Are there any gas lit carriages in preseevation and can they be run in service??

[61653 HTAFC]

Caravan gas appliances are "plumbed in" as in a house so there would be no need to move them from the storage cupboard.

Depends on the age and spec of the caravan. One from the 70s might have a connection pipe on the exterior nearer to the point of use, with the large bottles needing to be placed there when the caravan is at a pitch. Certainly one of the earlier ones of my grandparents had this arrangement, and that would have been from around 1976-1980. When the smaller canisters became more popular, manufacturers were more likely to place the connection pipe inside the front end drawbar storage, along with a dedicated space for the smaller gas bottles.

 

[Bikeman78]

Caravan gas appliances are "plumbed in" as in a house so there would be no need to move them from the storage cupboard.

The plumbed in system supplied the gas heater and the hob on the cooker. The fridge was much newer and completely separate. It had a gas bottle that sat on the floor under the fridge. I replaced a lot of the wooden frame at the back of the caravan in 1997 as the original had gone rotton. Definitely no gas pipe back there.

EDIT: photo below shows an identical caravan. Fair play, this one is immaculate. Mum's has gone green! The only difference is that mum's has a lockable cupboard for gas bottles at the front where the gas bottles are visible on the photo. The fridge is in the cupboard visible just inside the door.

Astral Scout Touring Caravan | Carrington Rally 2014 | Flickr

 

[pieguyrob]

The touring caravan my parents had when I was a kid, the late eighties until the mid nineties, had a gas light in it. It had the locker at the front for 2 calour gas bottles and a gas powered fridge. The gas was all plumbed in. It had to be disconnected when travelling. I think the caravan was a Marsden, but, I can't be certain. It was 30 years ago.

 

[Cowley]

Well this has definitely gone off in an interesting direction…

 

[507020]

Were many combustible/wooden signal boxes not still gas lit as late as the 1970s/80s?

 

[infobleep]

Around 1500 gas lamps still around London but there is a storm brewing about some of them.....

Westminster's 300 gas lamps being replaced with 'eco-friendly' LEDs

Westminster City Council is in the process of converting the 300 lamps which stand in the borough with more eco-friendly LED versions, as part of a £6million upgrade to its lighting network.

www.dailymail.co.uk

I was attending an Advanced Streets training course a few years ago and that is where I first heard of the gaslighting in London. If I remember correctly, one council, I think Westminister, maintains it on behalf of the other. So either they maintain it for the City of London or it's the other way round.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Were many combustible/wooden signal boxes not still gas lit as late as the 1970s/80s?

A few - I recall a visit to Carterhouse Junction in the Merseyside area trying to persuade Guinness to stick a terminal there - not very convincing with mesh widows , gas lighting and horrendous local pollution. Heath on the Cardiff Valleys was one also. Remember boxes sometimes stocked Tilley lamps for emergency use......quasi gas lighting .

 

[jumble]

Are there any gas lit carriages in preservation? If so can they be run in service or would they be considered too much of a safety risk these days?

Although a bit OT
I am old enough to have been resident in a rectory in Shropshire that was first home after being born that had gas lighting and no electricity
Nowadays we do some work for a victorian school that still has gas pipes and taps on the stairs.
I sometimes ask the apprentices if they can guess what they are but they have no clue.

 

[Deepgreen]

I believe the cab-end destination indicators on the class 700s are gas lit.

 

[Journeyman]

I believe the cab-end destination indicators on the class 700s are gas lit.

Are you sure about that? No-one else thinks so...

*ducks*

 

[Deepgreen]

Are you sure about that? No-one else thinks so...

*ducks*

It's the only explanation I could think of for why they are so feeble!

 

[snowball]

In about 1961 my parents and I visited two people who lived in an old cottage at Cheadle near Stockport that had gas lighting and no electricity, just 7 miles from central Manchester. It was demolished and replaced by a new housing development within a couple of years.

 

[507020]

In about 1961 my parents and I visited two people who lived in an old cottage at Cheadle near Stockport that had gas lighting and no electricity, just 7 miles from central Manchester. It was demolished and replaced by a new housing development within a couple of years.

Did the housing development receive electricity?

