321047

You need to login/register to view a large version of this photo.
More details can be found here.

---

Your comments

• Ben Williams

  23 June 2006, 19:00:33

  The much-travelled coach still appears much the same as it did when at Barking but it spent time at Temple Mills and MOD Caerwent before ending up here...

• Jon Horswell

  22 March 2007, 17:25:27

  Does anyone no what the roller shutter door gives access to. I assume at one point it had a gangway connection.

• Chris Thorn

  22 March 2007, 18:18:44

  Maintenance access to engine and generator. Engine could also have been installed through here as not mounted beneath the roof hatch.

• Dave Carson

  22 March 2007, 18:29:25

  I've grown up with this beast!

  Previous to being at Barking, it was at Chadwell Heath, at Southend Victoria and sometime during my secondary schooldays (1965-71) at was in a siding opposite my school at Southend East. I've never known it to be anything else other than a generator coach! I hope (if only for sentimental reasons alone) that it is saved.

• Jon Horswell

  22 March 2007, 18:37:25

  Have you spotted the Stratford Cockney Sparrow on the side. I think it has been secured for preservation but it would be nice to see it cleaned up a bit.

• Dave Carson

  22 March 2007, 19:02:57

  I remember this vehicle when it was in red and before that in olive green, it only 'ad the sparra' in that grey (-ish) livery. After all, it was a Stratford managed vehicle.

• Ben Williams

  22 March 2007, 19:10:12

  Perhaps a stupid question but why was a generator coach required at these locations?

• Dave Carson

  22 March 2007, 22:36:39

  As I am led to believe, this beast was generally used for auxiliary power supplies for signalling during re-signalling work as it was once classed as an S&T vehicle. At Barking, it was supposed to provide back-up for signal power whilst Barking Signal Box closed and signalling transferred to Upminster IECC. At Chadwell Heath, the 25kv control room was being upgraded and this vehicle provided auxiliary power during the upgrading work. I think (or rather assume) that its Southend stints were during local signal box upgrades.

• John Randall

  22 March 2007, 23:13:17

  The generator coach used to cover the S&T substations as mentioned above that had rotary coverters in them to Generate 83 1/3 cycles this was though to be a frequencey it was difficult to get a harmonic interferance from induction from other sources such as the O.H.L the substations had Maclaren diesels kept sump heated ready to go to full power if the electricity board supplied power failed . If I remember correctly this coach is a complete substaion with the converters and a big V6 paxman engine opening the end roller shutter doors reveals the big cables that allow it to replace the substation that is undergoing repair. since modern signaling no longer suffers from harmonic interferance the coach is vertualy redundant!

• Dave Carson

  23 March 2007, 21:06:16

  Perhaps this vehicle should be preserved as a generator coach, after all, it has spent most of it's life in this form and with a Paxman V6 engine + generator hopefully still inside, would be ideal for any preserved railway as it could adapted to provide power for welding, additional lighting for filming and special events, auxiliary start-up for un-cooperative diesels - its potential is endless!

• Jon Horswell

  23 March 2007, 22:54:17

  I never believed that there could be so much interest in one coach! Long may this vehicle survive.

• Chris Thorn

  23 March 2007, 23:15:22

  The Paxman engine indeed survives as do the 3 generators. Unfortunately there is frost damage to the block and heads so stitch welding or replacement required. The heavy duty copper fly leads that linked the generators have also gone walkies due to their scrap value. The final insult is that the manufacturers spec plates have disapeered along with the full unique maintenance literature since the vehicle left Barking. Removal by a collector has rendered this potentially usefull bit of kit as useless! Its main importance however lies in its origins as E3 the last surviving RFO.

• Ben Williams

  20 August 2010, 17:07:12

  Moved to Great Central this week apparently along with 4 other mk1s from the airfield site.

• Mike Lang

  18 October 2010, 17:52:49

  This generator coach is now at the Great Central Railway. The plan is to restore it to its original form, which is an RFO No 3, as funds permit.

• Jon Horswell

  18 October 2010, 22:06:25

  This was an ODM Generator Coach. What did ODM stand for?

• John Randall

  19 October 2010, 16:14:56

  Out Door Machinery

  (who had a signal power supply department)

---