Journal of the Institution of Locomotive Engineers
Volume 51 (1961)

Journal No. 279

Cansdale, J.H.  and Collins, G. (Paper No. 615)
Rheostatic braking for rapid transit multiple-unit trains. 8-75.  
General Meeting of the Institution was held at the Institution of Mechanical Englineers on Tuesday, 6 December, 1960, at 17.30 E.S. Cox (Past-President) was in the Chair. Chairman then introduced Mr. G. Collins, A.M.I.E.E., and asked him to present the Paper written jointly by himself and . J. H. Cansdale, M.I.E.E. (Member of Council) entitled “ Rheostatic Braking for Rapid Transit Multiple-Unit Trains, ” since the latter was unfortunately detained overseas.

Barrett. G.M. (Paper No. 616)
Spectrographic analysis of crank-case lubricating oils as a guide to preventive maintenance of locomotive diesel engines. 76-98. 
General Meeting of the Institution was held at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 1 Birdcage Walk, London, S.W.l, on 17th January 1961, at 5.30 p.m. Mr. D. C. Brown, C.B.E. (President) was in the Chair.

Bairstow, S.  (Paper No. 617)
Control of quality of crankcase lubricating oils of locomotive diesel engines in service. 98-140. 
General Meeting of the Institution was held at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 1 Birdcage Walk, London, S.W.l, on 17th January 1961, at 5.30 p.m. Mr. D. C. Brown, C.B.E. (President) was in the Chair.

Ritchie, Joan  and Byrne, B.R. (Paper No. 618)  
The collection and assessment of technical information, including the language problem. 141-77.
General Meeting of the Institution was held at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 1 Birdcage Waik, London, S.W.1, on Tuesday 21st February 1961, at 5.30 p.m. Mr. A. W. Manser (Vice-President) was in the Chair in the absence of the President.

Journal No. 280

Rudge, T.H. and Forbes, M.K. (Paper No. 619)
Cooling equipment for diesel locomotives. 202-32. Disc.: 232-55.
Ordinary General Meeting of the Institution was held at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 1 Birdcage Walk, London, S.W. 1, on Tuesday, 21st March 1961, at 5.30 p.m. Mr. J. F. Harrison (Vice-President) was in the Chair

Thorley, W.G.F.  and Clarke, G.O.B.  (Paper No. 620)
Work study and its application to motive power activities. 256-300. Disc.: 300-27.
Ordinary General Meeting was held at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, London, on lSth April, 1961, immediately following the termination of the Annual General Meeting. Mr. D. C. Brown, C.B.E., President, was in the Chair.
I. LeMay (309) said he was interested to note that the Authors brought in the subject of Ergonomics. He said there was at Inchicore Works a very fine diesel maintenance depot with three floor levels which appeared to be designed for the locomotives which were being serviced there. A point which he did not think the Authors had mentioned, was the design of depots actually to suit the particular locomotives involved. This goes a little further and suggests that the work study people should look at the designs of new locomotives before they go into service. He asked was there likely to be any sort of standardisation of such items as the height of battery boxes, height of access doors, the provision of side access doors and, obviously, roof catches?

