GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

GWR Route: North Warwickshire Line

Tyseley Shed: gwrt2366

Another view of ex-GWR Railcars No 13 and No 17 seen stabled on the scrap lines at Tyseley shed in March 1960. Continued from The prototypes' first official run on Great Western metals was from Paddington to Reading with a large number of press representatives on the 1st of December 1933, and even AEC jumped on the publicity bandwagon by proclaiming the run as 'an unqualified triumph', and entered public service on the 4th of December working from Slough shed to Windsor and Didcot. Within the month however, the railcar was taken out of service for attention to its braking system and method of engine mounting. At the same time, automatic train control was fitted and the car resumed service in February 1934, completing 60,000 miles and transporting 136,000 passengers in its first year alone. In February 1935, just prior of the delivery of No 5, No 6 and No 7 to the Great Western, an order was placed for a further ten railcars of three designs.

Railcars No 8, No 9 and No 13 to No 16 were to be of the same basic plan as the previous three models and having 70 seater bodies. Railcar No 10 to No 12 had the installation of a lavatory with 63 seater bodies, while No 17 was designed as an express parcels car. Each of these examples used the 2 AEC 8.85 litre engines but with a gearbox fitted to each engine. From experience gained of running the railcars over the previous twelve months a number of modifications were introduced on these cars. The standard London bus AEC engine employed aluminium alloy cylinder heads, but failures of some heads, including cracking, brought the introduction of cast iron castings. Similarly, the oil temperatures had been noted as rather high on continuous high-speed running and so oil coolers, fitted at the front and rear under the buffers, were added to combat this. The previous seven railcars were subsequently fitted with these modifications.

Technical history courtesy of The Great Western Archive: www.greatwestern.org.uk

Courtesy Steve Davies of www.britishrailwayphotographs.com

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