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.
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
6.
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
7.
Engine-generator
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An engine-generator or portable generator is the combination of an electrical generator and an engine mounted together to form a single piece of equipment. This combination is called an engine-generator set or a gen-set. In many contexts, the engine is taken for granted and the unit is simply called a generator. Engine-generators are available in a range of power ratings. Regardless of the size, generators may run on gasoline, diesel, natural gas, propane, bio-diesel, water, sewage gas or hydrogen. Most of the units are built to use gasoline as a fuel. Some engines may also operate on diesel and gas simultaneously, many engine-generators use a reciprocating engine, with fuels mentioned above. This can be an engine, such as most coal-powered fossil-fuel power plants use. Some engine-generators use a turbine as the engine, such as the gas turbines used in peaking power plants. The generator voltage, frequency and power ratings are selected to suit the load that will be connected, engine-driven generators fueled on natural gas fuel often form the heart of small-scale combined heat and power installations. There are only a few portable three-phase generator models available in the US, most of the portable units available are single-phase generators and most of the three-phase generators manufactured are large industrial type generators. In other countries where power is more common in households, portable generators are available from a few kW. Portable engine-generators may require an external power conditioner to safely operate some types of electronic equipment, small portable generators may use an inverter. Inverter models can run at slower RPMs to generate the power that is necessary, thus reducing the noise of the engine, inverter generators are best to power sensitive electronic devices such as computers and lights that use a ballast. The mid-size stationary engine-generator pictured here is a 100 kVA set which produces 415 V at around 110 A and it is powered by a 6. 7-liter turbocharged Perkins Phaser 1000 Series engine, and consumes approximately 27 liters of fuel an hour, on a 400-liter tank. Diesel engines in the UK can run on red diesel and rotate at 1,500 or 3,000 rpm and this produces power at 50 Hz, which is the frequency used in Europe. In areas where the frequency is 60 Hz, generators rotate at 1,800 rpm or another divisor of 3600, many generators produce enough kilowatts to power anything from a business to a full-sized hospital. These units are particularly useful in providing backup power solutions for companies which have serious economic costs associated with a shutdown caused by an power outage
8.
Gear train
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A transmission is a machine in a power transmission system, which provides controlled application of the power. Often the term refers simply to the gearbox that uses gears and gear trains to provide speed. In British English, the term refers to the whole drivetrain, including clutch, gearbox, prop shaft, differential. In American English, however, the term more specifically to the gearbox alone. The most common use is in vehicles, where the transmission adapts the output of the internal combustion engine to the drive wheels. Such engines need to operate at a high rotational speed, which is inappropriate for starting, stopping. The transmission reduces the engine speed to the slower wheel speed. Transmissions are also used on bicycles, fixed machines. Often, a transmission has multiple gear ratios with the ability to switch between them as speed varies and this switching may be done manually or automatically. Directional control may also be provided, single-ratio transmissions also exist, which simply change the speed and torque of motor output. The output of the transmission is transmitted via the driveshaft to one or more differentials, while a differential may also provide gear reduction, its primary purpose is to permit the wheels at either end of an axle to rotate at different speeds as it changes the direction of rotation. Conventional gear/belt transmissions are not the mechanism for speed/torque adaptation. Alternative mechanisms include torque converters and power transformation, automatic transmissions use a valve body to shift gears using fluid pressures in conjunction with an ecm. Early transmissions included the right-angle drives and other gearing in windmills, horse-powered devices, and steam engines, in support of pumping, milling, most modern gearboxes are used to increase torque while reducing the speed of a prime mover output shaft. This means that the shaft of a gearbox rotates at a slower rate than the input shaft. A gearbox can be set up to do the opposite and provide an increase in speed with a reduction of torque. Some of the simplest gearboxes merely change the rotational direction of power transmission. Many typical automobile transmissions include the ability to select one of several gear ratios, in this case, most of the gear ratios are used to slow down the output speed of the engine and increase torque
9.
