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BR Mark 1 Carriages
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History
British Railways designed and built coaches to a standard design.
When the Mark 1 coach was introduced in 1951 it was the first new
design after nationalisation in 1948.
These 'Mark 1s' eventually formed the mainstay of BR's coaching
stock and there are many examples of the various types of coaches in
preservation.
The Mark 1 coach was the first BR standard design, with a steel
chassis, framework and panels. Many thousands were constructed
between 1951 and the mid 1960s when they were superseded by Mark 2
stock. Some were built by the various BR works, others by
contractors, to increase the rate of production.
Each coach has its own number to enable it to be identified for
maintenance and service allocation. Each BR Region was allocated its
own stock which was denoted by the letter ahead of the number:
W- Western, E- Eastern, M- Midland, S- Southern, Sc- Scottish, and
for a short while the GE- Great Eastern section was valid, until
absorbed into the Eastern region.
All coaches have a works plate on the under frame giving the date
it was built, the works or contractor responsible, the lot number
and the diagram number.
On the coach end is a dimension plate, giving overall sizes, number
of seats fitted and weight of the vehicle. Coaches were built in
various forms with different combinations of internal styles to suit
the varying traffic loadings on different routes.
The later BR Mark 1 coaches had formica internal panels instead of
the more traditional wood, and fluorescent lighting instead of the
tungsten bulbs in ealier versions.
Although of standard design, each works, or contractor, who built
the various batches, had their own drawing office. They specified
the exact dimensions of each component; therefore a window slider
from one coach will not necessarily fit another from a different
builder.
As built the Mark 1s had end steps to allow the station staff to
monitor the filling of the water tanks. These were gradually removed
for safety as overhead electrification began to spread throughout
the railway system.
The average cost of a new coach in 1951 was £5,969.
By the mid 1960s, when Mark 2 coaches were introduced, the average
cost had risen to £16,436 |
