I have noticed some oddities that I have never spotted before. The following photos show the position of the door handle for the inward opening Guard's door.
The first photo shows the SVR restored Composite Brake. Note that the handle is vertical:
The second two photos show the same coach taken at the NYMR on the same day but 1.5hrs apart. On one the handle is vertical and on the other horizontal:
Nick Campling's drawings usually show the handles in the horizontal position although the accompanying photos often show then vertical.
I have gone through the NRM photo index and cannot see any rhyme or reason as to why they should be either vertical or horizontal with vertical predominating , but only just.
My suspicion is that it is a faulty catch not engaging fully, possibly after the door has warped slightly in the wet or sun and the tongue of the door lock is not being fully released into the groove in the door frame, therefore the handle is vertical (and liable to suddenly spin round and hurt your hand/fingers if the tongue is suddenly released!)
The GAs show the guard's handle as being horizontal when closed. There are a number of work's photos which show it in the vertical position but I suspect that, as the guard's door lock does not have an automatic closure mechanism, if the guard or whoever leaves it 'open' then there it stays until someone closes it!
It makes sense that the guard has to have complete control over his door since, at least in the days before H&S, the guard quite often rejoined his train 'on the run'.
Interesting that the SVR have not painted the other grab rails in 'teak'. I dont think I have ever seen them black.
These handles are 'L' shaped (rather than the usual 'T' found on passenger doors) and closer to the edge. Is there any relevance in the fact that Guard's doors open inwards? If the handle is vertical when closed and horizontal when unlatched then the Guard is less likely to skin his knuckles or wrist when opening it from the outside...
65447 is correct, the handle is vertical when locked. The door opens inwards and the handle would foul the body pillar if it was unlocked in the vertical position, you would indeed skin your knuckles! The locks are not of the slam type and need to be manually closed, a hook and eye is provided on the inside of the door to allow them to be fastened in the open position.
I would have guessed that the horizontal position is "normal" with the door closed. As Nick (2512silverfox) said earlier all the detailed drawings for the doors show the handle in this horizontal position. I assume moving the handle "down" through 45 degrees releases the latch opening the door. So what about this straight up position? On my front door the handle is horizontal in normal use. I move it down to open, but can lift the handle into an upright position to release additional latches. It could be that the LNER guards handle works in a similar way, i.e. moving it into an upright position double locks it so to speak. On that basis it would be valid for the works photos of the vehicles when new to show either horizontal or vertical positions without the door being unlocked. Can anyone verify?
The handle has only two positions upright (locked) and horizontal (open) its a heavy duty version of the budget lock fitted further up the door used by the guard to lock doors out of use. The handle and latch both move through 90 degrees, there is no 45 degree position.
I have gone back to the GAs and think I now understand the mechanism. I was thinking far too complex. It is actually very simple.
The handle has a "tongue" at 90 degrees to it. When the handle is horizontal the tongue is vertical within door and the door is unlocked. Rotating the handle upwards rotates the tongue so that it rotates to protrude into the body pillar. So as you say horizontal is unlocked, vertical is locked. As you state, the handle cannot therefore be rotated in the other direction as the tongue has no extra clearance in the door to permit this.
I mentioned confusion over the two photos at the NYMR showing the same door with the handle in both positions. Of coarse there is a secondary lock further up the door which is operated by a "key" rather than an exposed handle. Although the door appears to be unlocked I suspect the guard had engaged the upper keyed lock rather than let the door flop open in use.
It still begs the question as to why the GAs show the door in the open position and why so many works photos show the door in the open position. Possibly the works photos were taken with the vehicle posed and therefore the shunter left the guard's door handily open for the return journey. Good question Mike - had us all going!
It just confirms that GAs are just that - the Drawing Office's intentions - which are not necessarily the same as 'As Built'. Had someone senior in the DO actually tried to open a Guard's Door assembled as drawn then I suspect that the GAs thence onwards might have been amended. Sometimes it's better to look for examples in running formations than those posed for posterity...
