A steam motor car for a suburban railway has been running for some time past on the Cardiff, Penarth, and Cadogan [ed. Cadoxton!] section of the Taff Vale Railway. It has proved capable of running up gradients of i in 40 with ease under its full load. It is constructed to carry twelve first-class and forty third-class passengers, and there is also a luggage compartment. The first-class compartment is furnished with longitudinal seats. The third-class compartment is furnished with transverse seats arranged in pairs, divided by a central gang-way. The car underframe is constructed of steel, and is carried at one end on an ordinary carriage bogie, the wheels of which are Kitson's patent wood cushioned type ; the other end of the car is carried on the engine.

The engine is fitted with a boiler of the multi tubular type, constructed of steel plates, with a copper fire box ; the boiler contains 312 tubes if inches in diameter. The cylinders are fixed between the wheels and outside of the frame, and the connecting rod is coupled to the end pair of wheels. The valve gear is worked by ordinary eccentrics fitted on the driving axle inside of the frame, and actuates the valves on top of the cylinders by means of a rocking shaft. The link motion is of the Stephenson type, and the engine is reversed by a screw-reversing gear. Steam and hand brakes are provided.

The principal dimensions are:-	Ft.	In.
Length of of carriage body	45	0
Length of of carriage body (outside)	8	6
Length of third-class compartment (inside)	26	1½
Length of first-class compartment (inside)	8	11
Width of gangways	2	8
Height from floor to roof	7	2½
Wheel base of carriage-bogie	8	0
Diameter of wheels	2	10
Total length over car buffers	58	9
Distance longitudinally centres of bogies	40	9½
Distance longitudinally between inside pairs of wheels	32	9½
Total wheel base	49	3½
Total weight	33 tons	2 cwt.

Boiler:-	Sq. Ft.
Fire grate area	5
Heating surface (fire box)-------------------	39
Heating surface (tubes)	299.5
	___________
Total	338.5
Engine:-
Cylinders 9 in. in diameter by 14 in. stroke
Wheel base	8 ft. 6 in.
Diameter of wheels	2 ft. 10 in.

 

 

 

The capacity of the tanks is 530 gallons, and the capacity of the coal bunker is 10 cwt. The working pressure in the boiler is 160 lb. per square inch, and the tractive power is 4263.29 lb., taken at 80 per cent, of the working pressure. To ensure proper control of the car when the engine is at the rear end, the guard can communicate with the driver by means of an electric bell, shut off steam, and sound the whistle, and also apply a hand brake on the carriage bogie. The car has been built to the designs of Mr. T. Hurry Riches, M.Inst.C.E., locomotive engineer to the Taff Vale Railway Company.

The above text is taken from 'Modern Engines and Power Generators' - Volume V. written by Rankin Kennedy and published in 1905. [457]

1904 - Interior of First Class Compartment - Taff Vale Railway Steam Car. - The Railway Magazine [735] February 1904. [20190929]

1904 - Interior of Third Class Compartment - Taff Vale Railway Steam Car. - The Railway Magazine [735] February 1904. [20190929]

1904 - Front View of Engine of Taff Vale Railway's Steam Car. - The Railway Magazine [735] February 1904. [20190929]

'Steam railcar No. 4 with engine unit No. 11, when working the Ynysbwl branch' - borrowed from D.S.M. Barrie's fine history of the Taff Vale Railway. The photograph is credited to the R. C. Riley Collection. [006] No Second Class to be seen, just those with money and those without - now't's changed much!