DBSO driver window "blinkers"

[BigB]

Whilst looking at DBSO on site today a colleague was asking why the driver windows were fitted with "blinkers", which I have to admit I'd never noticed before.
I can see why the side ones may be there to stop washer fluid from going down the carriage and getting in anyone's face, but not sure what the ones in the inside would so. Locos and multiple units don't have anything similar so we didn't think these would be for the drivers benefit..

Can anyone shed any light on what their purpose is?

Thanks

 

[davart]

Prevent glare, stop wind lifting the wipers off the glass?

Don't know the definitive answer but I'd hazard a guess that it's one of the two.

 

[ComUtoR]

Impact deflectors ?

 

[47271]

My Dad was very much out and about on Scotrail in the 1980s and he thinks, underline thinks, that the deflectors were fitted because of sideways air pressure on the wipers at 100mph caused by the corridor connection since removed.

But he says that he's trawling back 40 years in his memory so could be talking nonsense.

 

[hexagon789]

My Dad was very much out and about on Scotrail in the 1980s and he thinks, underline thinks, that the deflectors were fitted because of sideways air pressure on the wipers at 100mph caused by the corridor connection since removed.

But he says that he's trawling back 40 years in his memory so could be talking nonsense.

They don't appear to have been fitted during the ScotRail era having looked at some photos. They do appear in Anglia/ONE days so perhaps they were actually fitted after gangway removal?

 

[Helvellyn]

It seems they weren't fitted during ScotRail days, nor when they originally transferred to InterCity for use on the Great Easter Main Line (see the photo below from traintesting.com of I believe 9714). This would suggest that removal of the defunct corridor connection when the DBSOs were refurbished at Devonport Dockyard resulted in something happening that needed the 'blinkers' fitted. A second photo on traintesting.com from 2001 shows DBSO 9710 (still in InterCity livery) with the 'blinkers' fitted.


http://www.traintesting.com/images/DBSO_Norwich_station.jpg

 

[hexagon789]

It seems they weren't fitted during ScotRail days, nor when they originally transferred to InterCity for use on the Great Easter Main Line (see the photo below from traintesting.com of I believe 9714). This would suggest that removal of the defunct corridor connection when the DBSOs were refurbished at Devonport Dockyard resulted in something happening that needed the 'blinkers' fitted. A second photo on traintesting.com from 2001 shows DBSO 9710 (still in InterCity livery) with the 'blinkers' fitted.

View attachment 80683
http://www.traintesting.com/images/DBSO_Norwich_station.jpg

My suspicion is the gangway actually acted to direct the airflow slightly away from the cab windows, the lack of gangway and flush front meant the air passed right against the windows buffeting the wipers?

 

[superjohn]

My suspicion is the gangway actually acted to direct the airflow slightly away from the cab windows, the lack of gangway and flush front meant the air passed right against the windows buffeting the wipers?

Flush fronts are hardly uncommon though, think class 47, 50, 67 etc. I wonder if they were a defence against some kind of distracting lineside flicker effect caused by the driver’s window being so far to one side of the cab or perhaps to prevent sunlight hitting the angle of the glass at sunrise/set. A southbound GEML train at sunrise would get a lot of bright light straight at the driver’s side and the windscreen looks more angled than most.

 

[hexagon789]

Flush fronts are hardly uncommon though, think class 47, 50, 67 etc. I wonder if they were a defence against some kind of distracting lineside flicker effect caused by the driver’s window being so far to one side of the cab or perhaps to prevent sunlight hitting the angle of the glass at sunrise/set. A southbound GEML train at sunrise would get a lot of bright light straight at the driver’s side and the windscreen looks more angled than most.

I was going off the fact that the "blinkers" only seem to have been fitted after the gangways were removed and surely if it was for reasons of glare/flicker they would've been fitted sooner as light from the left-hand side would've affected the drivers in the same way as when the DBSOs were still gangwayed?

 

[BigB]

Thanks for all the replies - it doesn't seem that there is a definitive answer, but certainly some points to discuss when we are back on site.

 

[hexagon789]

Thanks for all the replies - it doesn't seem that there is a definitive answer, but certainly some points to discuss when we are back on site.

I can try asking someone very familiar with these and 47/7s on another forum but I believe he only dealt with them in ScotRail days so he may not have the answer.

 

[jopsuk]

Flush fronts are hardly uncommon though, think class 47, 50, 67 etc. I wonder if they were a defence against some kind of distracting lineside flicker effect caused by the driver’s window being so far to one side of the cab or perhaps to prevent sunlight hitting the angle of the glass at sunrise/set. A southbound GEML train at sunrise would get a lot of bright light straight at the driver’s side and the windscreen looks more angled than most.

But none are quite the same shape- the DBSO has vertical windscreens on a vertical "front"- the examples have raked windscreens

 

[superjohn]

But none are quite the same shape- the DBSO has vertical windscreens on a vertical "front"- the examples have raked windscreens

True. The only other examples of vertical fronts I can think of are several classes of mark 1 EMU. They would not have seen as much high speed running as the DBSO cabs. Perhaps it is a wind thing.

 

[66Yorks]

For some strange reason I've always like the DBSO's. No idea why!