Just to round off the information, Guard's doors on the 'offside', that is with the Brake Compartment to the left when viewed side on, normally have doors that are the opposite hand (hinged on the left) but the door handle still points upwards. See e.g. p3 of The Colour of Steam Volume 9 The Great Eastern Line, Dick Riley, Atlantic 1990.
Where there are double doors, one of them is fitted with a long handle which operates rods behind the door which lock it top and bottom. There are two variations that I know of.
This is the more common arrangement:
In this instance horizontal is locked. The handle moves (in this case) 90 degrees anti-clockwise to unlock. Theoretically the handle could be rotated 90 degrees clockwise to unlock but I believe there is a wooden block fitted inside to prohibit this. Strangely this is the complete opposite to the inward opening door handle which started this topic!
The following variation occurs where there is an adjacent grab handle:
In this instance the locked position is diagonal pointing downwards, and moving upwards through 90 degrees unlocks.
The RH door (usually) of the pair is fitted with an espagnolette or cremorne bolt, which comprises two rods, one above and the other below the handle and attached to it by pivots in a cross-piece. Rotation of the handle results in both bolts either being inserted into or retracted from holes recessed into the head and cill of the opening. The other door is locked by the usual tongue and, given that both doors are generally outward opening, these bolts need to shot firmly top and bottom to prevent both doors from accidentally opening.
The amount of vertical movement of the espagnolette bolts will depend on their length, the depth of the recesses into which they fit (of which the lower one may fill with dirt, etc. unless it is drilled clean through) and the fit of the door in the opening. These will not be precision measurements and so a certain amount of slack will be inherent in the position of the handle when latched and, given that the handle is quite long, a small difference at the bolt end will translate to a rather larger rotational displacement of the handle. Logic suggests that the handle needs to be lifted upwards to unlatch, otherwise gravity and the weight of the handle could lead to the door unlatching.
The majority of photos of teak-panelled stock show the handle to be approximately horizontal when closed.
However, it's noticeable that, as in your photo above, a significant number of photos of steel-panelled stock show the handle drooping to about 45deg. This is only an assumption but it is possible that for various reasons, including the removal of footboards, it was found necessary to adjust the angle of the handle to make it easier to open from a place lower than a platform.
I think the variant when adjacent to a grab handle is possibly to avoid clashing when the handle is in the upright position, it would be too close to the handrail to grab.
I like your comment on gravity which would confirm that the horizontal handle is locked and rotated upwards to unlock with no opportunity for the handle to be rotated downwards to open i.e. gravity keeps it locked.
The handle has a lever arrangement on the rear face which rotates with the handle. The espagnolettes (did not know that term) are attached to the ends of that lever. I would have thought the amount of movement of the espagnolette bolts was based on the length of the central lever rather than the length of the espagnolette themselves. The longer the lever, the greater the movement.
Why the orientation of these handles is the opposite of the inward opening Guard's door handle is beyond me. Anyway thanks for the comments, very helpful.
MikeTrice wrote:...I would have thought the amount of movement of the espagnolette bolts was based on the length of the central lever rather than the length of the espagnolette themselves. The longer the lever, the greater the movement.
A bit like the Spanish Inquisition...
The movement is governed by the length of the bolt...
The movement is governed by the length of the bolt and the depth of the recess...
The movement is governed by the length of the bolt and the depth of the recess and the general fit of the door...
The movement is governed by the length of the bolt and the depth of the recess and the general fit of the door and the distance between the handle and bolt pivots on the cam...
Pass the comfy chair!
Espagnolette bolts were more generally found on French doors (or at least on one leaf of the pair) and Continental-style windows hinged at the side, but us Brits were cheapskates and tried to get away with separate short bolts top and bottom. The present-day equivalent is the flat sliding bar(s) with studs - the ubiquitous security locking mechanism on modern windows and doors.
