S3193S 'Ironclad' Brake Third Corridor

By John Down

Readers may recall that Charles James and I each have a London South Western Railway (LSWR) Restaurant Composites which are making slow progress towards restoration. Charles and I have always harboured an ambition to have a short but nevertheless complete LSWR train. This is not simply a fad, but grows from the need, if we are to have gangways at all (and, on the PBR gangways are very, very useful), to have the British Standard pattern and not the later Pullman style used on BR Mk1 stock. So, since any such train must have a brake coach, we have, from the very earliest days, been searching for an example of LSWR origin. We always knew that we would not get a contemporary of the panelled 70 or 76 in brake form, but we had hoped that we might secure an LSWR coach of the next generation – an ‘Ironclad’. S3193S was our very last chance.

S3193S was built in June 1923 at Eastleigh, just as the Southern Railway (SR) was formed from LSWR, the London Brighton & South Coast Railway, and the South Eastern & Chatham Railway – plus one or two other small oddments. She was one of the very first coaches to be built by the then new SR whose CME at the time was Robert Maunsell. The coach however is to a LSWR diagram, designed by their C&W Superintendent Surrey Warner. It was built to LSWR diagram 24(c) and originally numbered 1357, though by November 1928 SR had renumbered the diagram 213. It seems that the vehicle itself was re-numbered very soon after the grouping in 1923 as 3193 under the SR scheme. It is indeed possible that it never actually carried its LSWR number. As built she had British Standard gangways at each end. Inside a side corridor served a lavatory followed by four six foot wide side compartments and then, occupying exactly half its 57 ft length a long luggage and guards compartment. Unlike our earlier RCs which are carried on 9ft wheelbase outside framed double bolster bogies, the coach is carried on a rather more conventional 9ft wheelbase inside frame, double bolster bogie with The coach is clad in galvanized steel sheet on a wooden bottomside and framing. The LSWR were pioneers in this form of construction, so that, together with their particularly ‘well-fed’ look, the coaches very quickly attracted to themselves the soubriquet. Before we go much further we must look at the SRs near obsession, with marshalling their passenger vehicles into sets. An obsession it may have been, but as a method, not only was it highly effective, but it lasted well into BR(S) days. The fact remains that, in LSWR terms, 3193 was part of a 5- car set number 7(c) - (‘c’ indicated ‘corridor’) thus:

BTK 1356, TK69, FK3939, TK70, BTK1357

As noted above, by November 1928 the SR had renumbered the set 437 and renumbered each of the vehicles:

BTK 3192, TK 725, FK 7188, TK 726, BTK 3193

On sets, the set number is painted in large numbers on both ends of each set. By way of explanation B=brake, T=third, F=first, K=gangwayed. ‘Ironclads’. By an odd coincidence, set 7(C) included a vehicle numbered 70 this was a later LSWR numbering scheme, introduced in 1912 – and not earlier LSWR scheme which allocated 70 to my RC. Although built as 5-sets, they were designed to normally slot in a dining car to raise the train to a 6-set – or 6-dining type-B as they were known. At an early stage in the SRs existence it was decreed that all gangwayed passenger vehicles would be fitted with Pullman gangways, and with Maunsell vehicles coming on stream in large numbers, there was a problem of marrying Pullman gangwayed stock to stock fitted with British Standard gangways. Accordingly, by 1929, Pullman adaptors were fitted to the set’s vehicles. Although later removed when the vehicle entered departmental service, the form of construction of the vehicle raises few difficulties in reverting to the British Standard gangway to facilitate coupling to either of the RCs.

For most of its early life set 437 was worked mainly on the prestige Waterloo to Bournemouth West express dining services, with the occasional trip to Salisbury. This was certainly true by 1931, though by 1936 things had become a little more interesting with additional excursion traffic to Weymouth, Portsmouth Harbour, and, with dining car removed to revert to a 5-set on the meandering Brighton to Cardiff route. The Ironclad’s stranglehold on the Bournemouth route was largely removed by electrification to Portsmouth in June 1937, and by displacement by more modern Maunsell stock. Accordingly, in 1938, both the TKs 725 and 726 were removed to be replaced by the 1936 built Maunsell TK 1902. This made set 437 a 4-set, and it soon suffered the indignity of being rostered for secondary workings such as semi-fasts from Waterloo to Basingstoke, Wareham, Bournemouth Central, Southampton Docks, Lymington Pier, Swanage and Exmouth. It is possible that later that year that set 437 worked the Portsmouth, Salisbury and Bristol.

The outbreak of war saw promotion to 5-dining status on the long Waterloo to Plymouth and Waterloo to Exeter services, though by the time victory was in sight they had slumped back to 4-set status and were working the Weymouth and West of England services out of Waterloo. The final years before nationalization saw set 437 extended to an 8-set by the removal of TK 1902, and substitution by five ‘loose’ TKs for ‘Special’ workings. Grand though this sounded, it actually meant rostering onto long-distance but slow services along the Brighton, Portsmouth, Bristol, Cardiff axis.

