Tail lamps.....
 

When did "BR" stop using parfin oil lamps and swop over to high powered battery tail lamps??:)

I think the oil lamps were phased out in the 1970's... anyone confirm?

The certainly lasted into the mid 80s at least.

In the 70s &80s I was a signalman in the Banbury area and I recall the D.M.Us
on the Maryle bone service started trials with the electric tail lanps, as signalmen in that area we had to comment on them.

Got a pic of the VSOE in May 83 and thats got an oil lamp

Their end was confirmed with the introduction of DOO trains. So it must have been the mid-80s. They were phased out with the ending of servicing and repair of the paraffin lamps and the introduction of the battery and electric tail lamps.

Lasted until at least 1986 in Scotland as I have pics showing West Highland trains with oil lamps.

Cheers for your info guys!! great stuff........

Another thing i was wondering,was the tail lamps the same onces used on siding buffer stops??

At one time the instructions stated that "the the light on a stop block in a siding etc. must be a white light" ,not red so therefore it wouldn't be the same type of lamp as a tail-lamp.

Ok cool....:)

Isn't that still the case if it is in such a position that it can be confused as the tail light of a train?

I think the rule may have changed since the advent of "flashing" tail-lamps on loco hauled coaching stock trains and freight trains,the bay "stopblock" at my local station has Red lights on it ,although electric ones.

Flashing tail lamps came into use when trains went DOO(NP).
in 1987, when the first DOO(NP) train ran out of Healey Mills.
This train worked to Toton and return. The driver of this train was a man called Don Guy.
I remember this as I was preparing 6L44 in the next road.
L44 went to York at 15:20hrs and dropped off all its trucks at Dringhouses Yard at York.(There is a Tesco Supermarket there now.)
The engine went LD/Gd. to York Shed where we sat till the return working left York Yard South at 23:45hrs back to HM. We called this job the York lodger.

Ive seen electric red buffer lights at Holyhead station.....

Yeah, I don't quite understand this 'white lights on buffers' thing - there are a number of seperate stabling sidings at/around Horsham station, ALL of them have red lights. :confused:

Sorry sir but the former site of Dringshouses is now a housing estate,the Tesco Supermarket is built on land once occupied by Chaloners Whin Junction.

I have got a Tail Lamp, complete with vessel, wick AND parafin and I light it sometimes, the smell brings back memories.

48111

If thats the case give me 4 weeks road learning.
It still does not alter the fact that 6L44 went from HM to Dringhouses Yard and dropped off all its trucks.
You must bear this in mind, old boy that this happened 22 years ago, so I am entitled to some loss of memory.
By the way my driver on this occasion was Cyril Shiloh, a former Royston man.
This driver was road learning in a DMU, when it ran into a gang of PW lads just before Christmas a couple of miles from Altofts.
From this there were some fatalities among the Gang, and was a sad Christmas for us all at HM.

Only oil lamp i have is an old Dorman smith 1977 yellow road lamp........:)makes great little heater in my greenhouse........

Whilst a Guard at Huddersfield, we had oil tail lamp on the rear of DMU's. This was changed in 1982 to two electric lights built into the the DMU. These were operated from switches in the cab of the unit.
The tail light is on the train to inform the signalman/others that the train is complete.
The definition of a trian is;
' A collection of vehicles, complete with a tail lamp. '

I've got a BR tail lamp in what I suppose could be described as mint condition.
It was one of the last batch manufactured before the switchover to electric lamps, and it never saw use - when I got hold of it, the lamp was still encased in the original BR brown paper wrapping!

Be delighted please put an application form in (in triplicate of course! ):D

My understanding regarding the lamps on stops is that a white light is used where it is considered that a red lamp could be confused with nearby red signals by passing drivers. The instructions we have (G.E area) is that units stabled on sidings must display lights of the same colour as that on the stops.

At HM if you wanted to go skive off for a month or two, you would nock a few routes off your route card, so the roster clerk, would give you a couple of weeks to RL.
This was done on 12 hours a day.
Sometimes you might miss a couple of days and not bother going in.

You wouldn't get away with that at Saltley if you tried to remove a "road" off your card they checked up when you last went over the route,if it was a reasonably long time you would perhaps get a days "road review" !

I've got something very similar, which I fitted up with an electric light bulb - I used to use it as a safety lamp when developing & printing my black & white railway photos! :)

We had road review built into the links at HM.
As for management they were not bothered so long as the trains were runing.

very interesting thread regarding tail lights/bufferstop lamps.I personally cant remember seeing white lights on blocks but maybe I cant remember such,some blocks had a particular type of lamp red painted bit like a tail light to look at but different. Just for the benefit of members who have never worked or even seen oil tail l regardingamps could I just say what a very reliable tool they were when you think of the traffic in their hay day,all complete with tail lamp.Providing the reservoir was full of oil the wick was trimmed ie not carboned up and burnt, long enough that is was in the oil,there was no damage to the lamp its self, door closed and fastened properly no gaps, that lamp would stay lit in any weather for a couple of days.the same could be said for the thousands of signal lamps which were looked after by "the lamp man" usually lamped weekly they used to walk miles to distant signals.I think the replies from the various lads on this subject of electric tail lights coming in is about as close as you will get considering the size of the network.I can remember in the 60/70s there was a programme on BBC tv called Tomorrows World and they were showing an electric flashing tail light that they said would be taken up by British Rail to replace oil tail lamps on trains,I remember saying to my wife no way will the railway have a flashing light on the back of a train,few years later how wrong was I.One comment made was regarding a red light being displayed to an approaching driver, can anybody remember in serious freight brakevan days when the guard in a van with side lights would take the shade out of the lamp next to a running line in the same direction so as the driver would know he was passing the rear of a train moving in the same direction on maybe the slow line or a loop.this of course was when all goods trains had brake vans. Happy days Jim

A good place for removing shades on BV's was from York to Church Fenton on the up and down