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Slip Coaches

Discussion in 'Signalling M.I.C.' started by howard, Sep 18, 2014.

  1. howard

    howard Member

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    There is, on another (non railway) forum, a sometimes heated discussion about the operation of slip coaches in the 1890s. Some claim that it was normal to slip coaches on the main line and then switch them into a loop line by changing the points behind the main train. Others feel that this would have been a dangerous and prohibited procedure. Has anyone out there details of how slip coaches were operated from a signalling point of view please?
     
    ryan.hogg1890 likes this.
  2. Big Al

    Big Al Nat Pres stalwart Staff Member Moderator

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    Later than 1890 I know but I recall that the Cornish Riviera slipped a coach for Westbury before Heywood Road Junction right through to the late 1950s. This was done at speed - in the seventies. (I can point you to a log where the recorded speed before the slip was 79 mph). The Riviera continued on the avoiding line and the single coach was rerouted at Heywood into Westbury. Whilst it's a pretty obvious comment I think that in this case the coach would have been slipped a way back from the Junction and at the box, that was in view of the Junction itself, it would not have been a particularly difficult job to switch the points. This would have been controlled by a signal that would have had to be pulled off to tell the operator of the slip coach that the road had been set for Westbury. It was then just a matter of continuing to take advantage of the falling grade to bring the coach into the station.
     
  3. howard

    howard Member

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    Thanks Big Al.
     

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