Railway brake
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Brakes are used on the cars of railway trains to enable deceleration, control acceleration or to keep them standing when parked. Clasp brakes are one type of historically used on trains. In the earliest days of railways, braking technology was primitive, some railways fitted a special deep-noted brake whistle to locomotives to indicate to the porters the necessity to apply the brakes. All the brakes at this stage of development were applied by operation of a screw and linkage to brake blocks applied to wheel treads, and it was also unreliable, as the application of brakes by guards depended upon them hearing and responding quickly to a whistle for brakes. This had become apparent from the trials on railway brakes carried out at Newark in the previous year, the chief types of solution were, The chain brake, such as the Heberlein brake, in which a chain was connected continuously along the train. As with car brakes, actuating pressure to apply brakes was transmitted hydraulically and these found some favor in the UK, but even in the UK problems were found with the water used as brake fluid freezing The Westinghouse air brake system. The Westinghouse system uses smaller air reservoirs and brake cylinders than the vacuum equipment. An ejector on the created a vacuum in a continuous pipe along the train. This system was very cheap and effective, but it had the weakness that it became inoperative if the train became divided or if the train pipe was ruptured. This system was similar to the vacuum system, except that the creation of vacuum in the train pipe exhausted vacuum reservoirs on every vehicle. If the driver applied the brake, his drivers brake valve admitted atmospheric air to the pipe. Being an automatic brake, this system applies braking effort if the train divided or if the train pipe is ruptured. Its disadvantage is that the vacuum reservoirs were required on every vehicle, and their bulk. Note, there are a number of variants and developments of all these systems, the Newark trials showed the braking performance of the Westinghouse air-brakes to be distinctly superior but for other reasons it was the vacuum system that was generally adopted on UK railways. Goods and mineral vehicles were provided with hand brakes by which the brakes could be applied by a lever operated by staff on the ground. Early goods vehicles had brake handles on one side only and random alignment of the vehicles gave the guard sufficient braking but, from about 1930 and these trains, not fitted with continuous brakes were described as unfitted trains and they survived in British practice until about 1985. By 1952 only 14% of open wagons, 55% of covered, in the early days of diesel locomotives, a purpose-built brake tender was attached to the locomotive to increase braking effort when hauling unfitted trains. The brake tender was low, so that the driver could see the line and signals ahead if the brake tender was propelled ahead of the locomotive
10.
Route availability
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Route Availability is the system by which the permanent way and supporting works of the National Rail network of Great Britain are graded. All routes are allocated an RA number between 1 and 10, rolling stock is also allocated an RA and the RA of a train is the highest RA of any of its elements. The train must have a route availability lower than or equal to the RA of a line to be allowed to use it, the RA is primarily related to the axle load of the vehicle, although axle spacing is also taken into consideration. In practice it is the locomotive which governs where trains may operate, exemptions may be obtained to allow locomotives to operate on lines from which they may otherwise be banned. An exemption might be granted by placing a speed restriction over a weak bridge, the route availability for a line is calculated by taking into account bridge strength, track condition, structural issues and so on. A route availability of one is the most restricted line, open to one type of locomotive specially designed for it. A route availability of 10 is the most open, usable by any locomotive that fits within the GB loading gauge that has passed for it. Route availability for a vehicle is based upon its axle loading. That is, how much of the weight of the vehicle is distributed on each axle. The more weight on each axle, the higher the RA number, the uneven weight distribution of the class 28 Co-Bo forced the use of a six-wheel bogie at one end in order to stay within RA8. For wagons it is normal to have different RAs when running empty, a locomotive with RA1 is able to work on any line, although it will have a very light axle loading. An RA10 locomotive could only work upon an RA10 line, the RA of a locomotive must not exceed the RA of the track except under strictly controlled circumstances. Several routes will have had their RA numbers changed since that time, * Depending on sub-class, see individual article for details. Before nationalisation the Big Four railway companies had their own classification systems, each locomotive had a coloured disc painted on the cab side to indicate its route availability, U. S
11.
British Rail
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British Railways, which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British railway companies and lasted until the privatisation of British Rail. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commission, the period of nationalisation saw sweeping changes in the national railway network. A process of dieselisation and electrification took place, and by 1968 steam locomotion had been replaced by diesel and electric traction. Passengers replaced freight as the source of business, and one-third of the network was closed by the Beeching Axe of the 1960s in an effort to reduce rail subsidies. On privatisation, responsibility for track, signalling and stations was transferred to Railtrack, the British Rail double arrow logo is formed of two interlocked arrows showing the direction of travel on a double track railway and was nicknamed the arrow of indecision. The rail transport system in Great Britain developed during the 19th century, during World War I the railways were under state control, which continued until 1921. Complete nationalisation had been considered, and the Railways Act 1921 is sometimes considered as a precursor to that, nationalisation was subsequently carried out after World War II, under the Transport Act 1947. This Act made provision for the nationalisation of the network, as part of a policy of nationalising public services by Clement Attlees Labour Government. British Railways came into existence as the name of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commission on 1 January 1948 when it took over the assets of the Big Four. There were also joint railways between the Big Four and a few railways to consider. Excluded from nationalisation were industrial lines like the Oxfordshire Ironstone Railway, the London Underground – publicly owned since 1933 – was also nationalised, becoming the London Transport Executive of the British Transport Commission. The Bicester Military Railway was already run by the government, the electric Liverpool Overhead Railway was also excluded from nationalisation. The Railway Executive was conscious that some lines on the network were unprofitable and hard to justify socially, however, the general financial position of BR became gradually poorer, until an operating loss was recorded in 1955. The Executive itself had abolished in 1953 by the Conservative government. Other changes to the British Transport Commission at the time included the return of road haulage to the private sector. British Railways was divided into regions which were based on the areas the former Big Four operated in, later. Western Region of British Railways, former Great Western Railway lines, London Midland Region of British Railways, former London Midland and Scottish Railway lines in England