Set 437 continued its rather humdrum existence into nationalization and beyond. Most things the Southern undertook, it undertook without fuss, and it did it very capably. Perhaps the term ‘humdrum’ is a bit unfair, but the Ironclads were of highly durable construction, and built to last. Certainly some of the vehicles in the set were painted Carmine and Cream in BR(S) days, in accordance with official edict, but they soon surreptitiously reverted to their traditional green. Of the 154 Ironclads built (including 40 built by the LSWR), all but two were taken into BR stock. Under BR auspices 3193 was re-numbered S3193S. The two missing vehicles were destroyed by fire at Micheldever in August 1936 whilst working the Jersey Boat Train. Mass withdrawal of the BTKs started in

late 1957, peaking in 1959, though one or two were kept on till 1962. Set 437 continued as an 8-set until disbanded in 1959, still working the Bournemouth route, but relegated to Summer Saturday extras.

Disbandment and withdrawal was not the end of the venerable but robust Ironclad S3193S. For almost a year she was on loan, to the Engineer’s Department, Woking, and painted in red and yellow. She was certainly spotted in the early sixties at Newhaven and at Exeter St Davids en route to Plymouth, still ‘On loan’

In 1962 she was moved from revenue to departmental stock (as were many of her sisters round about this time), converted to a crane staff and tool van and renumbered DS70133. This meant removing the compartments, fitting sliding doors to the sides, and even installing small gibbet cranes alongside the sliding doors so that heavy items could be winched in and out. In recognition of the fact that she could now carry a considerable load, extra steel plating was attached to the sides of the underframe. Conversion for departmental service saw her at Eastleigh for underframe strengthening work, and at Lancing for bodywork modifications.

After conversion her first branding was as ‘MP Breakdown Van, Basingstoke’. There is a suspicion that she did a brief stint in Glasgow of all places, and Guildford is also possible.. By 1978 she was allocated to Brighton as a Breakdown Train Unit – Staff and Tool Van. Her last working duty it appears, on the basis of the branding remaining on her sides was as ‘Breakdown Train Unit – Packing Van – Wimbledon’. By January 1981 she was effectively retired by being declared ‘Spare’ at Stewarts Lane (within sight of Battersea Power Station). Despite being relatively recent, things get a lot less certain than it its revenue-earning and departmental days. Final condemnation date is unknown, but she was rescued from Marple & Gillot’s scrap merchants in South London in 1989, by the Kent & East Sussex Railway. In 1991 she was swapped for a Mk 1 BSK, and she was then sent to Hoo Junction on windswept marshlands of the Medway. She arrived for secure storage at the ammunition storage depot at Kineton in June 1999, and has remained there to this day.

She was inspected at Kineton on 13 March, in her rather unpleasant yellow livery. To be frank, she was a bit of a disappointment. All the roof covering had gone leaving just the bare planking, though, despite a few planks having lifted, were in reasonably good condition. The inside was open from end to end and contained junk – some of which may yet prove very useful. The decolite floor (a sort of concrete made from cement, sawdust and iron-oxide powder) was rotten in places. There was some slight lean in one cantrail and some localized rusting in some of the cladding, but the bottomside timbers were generally good (though wet) and all in all not too bad for such a neglected lady of such advanced years. Most importantly of all, she retained her original handbrake, and in the original position. A bid was duly made, and on 23 March we heard that our bid was successful. She arrived at Furnace Sidings on 4 may and was offloaded the following day. Initial work has included immediately re-covering the roof. We have found an ideal material and have the technique down to a fine art – this is the fourth vehicle at

Blaenavon so treated, and we are confident in its performance. Much of the decolite floor (a pink compound made from Portland cement, sawdust and iron oxide powder) will need replacement., but in Douglas Fir from the Forest of Dean. To date all of the obviously damaged floor panels have been replaced. This included the lavatory, the vestibule outside, the first compartment, the corridor outside, and the two adjacent corridor panels outside the second and third compartment. Half the guard’s compartment has also been so treated. Very soon after will be the installation of some partitions in order to preserve the overall shape and to prevent any further movement of the cantrails. A quick seal and paint job is important, and she will be returning to a shade of green. Just which shade is not fixed yet – Maunsell Olive, with lining, Bulleid Malachite or BR Stock Green are all under consideration. Whatever shade of green she ultimately carries, she will be numbered 3193 (with additional Ss as appropriate). On the other hand, we might just paint her in BTU Bright Red – just to be different! There are no plans to provide her with passenger accommodation. The intention is to use her initially as a workshop and secure store to aid the restoration of LSWRs 70 and 76. When they are close to completion, and come ‘on to the system’ she will be coupled to them to serve as a brake vehicle. There is the possibility of some modest development, her wide sliding doors invite adaptation for disabled passenger and her large interior suggests any number of roles. That however is for the long future and belongs to another story.

A cousin BTK of 3193, BTK No 3180 during the brief period in BR(S) ownership when she was painted carmine and cream. A cousin, rather than a sister, because the vehicle is to diagram 135 – and is a precise mirror image of diagram 213. Note the characteristic inward sloping side which allows a view along the vehicle from the guard’s ducket (right at the end). This was a design feature unique to the LSWR and its successor, the SR, apart from a few examples built by the Lancashire and Yorkshire. High up in the shadow at the end of the vehicle can be seen the set number 432

Still at MoD Kineton, probably February 2004 – and not looking significantly worse