Resurrecting Test Car 2

Having played its part in the acceptance testing and certification of many items of rolling stock, Test Car 2 has been deservedly saved. Dave Bower, who worked on it during the 1980s and 90s, and is now a member of the restoration team at the Great Central Railway, speaks to Christopher Westcott about this historic vehicle.

- Christopher Westcott

CONSTRUCTED in 1962 at WolvertonWorks, No. 35386 was built as aMk.1 Brake Second Corridor (BSK) coach using Commonwealth bogies as part of lot number 30699.

It was ‘borrowed’ temporarily in 1974, joining the Department of Mechanical & Electrical Engineers (DM&EE) and renumbered No. ADB975397. Its predecessor No. DB995000, a former LNER Test Car 2 dating back to 1951, had been part of a slip/brake test between Crewe and Winsford that had not ended well!

Accepted into the test equipment role, the interior was modified in 1976. An electrical generator was installed and several internal layout alterations were made. It is likely that this is around the time that the car was repainted into the traditional departmental red and blue livery of the DM&EE.

LAYOUT

A Perkins three-cylinder 20kVA diesel generator is located towards the ‘B’ end of the coach providing 240-volt AC power for on-board instrumentation systems, heating, lighting and cooking facilities. Diesel is stored in an underframe-mounted 90-gallon fuel tank. To the rear of the generator area, is an electrically driven 10-bar air compressor and a dedicated 150-litre air reservoir.

The workshop area within part of the original BSK luggage area has a useful workbench with a vice, battery chargers and secure storage for the instrumentation cables, tools, test gauges, spare couplings, brake pipes and other equipment.