 

[fireftrm]

In about 1961 my parents and I visited two people who lived in an old cottage at Cheadle near Stockport that had gas lighting and no electricity, just 7 miles from central Manchester. It was demolished and replaced by a new housing development within a couple of years.

In 1962 my parents and I moved to a house in Yorkshire that had no central heating. It still stands today but no doubt has had central heating fitted since. Some new houses have been built on the opposite side of the road since then too

 

[colchesterken]

In the early 60s the smaller stations on the Goblin were gas lit I remember my local station Wanstead Park having gas lights
I remember going to late meetings in Temple London in winter and seeing the lamplighter going round lighting gas lamps. would have been about 1965 Next time I am down there will go for a look properly gone to LED.

 

[The exile]

In about 1961 my parents and I visited two people who lived in an old cottage at Cheadle near Stockport that had gas lighting and no electricity, just 7 miles from central Manchester. It was demolished and replaced by a new housing development within a couple of years.

The house I grew up in was in one of the first developments in Edinburgh (Leith then, actually) to have had the option of electric lighting from new (mid 1890s). Despite this, it was only on the changeover to Natural gas in the 1980s that the last house finally succumbed to the modernity of having electric lighting!

 

[Spamcan81]

Well yeah... but if the vehicle with gas lighting is stationary, you've already solved half the "irresistible force/immovable object" conundrum!

Not sure what the current advice is for transporting your gas bottles for your caravan, but in the past you were advised to carry them in the boot of your car. Both to protect them from impact (caravans are pretty flimsy) and to increase the weight above the driven wheels. The smaller gas bottles that some preferred were as you suggest more at risk of becoming projectiles than becoming explosive.

Gas bottles for touring vans in the 60s and 70s were carried in a holder on the A-frame at the front of the van, behind the towing hitch.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

In the early 60s the smaller stations on the Goblin were gas lit I remember my local station Wanstead Park having gas lights
I remember going to late meetings in Temple London in winter and seeing the lamplighter going round lighting gas lamps. would have been about 1965 Next time I am down there will go for a look properly gone to LED.

No - still functioning gas lights around the Temple and the legal Inns.

Stations hung onto gas lighting - posh Radlett until it was rebuilt for electrification for example.....

 

[Journeyman]

No - still functioning gas lights around the Temple and the legal Inns.

Stations hung onto gas lighting - posh Radlett until it was rebuilt for electrification for example.....

Tunbridge Wells West had some gas lighting until it closed in 1985. Various other places did too, often because railway companies in the past signed long-term gas supply contracts on very favourable terms. It made it uneconomic to switch to electric lighting.

 

[rf_ioliver]

Gas lighting as an option ceased to be commonplace in the 1970s I think, but a new touring caravan throughout the 1980s would likely have a fridge that could be powered by battery/electric hook-up/propane.

Of course the caravan generally wouldn't have these gas powered features functioning while on the move, so that removes one of the risk factors present on trains.

I remember my parent's touring caravan having gas lighting...complete with thorium oxide gas mantles --- you can add radioactivity to the list of risks

 

[2392]

Keeping with the drift. Pickering Station the Southern terminus of the North Yorkshire Moors had gas lighting still fitted when the NYMR moved in. Levisham even had oil lamps for platform lighting until fairly recent times. Both station though aere now fitted out with these new fangle electirc lights, which are made to look like proper gas/oil lights .

 

[Tester]

Were many combustible/wooden signal boxes not still gas lit as late as the 1970s/80s?

Drifting off topic, but possibly of interest.....

North Pole box was certainly gas lit in the 80s, even though it had a signalling power supply. Chelsea box, further down the same line, had electric lighting, but the signalling ran off dry cells!

 

[Mat17]

If we're going down the heritage rail route, several stations on the KWVR are still gas lit.

 

[Rescars]

Although gas lighting disappeared earlier, gas for cooking (and refrigeration) in refreshment cars lasted until modern times, and presumably is what is still used on heritage lines with restaurant facilities. It's the only energy source they had if power was not coming down the train line from the locomotive, which I believe only came with the Mk 3. All the Mk 1 refreshment vehicles, which of course provided all the facilities in the Mk 2 era as well as these did not have any refreshment vehicles of their own, even the miniature buffets and the ones in dmus, had gas cooking, they had commercial Calor Gas propane cylinders in the underframe which were changed regularly; sometimes not regularly enough, "no gas" being one of the myriad excuses for lack of refreshment facilities.

