LH & RH Drive

What are the reasons for certain companies and designers opting for RH drive and some for LH drive on steam locomotives (in the UK, I mean)? Are there particular advantages / disadvantages?

 

Yes.

Trains in the UK travel on the left, so LHD means the driver can see signals placed on the outside of the line better. However, RHD was traditional in early engines because that's what you have on a horse and cart. In early engines this wasn't a problem as the boiler wasn't that big and the driver could see past it OK. But as the boilers got bigger, the view of the driver is more restricted and so the driver has to ask the fireman to stop firing and read the signals for him.

 

Except that some railways (well one in particular) placed signals on the RHS.

 

I'm curious - which one in particular was that?

Steve B

 

Great Western Railway. I'm sure others did too but the GWR was the principal railway that placed most of its signals on the RHS.

 

This is an area where the railways growing up as seperate bodies has given different standards. British railways almost universally drove on the left on double track (in America it is the opposite), but the driver could be on either depending on Company prefference. For example the GWR was right as was the SECR and the LSWR and (I believe) the Midland among a few others whereas the LBSCR was left as was the LNWR and (probably) the majority of railways. This then created an odd situation at the grouping where the Southern settled on left hand drive as did the LMS and LNER but I think even to BR days right hand drive engines were built for those areas that were set up for them!

I think many preserved railways feature a mix of both types. It is worth remembering that the driver and fireman worked as a team so looking out when signals were your side was absolutely the norm so placement of the odd signal was not a problem.

 

Plus they had ATC, early form of AWS.

 

Yes indeed. The GW was very much ahead of everyone else in terms of introducing an in-train warning device to drivers.

 

To be fair, others did trial warning devices for various functions, I believe the NER had an AWS type system much earlier than the GWR but decided not to carry on with it. The GWR put the most sustained effort into it as you point out.

 

The LSWR also trialled a system (round about the same time as the GWR experiments with AWS) that would automatically apply the brakes of the engine if it passed a distant signal at caution, and also run a bell in the signal box to alert the signalman to the presence of the engine (i.e., kind of an equivalent of ATC + track circuiting in function) but it was abandoned as insufficiently reliable and they didn't pursue the idea further.

Tom

 

Probably has nothing to do with it, but as I am right handed I have found firing easier on a RH drive loco - just a personal preference.

 

The LSWR was left hand drive. It doesn't really matter for signal sighting on a preserved railway as the engines aren't turned and therefore you are on the signal side going one way but the other side going back. It just means that the fireman has to be ambidextrous with the shovel or risk incuring the wrath of the driver when you both occupy the same spot on the footplate! I find it a challenge getting off of, say, a left hand dive wide firebox engine and getting straight onto a right hand drive narrow box type. All part of the fun and enjoyment.

 

LH & RH Drive

Some LSWR engines (the Beattie well tanks for example) are right hand drive.

 

I believe the GNR and NER were RHD whilst the NBR was LHD. The LNER standardised on LHD by 1928, if not earlier.

 

I think the driving position just evolved from the earliest days. The first companys had to put the driver on one side or the other & they had no thought about linking up with other railways, so it was the preference of the original loco superintendents.
The GCR had an ATC as well.

 

Re: LH & RH Drive

As are Calbourne, Normandy and if memory serves the T9 and the Bluebell's Adams tank! Other than the M7 tanks and the Urie S15 (which side are they, anyone) which other LSWR engines are preserved?

I think a lot depends on which you have learnt to fire on, I 'grew up' with a mixture but mostly left hand drive.

 

I wonder if it was even down to the companies who built the engines for them - in the earlier days the railway companies often bought their engines rather than building themselves so did they just order x number of engines to the builder's standard design instead of specifying to this extent?

 

Re: LH & RH Drive

Two Urie S15s at the Mid Hants (the other S15s are the Maunsell variant)

Two Drummond M7s, at Swanage and the NRM

One Drummond T9 (NRM but out and about on loan)

Two Adams B4s (one at the Bluebell, one at Bressingham)

One Adams T3 (NRM / Shildon)

One Adams O2, on the IoWSR

One Adams 0415 radial tank, at the Bluebell

Two Beattie 0298 well tanks, one at Quainton and one NRM

A reasonable variety, but not a huge number of engines (there are more ex-LBSCR engines preserved, but with less variety of types). There isn't much rolling stock either; I think carriage 1520 on the Bluebell is the only ex-LSWR carriage in the country that it is currently possible for the public to ride on. (I'd welcome correction, but I think that is right. There is a similar coach preserved in the NRM, but not available for service, and also the Bicester military inspection coach, but that has been knocked about from LSWR form).

Note: Edited for completeness in the light of torgormaig's post below

Tom

 

Re: LH & RH Drive

I think that you'll find that the vast majority of early locomotives were right hand drive. (No doubt there were exceptions, though) No signalling to worry about at first and the small size of the meant that sighting wasn't a problem when signalling did come along. The changeover to left hand drive was gradual but almost universal as the 20th century progressed and most locomotives built after 1923 were LH (GWR excepted, that is!) Most platforms and signals are on this side so it is much easier for the driver, even if the fireman has to fire left handed.

Industrial locomotives continued to be built largely RH until the end of steam. Generally no worries about sighting signals.