Journal No. 281

Harrison, J.F. (Presidential Address)
The gathering of the new crop. 336-56. + plate. 16 illus. 4 diagrs.
Includes an appreciation of the Gresley Pacifics: Harrison had been born in Settle, and following a very brief appreciation of Midland Railway locomotives he noted that A3 Pacifics had taken over working the major express trains over the Settle & Carlisle Line with photographs of them at Ais Gill, and on the Thames Clyde Express.
He noted that the Peppercorn A1 Pacifics "were intended to give a better performance than any previous Pacific, to be cheaper to maintain, and to run increased mileages per annum and between general repairs. These five locomotives, Nos. 60153/60154/60155/60156/60157, have now been in service for exactly twelve years, during which they have run 4.8 million miles, one in fact having just completed 1,000,000 miles, or 228 miles for every calendar day since leaving Doncaster as a new engine. The average miles between shopping of these engines is 120,000, and these figures compare with figures given by Mr. R.C. Bond in his Paper to this Institution in 1953 showing the best London & North Eastern mileages in those days as 93,363 with average annual mileages of 80,000.
The total miles run by the fifty engines, including the five roller bearing engines, since new, is approximately 48,000,000, an average of 202 miles per calendar day-figures which I know cannot be approached by any steam locomotive class in this country. I will refer to this figure later in my Address.
When one realises that these locomotives are better than the A4 Class, examples of which took part in the interchange trials in 1948, and which attained the best coal and water consumption figures per drawbar horsepowerihour, one realises that these latter locomotives were, and in fact still are, perhaps the finest steam locomotives in the world. For some 105 years the Great Northern and London & North Eastern Railway had only four Locomotive Engineers, all of whom have a position in history, but I suggest none more so than Gresley who was honoured by a knighthood in 1936. Surely there is a lesson to be learned from this continuance of a single policy for periods of up to twenty-five years each. This has been noticeable also on the Great Western Railway. It is, therefore, with great pleasure that I pay this modest and brief tribute to the late Sir Herbert Nigel Gresiey, who cannot be by-passed as the greatest Locomotive Engineer in this country in the 20th century if one judges these matters on the performance of the designer’s products over such a lengthy period of time. It is surprising, however, to see that the British Transport Commission have only thought fit to preserve amongst their historic locomotives two examples of this great Engineer’s work, and then neither of the first two Pacifics he ever built."

Sharp. E.  (Paper No. 621)
Diesel-electric locomotive testing with the British Railways L.M. Region mobile test plant. 356-88. Disc.: 388-407.
Sixth Ordinary General Meeting of the Midlands Centre was held at the Midland Hotel, Derby, on 21st February 1961, at 7.0 p.m., the Chair being taken by Mr. G. C. Jackson, M.I.Loco.E.
G.T. Smithyman (M.), in congratulating the Author on his Paper, said it was interesting to remember that when these M.T.U.’s were built-they were, of course, the brain child of Dr. Andrews – he christened them originally Faith, Hope and Charity; “Charity” if speeds continued at 50 m.p.h.; they would “Hope” to do 90 m.p.h. and use the middle speed unit, and would require a lot of “Faith” at speeds of 120 m.p.h. when using the high speed unit. The speaker thought the original object of three M.T.U.’s was to reduce costs as compared with large static installations for testing, also to simplify testing on undulating lines. He asked if other Regions made use of these units. Had the Western Region, who were constructing a new dynamometer car, taken any advice from the L.M. Region or would they borrow the L.M. Region’s M.T.U.’s to work in conjunction with the Western Region’s dynamometer car? Most of the tests referred to, other than one, were on diesel-electric locomotives; were any comparative figures available for dieseI hydraulics? He referred to Fig. 8, showing rolling resistance, and asked how the Western Region compared.
Passing reference was made in the Paper to braking of freight stock. He thought this had probably not been done intentionally, but it had been dismissed in a matter of seven lines. He thought the problem was too immense and too complicated to be dismissed so lightly.
Would the dynamometer car continue to be used on freight train trials, or were the drawbar snatches and the buffing shocks too great for the Amsler Unit on the dynamometer car? It was partly irrelevant to this Paper, but he thought people might misread it; it was so easy to dismiss A.W.S. and the deadman’s control and all the problems associated with braking of freight trains. He thought it was now one of our greatest problems.
Mention was made of Type “4’s” and making a compromise for passenger traffic and freight traffic. Did the Author think compromise was the right answer, or did he consider there should be locomotives suitable for heavy freight and others for express passenger? A figure had been quoted in the Paper of 1100 tons being the maximum for a Type “4” on a 1 in 78 rising gradient.

Maskery, C. (Paper No. 622)
The use of instruments to record dynamic phenomena. 408-56.
Annual General Meeting and Eighth Ordinary General Meeting of the Midlands Centre was held at the Midland Hotel, Derby, on the 12th April 1961, at 7 p.m., the Chair being taken by Mr. G. C. Jackson, M. I. Loco .E.

Journal No. 282

Schlaepfer, O. (Paper No. 623)
Control of diesel-electric locomotives. 466-95. Discussion: 495-519.
General Meeting of the Institution was held at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 1 Birdcage Walk, London, S.W.l on 24th October 1961, at 5.30 p.m. Mr. J. F. Harrison (Pyesidelzt) was in the Chair In the dioscusion W.J.A. Sykes made a plea for simplicity in the control gear to ensure that the driver could concentrate on observing signals. He also advocated simplicity in cabling systems as on the plus-minus control system observed in Sweden.

