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TRIVIA - Things you saw travelling on BR that you don't see today

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Journeyman

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When did BR /other huge organisations stop paying their staff in cash?

They stopped offering the option to new entrants many years ago, but those still being paid in cash were allowed to carry on somewhat later. There were still a few paid in cash on my patch in 1996. Not sure how much longer it lasted after that.
 

341o2

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Carriage lighting only turned on at night, so when you went through a tunnel during the day, you were in darkness.
 

AndrewE

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Carriage lighting only turned on at night, so when you went through a tunnel during the day, you were in darkness.
I don't remember that, in fact train preparation instructions included "turn on lights throughout train" so that hot bulbs were less likely to be unscrewed and pilfered.
Nowadays heritage railways running MkI stock with inferior batteries and minimal running to recharge them definitely do (sensibly) only put lights on when approaching tunnels...
 

ChiefPlanner

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Plastic water cans in MK1 toilets (to flush the bogs) , as in deep cold weather , the water tanks froze , and were thus drained to prevent problems.

On the same theme , small tablets of "green" coloured soap , stamped "BR" ...

Steam heated coaches , which looked very atmospheric , but inside MK1 compartments (which were toasty and comfy usually) , you got slightly damp upholstery from leaking interior heating pipes.
 

AndrewE

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Plastic water cans in MK1 toilets (to flush the bogs) , as in deep cold weather , the water tanks froze , and were thus drained to prevent problems.
On the same theme , small tablets of "green" coloured soap , stamped "BR" ...

Steam heated coaches , which looked very atmospheric , but inside MK1 compartments (which were toasty and comfy usually) , you got slightly damp upholstery from leaking interior heating pipes.
only if the steam pipes were leaking. Most of the time they weren't. I remember my dad getting home and complaining that he had had to cycle a couple of miles from the station in icy weather with a wet trouser leg after sitting by a leaking steam heater (Broad St to Tring!)
I have noticed it once on a heritage line, luckily before I sat down so I chose a different compartment!
 

Gwenllian2001

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Carriage lighting only turned on at night, so when you went through a tunnel during the day, you were in darkness.
Lights were always switched on before entering tunnels and extinguished after leaving. If you were travelling on a line that was unfamiliar the lights coming on would tell you a tunnel was imminent. There would have been local instructions covering where lighting was to be used.
 

AndrewE

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Carriage lighting only turned on at night, so when you went through a tunnel during the day, you were in darkness.

Lights were always switched on before entering tunnels and extinguished after leaving. If you were travelling on a line that was unfamiliar the lights coming on would tell you a tunnel was imminent. There would have been local instructions covering where lighting was to be used.
I have looked in my General Appendix and the Sectional Appendices too, and it seems that you are both right. I am amazed, because I was specifically told that trains had to go into service with all the lights on to discourage people from tampering with the bulbs.
I think my books date back to the 1960s. Anyone else got a similar memory?
 

vlad

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Nowadays heritage railways running MkI stock with inferior batteries and minimal running to recharge them definitely do (sensibly) only put lights on when approaching tunnels...

They don't do that all the time! It is rather atmospheric travelling through tunnels behind a steam loco in the pitch darkness....
 
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I have looked in my General Appendix and the Sectional Appendices too, and it seems that you are both right. I am amazed, because I was specifically told that trains had to go into service with all the lights on to discourage people from tampering with the bulbs.
I think my books date back to the 1960s. Anyone else got a similar memory?

Its hard to remember, it 50 years ago!
I do think I remember the lights always being on for the Gateacre services into Liverpool Central. But I think DMU interior lights were always on back then.
 

randyrippley

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My memory from when I was a kid in the 1960s is that DMUs on the Weymouth line had lights on all the time, while hauled coaches only had them on at night - and they weren't turned on for tunnels: think about it, each coach would have had its own lighting controls and the guard was hardly going to change the settings on every coach, especially non-corridor ones.
A few years later when I started riding Waterloo-Exeter the compartment lights were on all the time, with a dimmer switch over the compartment door, and some compartments had reading lights which could be switched on/off
 

Springs Branch

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I do think I remember the lights always being on for the Gateacre services into Liverpool Central.....
Given the number of tunnels on the CLC line into Liverpool Central, it would make sense just to leave the unit's lights on.

My memory from when I was a kid in the 1960s is that DMUs on the Weymouth line had lights on all the time, while hauled coaches only had them on at night.....
Was the difference down to how the electrical power for lighting was generated?
  • Steam trains and early diesels providing only steam heating to service the train = Electricity for lighting had to be generated by a dynamo and batteries under each individual coach.
  • DMUs, EMUs and locos equipped with train electrical services (e.g. Electric Train Heating) = Electricity for train lighting generated continuously and always available while the diesel engine is running or OHLE / third rail is live.
In first case there was some merit in having the lights switched off to help preserve the under-coach batteries.
In second case, didn't really matter whether the compartment lights stay on continuously or not.
 

Springs Branch

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Cross arm pantographs
Not only cross arms, but cross arm pantographs with a *really* long stretch (on 1500V DC lines).

2925338_a3a549e7.jpg

© Copyright Albert Bridge and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons Licence CC BY-SA 2.0 (Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic)
 
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AndrewE

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My memory from when I was a kid in the 1960s is that DMUs on the Weymouth line had lights on all the time, while hauled coaches only had them on at night - and they weren't turned on for tunnels: think about it, each coach would have had its own lighting controls and the guard was hardly going to change the settings on every coach, especially non-corridor ones.
Mk1 (and earlier) coaches had a clever but simple system whereby the buttons on the switch at the end of the coach controlled the lights in that vehicle, but a central square socket(turned with a carriage key) in the cast metal plate operated a switch that swapped the whole train, connected through the 3-pin RCH connectors. The trouble was that if someone had switched off all the lights in their own coach and the guard subsequently turned off the lights for the whole train then they came on again in that coach.
A few years later when I started riding Waterloo-Exeter the compartment lights were on all the time, with a dimmer switch over the compartment door, and some compartments had reading lights which could be switched on/off
That is how I remember it.
p.s. I can't find a picture of one of the switches, but this page http://citytransport.info/Compartment.htm has lots of good ones of coach interiors.
 

