Queen Mary
 

Gotcha.........the brakevans, not the ship, of course !

(aka 25 ton bogie brakevans)

I know nothing about them, other than what I have just seen in a model railway catalogue. What were they specifically for? e.g. heavy mineral trains maybe??

The catalogue gives them in all sorts of liveries, so they dont seem to have been confined to any one Region.

Anyone know more?

I only ever remember the Southern Region using bogie brakevans. Some of them survived in Departmental use and travelled further afield.
John.

Ive got one in '00' its in NSE livery. Did the NSE do all its own track upgrades?

Weren't the Queen Mary brakes a conversion from ex-London Underground electric locomotives? Or am I hopelessly confused?

I've done a bit of googling on this one (apparently "they" dont like you using that word as a verb because "they" want to keep the word as a trademark :confused:)

Anyway, the QMs were originally Southern (hooray). Built pre-WW2 from spare bogies. Apparently Bluebell has one that is almost completely restored. They were used on fast fitted freight.

Having never heard of them a week ago, I am now quite curious. I thought one of the trechnical problems with multi-axle brake vans was that you could never balance the brakes evenly. So, under braking, one wheel would be over-braked and skid. Sliding friction being less than static friction the extra load would be transfered to the next axle and it would start to skid too. So the maximum braking force of a multi-wheeled brake van was actually LESS than the good old 4-wheeler.

Or maybe an unfitted van behaves differently to a fitted van.
BUT if the whole train is fitted, then why do you need a big brake van at all.

OW, my head hurts through thinking too much.:(

The multi-axle problems that you mention probably wouldn't apply on fitted freights as all the wagons would be sharing the brake force and not just the brake van.
Maybe the Southern built them on bogies to give their Guards a more comfortable ride.:)
John.

follow link guys. they were converted from old coach stock,

http://www.semg.org.uk/vandw/brakevans05.html


in fact, the S & DHRT @ midsomer norton has got an EWS queen mary brake van.
http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger...8/100B2710.jpg
not sure if the above link will work

K&WVR have a QM.

There was at least one in use on the National Network on 19.12.2000 when 8F 48151 hauled an empty EWS Hellifield - Ribblehead ballast train. See photo in Preserved Locomotives of British Railways.

i know the one. i will take a photo tomorrow (9/4/07) of that one john and post here.:)

Ive got a couple in 00 one is in NSE I cant rember what the other one is in.

The East Lancs has one in working order, or it did at some time. I've never actually seen it but I've seen DVD footage of it on the back of a train over Burrs behind the Crab.

Adam

well i have downloaded a pic of the queen mary somewhere on this site. not quite sure where though?

Kodiak Bear's picture is in the rolling stock part of the gallery. Follow the link below.

http://www.railwayforum.net/gallery/...o=2308&cat=504

Adam

good one adam.
now, give me a clue, how do you put that link up in here ?
lol

Open up the picture, highlight the adress in the adress bar of your internet browser, press ctrl and c, then when your creating your post press ctrl and v.

Adam

oh right. well, the next pic i will try that then.
cheers

Queen Mary Brake Vans
 

The QM brake vans were used on all sorts of traffic on the Southern and were last used on the Southern (my memory) on the Channel Tunnel project being used as propelling control vehicles on the fully fitted services conveying mine waste from Snowdon Collery to Shakespeare Cliffe (vehicle was painted in Trainload Construction livery). Several survived into latter service including the preserved example on the Spa Valley Railway which arrived in EWS livery from Toton.
Some examples were infact converted from Metropolitan Carriage Wagon & Finance Co motor luggage vans built in 1923-4 for the Central division AC overhead services, being converted in the 1930's as the AC system was converted to the usual DC third rail supply.

i rememebr these well...a SR speciality and huge.....the SR often reused underframes.....even BR reused NOL underframes to build 2-HAP''s and /or 2 EPB's in the 50's

I'm not sure why they needed such vehicles given the lack of serious gradients and relatively low freight density but I wonder if it has to do with extra brake power being desired with the close signal spacings aroung London on the Southern