Singh, A. (Paper No. 624)
Couplers and draft gears for Indian Railways. 519-54.
Meeting of the Northern Branch of the Indian Centre of the Institution of Locomotive Engineers was held in New Delhi on 18 ;March 1960.

Journal No. 283

Cox, E.S. (Paper No. 625)
Some problems in vehicle riding. 574-615. Disc.: 615-59.
General Meeting of the Institution was held at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 1 Birdcage Walk, London S.W.1, on 23rd November 1961 at 5.30 p.m. The President, Mr. J. F. Harrison was in the Chair.
Railway vehicle riding is not a simple subject and its basic theory was not completely understood after 150 years. The complete theory has baffled and still baffled some of the best mathematical brains in Britain and other countries. Full understanding of the theory does not, however, preclude application of parts of the theory backed up by experiment, and was shown could lead to the establishment and maintenance of a standard of riding acceptable to the public.
What has now been established may seem simple enough to the uninitiated — why was it not done before? There are two things at any rate which have made it more possible to do today what was not done yesterday. These are the availability of better means of measurement, and the development of the hydraulic damper in sizes and reIiability suitable for rail traction.
There is the necessity for a sense of proportion on this subject. Not every passenger journey on British Railways represents a bad ride, and the area of serious complaint, irksome as it is to those who suffer under it, is a relatively small one. Put another way, of 40,000 passenger carrying vehicles, in stock, modifications which are to be made to some 2,000 vehicles of one or other of the four existing types described in the Paper, will deal with almost the whole of what has been complained about in particular. The remainder, far from perfect, but certainly not warranting modification expenditure at this time of capital stringency, will gradually be replaced by new vehicles, all of which are now being built in line with the principles just described. Having improved the ride basically by improvements to the bogie suspension, accuracy of construction and repair now becomes more important, and must be assured in order to maintain the ride quality now built in.
It was considered at one time that development would pose a problem as to where to direct available resources. It was thought that better riding would cost more in capital and maintenance expenditure, either on the vehicle or on the track, and that a choice had to be made in this respect. Although this might be true in the long term, in the short term the contrary is proving to be true. Better riding is now obtained in important cases from simpler bogie designs, not expensive in first cost and cheaper in maintenance, while their insensitivity to normal track irregularities is such that no special standards of track design or maintenance are called for to meet this first stage of improvement. The Civil Engineers are thus left only with the already existing problem of dealing with the really bad places in the track, without being faced by any immediate need for raising general standards. Some by-products of the work described are interesting, although to enlarge upon them would unduly lengthen this Paper. These are:-
Bogies of some former designs, especially in run-down condition, can develop continuous hunting on long-welded rails, which is abated or becomes only intermittent with the return to jointed rails. “Modified” bogies on the other hand ride as well or even better on welded than on jointed track.
Self-propulsion is not of itself a factor influencing ride quality. Electric multiple-units have been run at the same speeds over the same track, under their own power and locomotive hauled, without any appreciable difference in the riding- records obtained.
The nose-suspended electric motor makes no contribution one way or the other to the ride values obtained. In other words a motor bogie will ride as well or as badly as its own suspension characteristics and condition permit. Just as good a ride can be obtained from a modified power car as from a trailer, and this holds good for either electric or diesel propulsion. On ihe other hand, the greater noise from the power car sometimes leads to the impression, not sustained by the records, that the ride is not so good.
The work threw up other factors such as vehicle body stiffness, and springing of upholstery as additional contributors to the final ride quality as felt by the passenger. They merit, and will receive further investigation, but they are of the second order of importance.
It could be claimed, possibly with justice, that British Railways have arrived at this stage somewhat later than have certain other countries. On the other hand, there is a long story of un-success as the result of merely importing into this country Continental proprietary bogie designs which give good enough riding in their territory. In general, such designs as they stand do not include the longer swing links which are necessary here because our vehicles are shorter and have a smaller moment of inertia.
It is emphasised that what is described is only a stage in progress — a satisfying condition if it will eliminate public complaint— but a stage nevertheless. As engineers we can never be satisfied until we understand fully, so that research will go on, What greater degree of good riding, and/or reduction in costs in relation to speed, will remain to be realised when all of the theory is known, and the vehicle/track relationship is thoroughly understood, is a point for debate. Above all, better understanding of the theory is going to become essential should any considerable advance in maximum running speeds become desirable commercially. It would seem important to discover what the ceiling in these matters is liable to be, for no less than the future of railways as we know them may possibly hang upon the answer.

