Railcar No22 at Didcot Sept 2015

Описание: At Didcot the Diesel Multiple Unit (DMU) Railcar No22 of the GWR. It wasn't running today but this gave me the chance to get some interesting shots behind the scenes. Many thanks to Mick and the other staff who were most helpful. I stopped Mick painting today, so I do appreciate the time he found for me.

In the video we get a quick guided tour around the cab, which is different to other engines I have seen. There are two seats up front as it had no 'dead man's handle' so it needed a second person in the cab.

The GWR DMU Railcar is one of only three in preservation, the others being No4 and No20. Some of the early railcars such as No4 were more rounded/streamlined and I believe Dapol are set to introduce an earlier more streamlined example No12 as a 00 gauge model. This one was produced as a model by Lima some years ago in 00, and we could do with a newer one. You can also get these in N gauge.

The colour schemes varied quite a bit. A couple were for example involved in parcel delivery and were a dark red. This has a lovely smooth finish that was actually applied 18 years ago now. It happened to be sprayed at the time.

In operation they could often be found pulling something else as they could haul 60 tons with their 2 motors. So a 30 ton coach was no problem and they would pull whatever colour coach was available. They often pulled good wagons too. Even a mixture. Horse boxes were also common.

A variant of the diesel motor was to be found in buses. This is a 105hp 9.6 litre engine. Not much hp really I thought. Still with lower gears (as this one has) it can achieve 40mph and with higher gearing 60-70mph.

I just love the shape of these. Very sci-fi when you consider this one was made in 1940. Reminds me a bit of the earlier Underground stock that had some design to them. Designers of today - take note!

You'll see me wearing my customary Calvertfilm blue T-shirt.

Internet search 'Calvertfilm'.
Calverton web page: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/calvertf...
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