable. Thereafter this pattern was adopted, particularly in the United Kingdom. Tank engine versions of the type began to be built in quantity in the mid-1850s and had become common by the mid-1860s. 0-6-0 locomotives were amongst the first types to be used, the earliest recorded example was the Royal George, built by Timothy Hackworth for the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1827. Derwent, a locomotive built in 1845 by William and Alfred Kitching for the Stockton and Darlington Railway, is preserved at Darlington Railway Centre. On most branch lines, though, larger and more powerful tank engines tended to be favoured, in New South Wales, the Z19 class was a tender type with this wheel arrangement, as was the Victorian Railways Y class. The Dorrigo Railway Museum collection includes seven Locomotives of the 0-6-0 wheel arrangement, tank locomotives used by Finland were the VR Class Vr1 and VR Class Vr4. The VR Class Vr1s were numbered 530 to 544,656 to 670 and 787 to 799 and they had outside cylinders and were operational from 1913 to 1975. Built by Tampella, Finland and Hanomag, they were nicknamed Chicken, number 669 is preserved at the Finnish Railway Museum. The Vr4s were a class of four locomotives, numbered 1400 to 1423, originally built as 0-6-0s by Vulcan Iron Works, United States, but modified to 0-6-2s in 1951-1955. Finland’s tender locomotives were the classes C1, C2, C3, C4, C5, the Finnish Steam Locomotive Class C1s were a class of ten locomotives numbered 21 to 30. They were operational from 1869 to 1926 and they were built by Neilson and Company and were nicknamed Bristollari. Number 21, preserved at the Finnish Railway Museum, is the second oldest preserved locomotive in Finland, the eighteen Class C2s were numbered 31 to 43 and 48 to 52
9.
Wheelbase
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In both road and rail vehicles, the wheelbase is the distance between the centers of the front and rear wheels. For road vehicles with more than two axles, the wheelbase is defined as the distance between the axle and the centerpoint of the driving axle group. In the case of a truck, the wheelbase would be the distance between the steering axle and a point midway between the two rear axles. The wheelbase of a vehicle equals the distance between its front and rear wheels, at equilibrium, the total torque of the forces acting on a vehicle is zero. So, for example, when a truck is loaded, its center of gravity shifts rearward, the amount the vehicle sinks will depend on counter acting forces like the size of the tires, tire pressure, and the stiffness of the suspension. If the vehicle is accelerating or decelerating, extra torque is placed on the rear or front tire respectively, so, as is common experience, when the vehicle accelerates, the rear usually sinks and the front rises depending on the suspension. Likewise, when braking the front noses down and the rear rises, because of the effect the wheelbase has on the weight distribution of the vehicle, wheelbase dimensions are crucial to the balance and steering. For example, a car with a greater weight load on the rear tends to understeer due to the lack of the load on the front tires. This is why it is crucial, when towing a single-axle caravan, likewise, a car may oversteer or even spin out if there is too much force on the front tires and not enough on the rear tires. Also, when turning there is lateral torque placed upon the tires which imparts a turning force that depends upon the length of the distances from the CM. Wheelbases provide the basis for one of the most common vehicle size class systems, some luxury vehicles are offered with long-wheelbase variants to increase the spaciousness and therefore the luxury of the vehicle. Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair was given a version of the Rover 75 for official use. In contrast, coupé varieties of vehicles such as the Honda Accord are usually built on shorter wheelbases than the sedans they are derived from. The wheelbase on many commercially available bicycles and motorcycles is so short, relative to the height of their centers of mass, in skateboarding the word wheelbase is used for the distance between the two inner pairs of mounting holes on the deck. This is different from the distance between the centers of the two wheel pairs. A reason for this use is that decks are sold with prefabricated holes. It is therefore easier to use the holes for measuring and describing this characteristic of the deck. A common misconception is that the choice of wheelbase is influenced by the height of the skateboarder, however, the length of the deck would then be a better candidate, because the wheelbase affects characteristics useful in different speeds or terrains regardless of the height of the skateboarder
