dynamometer car

[Cutter]

I have yet another question, this time regarding the NER dynamometer car. Given the instruments within it, did it matter which way round the car ran in a train? In other words, were the duckets always to the rear of the vehicle in service, or did that not matter? Thanks again.

[jwealleans]

I'm fairly sure one end had to be adjacent to the engine, but I don't have anything with me to check.

[MikeTrice]

Jonathan is correct. Bear in mind the duckets were only fitted around the time of Mallard's run. The bulges on the sides midway down the coach were flat one end and rounded the other, the rounding forming a kind of streamlining. The rounded ends always faced the locomotive in use. Likewise once the duckets were fitted they were adjacent to the locomotive.

[jwealleans]

Thanks for that, Mike. I'll have to check we put the one on Grantham on the right way round now. I always make sure the (white) recording wheel is towards the public.

[JASd17]

The car was not double ended. That is the recording drawbar gear was at one end only. Therefore it did need turning.

As has been stated.

John

[Hatfield Shed]

Although one never quite knows what the curators might do next, it has usually been possible to get a good look at the working tackle of the dynamometer car at York. Look inside on the floor, and there is the drawbar exposed below floor level, and a spring balance arrangement to assess the force exerted (drawbar pull) linked by a large upstand or bracket to a recording pen on the plotting table chart roll.

Am I alone in suspecting that this vehicle must have been fairly noisy and draughty when in action. There appear to be loose access hatches dropping into the floor over the various mechanisms, and there is a sizeable conventional radiator ahead of the plotting table, presumably to keep the chill off the 'the chaps' taking and notating the recordings.