The Duke of Sutherland

The Duke of Sutherland’s Saloons, Locomotives and Railways

In January 1950, G. Charles published a short (2 page) article about the Duke of Sutherland’s railway interests. [1]

It was only the nationalisation of the British railways which brought to an end the Duke of Sutherland’s hobby of owning and running his own train with running powers over LMS lines.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2025/06/06/the-duke-of-sutherlands-saloons-locomotives-and-railways/

 

This bit intrigued me "When the Duke was travelling by special train, north of Inverness, the large saloon was steadied by having the smaller vehicle attached behind it."
This seems rather unusual. It's usually bogie vehicles that ride well at speed. Is there any information as to why this was the case?

 

I have not seen anything to support the assertion.

I wonder whether it might be that the bogie coach had a high centre of gravity?

 

I'm wondering if it was an early bogie coach before side control and damping were understood?

 

Actually, we are assuming lateral instability, could it be to damp any fore-and-aft surging by the engine?

 

I like both of these ideas.

 

This photograph might be of interest here. It shows the Duke's large saloon on an outing from the NRM to the nearby Derwent Valley Light Railway in Sept 1976, hauled by Hardwicke. It was an exercise that wasn't repeated as the coach timbers cracked and split quite significantly. I remember successfully chasing this movement all the way to the end of the line at Dunnington - by push bike!

Peter