Raman, K. (Paper No. 626)
A basic study of mid-section derailments of metre gauge four-wheeled goods stock. 660-82.
Meeting of the Northern Branch of the Indian Centre of the Institution of Locomotive Engineers was held in New Delhi on 20th May 1961, presided over by Mr. I. Hydari.

Journal No. 284

Symposium on the Engineering Aspect of Catering on Trains:
Ordinary General Meeting of the Institution of Locomotive Engineers was held at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Birdcage Walk, London, S.W.l, on 21st December 1961 at 5.30 p.m. Mr. J. F. Harrison (President), was in the Chair.
Simons, H. (Paper No. 627)
Engineering aspect of catering on trains:– 1. The vehicle from the catering manager's viewpoint. 692-704. 6 diagrs. (elevations and plans)
Author was Assistant Chief of Restaurant Cars, British Transport Hotels and Catering Services
British Transport Commission had six types:
Kitchen Car
Kitchen Buffet
Restaurant Buffet
Restaurant Unclassed
Miniature Buffet
The Griddle Car
Wilcock, H. (Paper No. 628)
Engineering aspect of catering on trains:– 2. British Railways experience. 704-22.
Design Engineer, Standards, British Transport Commission
Bulman, W.E. (Paper No. 629)
Engineering aspect of catering on trains:– 3. Overseas experience (East African Railways and Harbours). 722-7. Disc.: 727-45. 5 illus. (numbered in sequence with above papers)
A versatile buffet car was illustrated and described.
Discussion (all Papers) pp. 727-45.

Warder, S.B. (Paper No. 630)
Progress of 50 cycle traction on British Railways. 747-813.
Fifth Ordinary General Meeting of the Session 1961/62 of the Institution of Locomotive Engineers was held on 23rd January 1962, at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 1 Birdcage Walk, Westminster, S.W.l. The President presided
A very thorough paper which recorded British experience over the full period from the beginning of the twentieth century to the then current programme.
Research in electric traction The outstanding developments of the last ten years in electric traction have dictated the need for stronger and closer association between short term development and long term research. In addition there must be closer collaboration between the railways and industry. This has been recognised equally in this country, as in others, and the electric traction research section of British Railways has now been recruited to a sufficient strength to enable it to make a considerable impact on those problems which have presented themselves in the short period which has so far elapsed in this field by comparison with that of other forms of motive power. An advance in breadth as well as depth, and with a closer collaboration with industry must produce results, and with the tech- nical resources that this country can collectively deploy, the future should be bright with hope and fulfilment.
Conclusion This Paper was intended to record the progress of 50 cycle a.c. traction on British Railways. It has perforce to record a little of the past as well, and in fact there has been much of the present which has had to be left out. It has not, for instance, been possible to discuss the repair and maintenance facilities necessary to keep the equipment in good working order. Neither has it been possible to deal in any detail way with methods of control, either of fixed equipment or of rolling stock. Any electrification scheme inevitably, being of a composite nature, provides a wealth of material for description and analysis, and there is always the overriding subject of all, namely, the economies of the case. The time has yet to come when all these associated subjects are adequately dealt with, but this report dealing with the first year of operation of some 64 locomotives and over 400 multiple-unit motor coaches, each with two or three trailers, widely dispersed throughout the country, working over 700 miles of electrified track, is already overlong. So far nothing has occurred to suggest that the decision to abandon 1,500 v. d.c. and change to high voltage a.c. at the national frequency was wrong; in fact, as the troubles recede the evidence accumulate! to justify the correctness of the decision. In matters of this kind one has to rest on the fundamental truths of what a railway is for, anc the skill of railway engineers in providing the best technical solution To be deflected by political or economic expediency can only lead to disaster (still relevant Graything).
The Modernisation Plan was magnificent in conception and is vital to the salvation of the railways of Great Britain.
Based on a paper presented at three centres in India where railway electrification has made far greater progress.