Slip Coaches

[watcheronthebridge]

At some time (I think about 1936?) there was a collision between a slipped coach and the train it should have slipped from, and after that the use of slipped coaches was eliminated on the LNER. I'm sure that someone on here can give you chapter and verse. I'll look it up when I can.

Yes, this was the accident at Woodford and Hinton (later Woodford Halse) on 19 December 1935 involving a coach being slipped for Stratford-on-Avon. At the time there were still two slip coaches on workings out of Liverpool Street. The full accident report can be accessed at http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/docume ... rd1935.pdf and includes drawings of the LNER slip coach fixings at the time.

[john coffin]

would love to see a copy of the GNR 12 wheeler that is claimed to be a double ended slip carriage
I can find no reference in any of the data I have, and frankly cannot understand why such would have been
needed, not least because of the expense in building.

Paul

[watcheronthebridge]

Single ended slip coaches had to be turned. The GWR was building double ended slip coaches into the late 1930s which may explain why it and subsequently the Western Region persevered with them long after their use had disappeared elsewhere.

The slip guard's compartment was much smaller than a normal guards compartment as shown in this shot of one of the doubled ended GWR slip coaches:

[PaulG]

I would suggest you have misread the idea. It is more likely that a train had 5 slip carriages and they would have been dropped off at 5 separate stations, Rather than a single drop of 5 carriages.

Paul

.......................to make it clear, under Railway Clearing House it could be up five carriages in a single slip. On page 11 of GERS Journal 82 there is a photograph of 11.05am Liverpool Street to York express detaching a five-coach slip south of Broxbourne for Hertford.

Paul

[john coffin]

Hadn't seen that note in the rch papers before so thanks. What I do know is that the GNR had more than one slips on some trains, but only slipped them one at a time.

I do not think slip coaches were very often turned, but returned empty headed, to the terminus. It must have seemed attractive to create double ended ones, but one wonders about the cost effectiveness in terms of reduction of passenger capacity and building costs.

Because of the number of branches it had, the GWR was always more forward looking in terms of finding solutions to lower traffic levels at certain times of the day. It is important to remember that although some slip coaches were left at main line stations, many were then picked up by the branch loco and moved through to the end of a branch line. For instance slips were left at Hornsey for onward movement along the branch.

The GER of course had its own way of doing things, but also a lot of underused branch lines that needed connection to Liverpool Street, but only at certain times of the day.

Paul

[2512silverfox]

I have attached a photo of the type of coach to which I think Bill refers.

Later rebuilt to standard single brake end BCK by Gresley.

[65447]

7 pages of instructions relating to Slip Carriages in the 1942 Southern Area Appendix to the Rules and Regs., but none in the 1947 issue.

[john coffin]

That's an interesting photo at Doncaster of a recently outshopped Bradford set item, but I can see no evidence that it is a double ended slip carriage.Do you have the picture reference details and any other details printed on the reverse of the picture. Maybe you also have the platform workings for the Bradford/Wakefield sets that would reinforce the idea that they were actually built as either slips or double slips.

Most Slips built by or for the GNR around this time, were indeed composites and after 1892 1st/3rds, but in the details I have, have much bigger break compartments, I guess for safety reasons.

I also can see nothing in the underframe detail to suggest that slip gear was fitted.

This does reinforce the whole problem with pre Gresley carriages on the GNR, there are few photos, and even fewer relevant documents, Hence my constant refrain, if you see the data, make it available so that
proper research can be carried out and questions answered.

Paul

[mr B]

lets go over the big hill ...
lal ratty used to run them on their non stopper to dalegarth back in the 1920's , dropping off at irton road ...

the very last slip working in uk was by special goverment transport issue back in 1985 by Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway.


mr B R&ER member

[2512silverfox]

Going through my library looking for something else, I found 'The History of Slipping and Slip Carriages' by C E J Fryer published by Oakwood Press in 1997. I gives quite a lot of detail for LNER and ex LNER services up to WW2.

In the late 1880s the GNR was the heaviest user of slip carriages with as many as three slips off some ECML services between London and Doncaster. These had however been abandoned by 1901, leaving the GER Main line (at Marks Tey) to be the last user up until just before WW2.

[john coffin]

I agree it is a useful and interesting book, but covering so many railways in one slender volume means that it asks as many questions as it answers. However as a starting point it is very useful.

Platform timetables,or even regional area working timetables would be really wonderful to see and compare, but sadly they are few and far between.

Paul

[StevieG]

If of interest, the practice of slipping coaches could entail special signalling.
I know of this being so with the GWR at least - Reading being one case, where an up non-stopper off the Berks & Hants direct line (so presumably from the far-ish west) was routed via one of Reading General station's platform lines off the non-platformed Up Main so that the slipped coach could be brought to a stop at a platform.
The normal signalling into those lines at Reading Main Line West box could not provide for the signals approaching the converging junction with the route from Bristol and the station area, to indicate for the footplate and guard, as far back as the slipping point, as to whether signals were 'all-clear' at the far end of the station for the main train to continue without stopping, usually for going back to the Up Main I expect.
So RMLW's large double-bracket signal about 0.25 mile before the station had special 'slipping' small distant arms lower down on its main post, which, if one was clear it was okay to do the slip: If neither were cleared, the slip wasn't commenced and the footplatemen knew they'd have to stop the train in the station for the slip coach to be detached conventionally.

[strang steel]

Presumably, multiple slip coaches on a single train must have been rather complex and expensive from a staffing point of view?

If a guard was needed for each individual slipped portion, and one to continue with the main train to its destination, at the outset of the journey there might have been four or five guards on the train.

I wonder how the slip guards were rostered for the rest of their duty? Did they remain with the carriage(s), or did they pick up another local service?

[sandwhich]

It is a wonder how slip coaches did manage to last so long, as said each coach had to have a guard and some stations probably had a station pilot that was only needed to shunt these coaches a couple of times a day. Quite expensive when you think about it. As time went on they had become an anachronism. But certainly a novel idea in earlier times.

[john coffin]

Slips were an answer to the question of keeping low usage stations open or add additional services at a time when motor engines did not exist, and he early steam alternatives were not really around. For instance the first GNR steam railmotors were 1905/6 after Gresley had arrived at Doncaster as C/W Superintendent, although there was the Daimler engined item a year earlier. Certainly the Boer war had a dramatic impact on staffing and costs, so the railways were looking to cut costs, yet
keep their extensive networks, in case a traffic producing link evolved.

I was interested to see the comment that slips needed turning, but so far, and in the book mentioned by Silverfox, there is no mention of that happening. It meant more carriages than were absolutely necessary, but the empty journey time along the length of the main line to turn on triangles must have been thought more costly over the whole year. Unless of course someone has working timetables which show how often this happened.

Paul