Grumpy Git

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Been mentioned many times previously in this thread, but sitting behind the second-man position on a Class 104 DMU in the 1970's.

Having my (return) ticket collected at the station exit door, (a pink paper one like a till receipt).

The ticket window turntable with a fixed weight to stop your money / ticket being blown away.

Guards with ticket clips / proper stamps instead of a scabby Biro, (they always have these on the Continent).

Getting stuck on fallen leaves on an aforementioned 104 between Whaley Bridge and Chapel-en-le-Frith late one night sometime around 1978 / 1979, (must have been at this time of the year obviously). After several attempts to progress we eventually reversed back to Whaley Bridge and after a relatively short wait started-off again at a fair lick and with increased noise ........................ only to find a Class 37 on the front when we arrived at Buxton.

Bouncing all the way from Macclesfield / Hazel Grove to Piccadilly and back on the Class 304 EMU's.

Glasgow Queen St to Fort William in early MkII coaches behind a big logo 37 in the snow over Rannoch Moor (March 1981).

Seats that aligned with windows.
 
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There was many a 37 been sent out from Buxton TMD to act as Thunderbird on that line over the years.
I was surprised when they shut up shop down there as the new sets got into just as much trouble as the old ones did.
 

Taunton

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I don't remember that, in fact train preparation instructions included "turn on lights throughout train" so that hot bulbs were less likely to be unscrewed and pilfered.
Nowadays heritage railways running MkI stock with inferior batteries and minimal running to recharge them definitely do (sensibly) only put lights on when approaching tunnels...
The Wirral & Mersey Class 503s certainly turned the lights on in daytime as they left Birkenhead North headed for Liverpool, there being a couple of short tunnels there before the main one. Being DC units, there was no issue with battery capacity etc, but it was still the procedure to do so.

DC light bulbs were useless if pilfered and that seems to have been generally understood.
 

Grumpy Git

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No such thing as a filament/incandescent "DC" light bulb, it is based on the rated voltage only (and is VERY inefficient).
 

AndrewE

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No such thing as a filament/incandescent "DC" light bulb, it is based on the rated voltage only (and is VERY inefficient).
Don't split hairs!;)
Filament bulbs were the only option for about a century, and especially for low voltage systems. Railway compartment bulbs were designed to be unusable in an ordinary domestic setting: 24 volts (or whatever) and screw thread fitting: who could use some of those apart from someone living on a narrow boat?
I agree that they are so inefficient that nowadays most people will be using much more sensible alternatives, especially if they haven't got a grid connection.
 

Grumpy Git

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All continental domestic light bulbs have ES (Edison Screw) fittings, I'm not sure why we adopted bayonet fittings in the UK?

According to Wikipedia, railway lamps had triple pin bayonet to discourage theft!
 
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RLBH

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All continental domestic light bulbs have ES (Edison Screw) fittings, I'm not sure why we adopted bayonet fittings in the UK?
One of those cases where a standard was chosen pretty much randomly, but once established there's no compelling case to change, I should think.
According to Wikipedia, railway lamps had triple pin bayonet to discourage theft!
A real sadist would go for a screw fitting with the opposite handing to the standard... Of course, if the vibration argument for bayonet fittings holds weight, a triple-pin fitting would presumably be less prone to movement.
 

Rick1984

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I moved into a first l flat were one of the ceiling light fittings was a triple bayonet!
 

AndrewE

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I moved into a first l flat where one of the ceiling light fittings was a triple bayonet!
Maybe the previous tenant was a railway employee? Difficult to explain though, as railway carriage bulbs were relatively low voltage.
I think the 3-pin bayonet was used where there were bright and dim filaments in the same bulb, so you didn't waste power switching in a resistor when the compartment light switch was changed to "dim."
 
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The storage cupboard room in my place has a triple bayonet too. And its a relatively new build.
Strange as it is the only such fitting in the whole place.
 

AndrewE

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The storage cupboard room in my place has a triple bayonet too. And its a relatively new build.
Strange as it is the only such fitting in the whole place.
How interesting.... I found this https://www.amazon.co.uk/Non-DIMMABLE-Energy-Saving-6000Hrs-Lifetime/dp/B076N5F41K (3-pin bayonet LED lightbulb.)
I wonder if it is so that you can't fit a hot 100-watt incandescent in the unventilated space, which might be a fire hazard if left on? Or maybe the new-build has to achieve a certain energy efficiency rating, so they make sure you can't fit a non-LED bulb?
 

AndrewE

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In my case it was a new flat and presumably was fitted by mistake
I wouldn't think it is the sort of thing you would fit "by mistake!" I wouldn't even have one in my stock (never having heard of them for current use before now.) It must be to do with controlling (limiting) which sorts bulbs you can install...
 

krus_aragon

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I think the 3-pin bayonet was used where there were bright and dim filaments in the same bulb, so you didn't waste power switching in a resistor when the compartment light switch was changed to "dim
They're quite common in North America (where they're known as tri-lights. (At least they were in the days of filament bulbs.) With dual-filament bulb and a rotary switch, you'd go through all combinations of the low and high wattage filaments, to get three levels of brightness from one bulb. This was of course with a screw fitting...
 
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