About this Drawing

This is an attempt to create a realization of what trailer carriage number 163 looked like when in service. Please refer to the Realization Reference Booklet for a fuller explanation to the background leading to the creation of these drawings and sources used.

Realization Reference Booklet

This contains selected example photographs and other sources used to make decisions on points of detail that enabled this drawing to be created. The booklet should be consulted in connection with the Reference Numbers in blue blocks on this drawing.

Notes

ADVERT PANELS: there was one above each window. Photographic evidence shows some contained messages from the railway company and some contained commercial advertising. The general arrangement drawing notes these had 21oz glass. It is unclear what held the glass and surrounding frame in place, but photograph U821 suggests multiple studs were used.

COLOURS: the carriages were probably brown, though what shade is not known; the teak has been depicted in a mid brown and the metal panelling in a darker shade on the exterior drawing (No.2). On this interior drawing, in the absence of knowing definitive colours, and for the sake of clarity, dark brown has been used for the woodwork and metal panels, as suggested by contemporary photograph U821, whereas the mid brown has continued to be used for the exterior mouldings as seen through the windows, and also for the inside of the door frames. Above the air vents the ceiling and support beam mouldings were probably white, again evidenced in U821.

CORNER BRACKETS: there was evidence of what could be triangular-shaped thin brackets above and behind the advert frames, one at each end of each half of the carriage, Reference nos. 53, 57 and 60.

DOOR FRAMES: at both ends an inverted ‘U’-shaped metal frame was trimmed on the inside and outside with teak mouldings, as well as all around their inner edges. These metal frames were supported near the top with horizontal beams connecting them with their corresponding outer vertical beams. Above these short horizontal beams the inside of the carriages had white metal panels fitted up to the overhead door beams — this created a void between them and the metal panels on the outside of the carriages. A doorway frame was fitted halfway along the carriages, though without doors, flanked by draught screens. Instead of a ‘U’-shaped frame, these had a flatter curved top; again, white metal panelling was fitted above, on either side, and creating a further void in between.

DRAUGHT SCREEN and END PANELS: the central draught screen had teak framed clear glass at window level; either side of the end doorways were similar frames but housing mirrors with bevelled edges.

FLITCH BEAMS: teak inserts are shown along the interior length of the carriage as far as could be established; the draught screen vertical and overhead ‘U’-shaped metal frame probably had no teak insert, likewise for the doorway frames.

FLOORING: 32 wooden slats ran along the length of the carriage, laid on top of a 1-inch layer of lito-silo (largely composed of whiting, cork dust, iron oxide and cement), in turn laid on top of a metal corrugated under-floor, fitted to the top of the chassis beams. The slender photographic record suggests the wooden slats might have been a later addition.

JOINERY: this has been shown where sufficient could be assessed with any certainty, though there was undoubtedly more that was not visible.

LIGHTING: four overhead lights were fitted above the seats on each side of the carriage; a further two were fitted at the apex of the ceiling, one in each half of the carriage. There is evidence that some apex lights were removed during the operational life of the carriages, and their ceiling roses blanked off. It would appear that glass domes were fitted to each light fitting when new and removed later in life. Power was delivered through cable conduits that ran along the roof on the outside of the carriage above the passenger seating. One set of four and the two central lights received power from the conduit on one side, whereas the other four were fed from the opposite side.

MOULDINGS: these have been omitted from framework drawings.

PASSENGER ROOF STRAPS: a wooden rail traversed above the seating on each half of the carriage, with ornate retaining brackets fitted to the end doorway panels and mid-point draught screen. The rails passed through a ring on a decorative brass supporting bracket adjacent to the central upright frame between the windows. Leather straps were looped around the rails, two per window bay, for the benefit of standing passengers.

ROOF BEAMS: these were of inverted ‘U’-shaped metal and contoured from above the tops of the windows, shaped to support the curve of the roof, then vertically providing support for the air vents, then further to support the curved roof section of the clerestory. These beams were narrower than the verticals they met above the windows and tucked inside the latter with an overlap of about six inches. It was not possible to establish if teak inserts existed in these, though there was slender evidence that they did.

SEATING: the general arrangement drawing describes these as Hale & Kilburn Spring Rattan.

WINDOW BARS: there was evidence of a window bar, probably one on each side of the carriage, that might have been fitted to display a ‘Not Stopping at xx’ board, though this is inconclusive — see Reference 111.

WINDOW FRAMES: examples were found of what appeared to be a spacer fillet surrounding all four sides of the wooden outer frames. These were hidden behind the teak horizontal and vertical mouldings on the outside of the carriage, and behind the window ledge and other trim inside.

WINDOW LEDGE: a ledge protruded into the carriage relative to the window frame itself, it also acted a mask to the top of the seat rattan covering; the ledges ran continuously between the carriage ends and the central draught screens.