The gas used changed over (1950s?) from the old coal gas previously used to the commercial cylinders.

The absence of power source and the poor features of the old coal gas system led the LNER in the 1930s to introduce "anthracite electric" kitchens, which essentially were coal-fired ranges (the junior chef had to double up as a fireman), with forced draught from electric fans to get adequate heat. Some early 1950s BR restaurant cars perpetuated this approach.

Here's a real sidebar, but my 1960 Hornby model railway catalogue had a "gas wagon", which was about 10 or so large gas cylinders (like huge beer barrels) mounted sideways on a wagon, with a substantial framing around them. One wonders what this was used to supply. The railway tended in the coal gas era to have centralised gas production facilities, but were such distribution vehicles still used by this time?

I do seem to recall that the last gas-lit service in London was mentioned by John Betjeman in one of his knowledgeable accounts as being the stock the LMS provided for the services from Broad Street to the LNER destinations like High Barnet or Potters Bar, up to 1939, with old North London Railway wooden-seated 4-wheeled coaches. An old agreement over the use of the terminus at Broad Street meant the North London, and then the LMS, had to provide the stock. I think the last gas-lit of all was again some wooden-seated stock used for coal miners' services in South Wales. Our colleague @ChiefPlanner probably knows more than anyone else about this.

Mark 1 kitchen cars had propane fired ranges, ovens, grills, hot water supply, Stills boilers etc, but the fridges were electric. Much safer when stabled unattended overnight with the fridge full of bacon for the following morning's breakfast!

Drifting off topic, but possibly of interest.....

North Pole box was certainly gas lit in the 80s, even though it had a signalling power supply. Chelsea box, further down the same line, had electric lighting, but the signalling ran off dry cells!

If I recall correctly, Oxford Station North and South SBs both had gas lighting and were a blaze of light during the power cuts during the early 1970s. The station, being fully electrically lit, was consequently plunged into darkness.....

 

[AY1975]

You could very easily mimic gas lighting with LEDs if you want to - their flexibility is impressive. Play a hissing sound over the PA if you really want

I think these days bare tungsten bulbs (or LED fakes) are enough to give the feeling of "really old".

At least one of the LT Museum's preserved Metropolitan Railway compartment coaches that was originally gas lit now has LED lamps that look just like gas lamps.

 

[6Gman]

When we stayed in Camping Coaches in the early-mid 60s one of the first things to be done on arrival was for the stationmaster to supply keys for the station toilets (to avoid the need for a stock of pennies) and to check the level of gas available. On arrival at Spean Bridge we found the level was low which I recall involved a delivery from Fort William.

 

[AY1975]

Mark 1 kitchen cars had propane fired ranges, ovens, grills, hot water supply, Stills boilers etc, but the fridges were electric. Much safer when stabled unattended overnight with the fridge full of bacon for the following morning's breakfast!

I believe that Mark 1 sleeping cars had calor gas stoves to make the passengers' morning teas and coffees too.

 

[Sulzer:1999]

I travelled on the Skara-Lundsbrunn Järnväg on Hogmanay 2010, the late night pre-new year service had its wooden bodied coaches lit by acetylene, which gave some idea just how poor train lighting was back in the day.
BTW, the working that night was not without incident, upon arrival at the terminus, the footplate crew were hurriedly dropping the fire due to some unspecified firebox issue. I later discovered that the said loco’s boiler had to be sent to Riley’s at Bury to be repaired.

 

[Alfie1014]

OK I admit it’s a tangent but I visited this gas lit pub in Beverley https://website-548328973905253391471-pub.business.site/ a couple of years ago and I did arrive by train on a Christmas dining railtour.

 

[infobleep]

OK I admit it’s a tangent but I visited this gas lit pub in Beverley https://website-548328973905253391471-pub.business.site/ a couple of years ago and I did arrive by train on a Christmas dining railtour.

Nice. A friends Gran leaves in Beverly so I must find out if they have been there.