4 light headcode clusters on LNER-era EMUs (LNER = the original Big Four company)

[Springs Branch]

Following on from recent thread on 2-character headcodes on first generation BR DMUs, I wondered if anyone knows anything about the four light headcodes used by the LNER on the various EMUs it built or designed during the interwar years?

Specifically, any explanation (from Working Timetables or other documentation) on what combinations of lights were used?
Presumably these indicated a train's route. But were they also used to indicate express versus stopper, empty coaching stock etc?

Internet searches haven't thrown up anything, not even the excellent LNER Encyclopedia
I believe there are several books around on the topic of the Tyneside Electrics in particular; unfortunately, I don't have access to any of them.

The cluster of four lights - arranged in a square, sometimes with a red tail light in the middle - appeared on various classes as follows:-

• Third rail EMUs built by the LNER for its North Tyneside lines in the late 1930s.
  
  
• The Liverpool Street - Shenfield 3-car EMUs in their original 1500V DC form, when these were introduced in 1949 to a pre-war LNER design.
  When the Shenfield fleet was modified from DC to the AC system around 1960 (becoming AM6 & later Class 306), it seems the LNER-style route indicators were removed and replaced by more versatile SR-style 2-number roller blinds, located between the two windscreens.
  
  
• Manchester - Hadfield/Glossop EMUs (similar vintage to the original DC Shenfield units, but never converted to AC operation)
  
  
• The batch of 2-EPBs built in 1954 by BR Eastleigh for the third rail South Tyneside line.
  When the Newcastle electric system closed and the local 2-EPB fleet transferred back to the South-East, they were promptly converted to the typical Southern Region arrangement.

North Tyneside 2-Car EMU at Newcastle Central, 1950.
© Walter Dendy at Geograph UK. Licensed for reuse under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 licence.

North Tyneside EMU at North Shields.
© Roger Cornfoot on Geograph UK. Licensed for reuse under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 licence.

Class 506 at Manchester Piccadilly on 17 July 1984
© Phil Richards at Wikimedia Commons. Licensed for reuse under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 licence

Plus there are:-

• Photo of an original DC Shenfield unit at https://www.lner.info/locos/Electric/shenfield.php
• Photos of Tyneside 2-EPBs in their original territory at http://www.emus.co.uk/tyn.htm

 

[Taunton]

I described in the other thread the Ian Allan headcodes book of the era; that had (has, if you get a secondhand one) them all, for each system - which had all done their own separate thing.

 

[John Webb]

The Ian Allan "ABC of British Electric Trains" (I have a copy from 1948 inherited from my father) lists the headcodes for the LMS lines in the London area but not for the other lines in the E, NE and NW of England.

 

[WesternLancer]

As an aside, the LNER clearly put design and image at a fairly high level within the organisation (posters, livery, publications, streamlined steam etc)

So what happened with their EMU design team when it came to the front ends.....?

 

[Taunton]

So what happened with their EMU design team when it came to the front ends.....?

They were a Met-Cam design!

 

[WesternLancer]

They were a Met-Cam design!

Thanks! Interesting, given later on I would tend to say Met Camm products were not too bad style wise.

 

[Taunton]

Thanks! Interesting, given later on I would tend to say Met Camm products were not too bad style wise.

Met-Cam and Birmingham RCW worked together on a number of electric unit designs in the late 1930s, and many batches of stock were built jointly by the two Birmingham companies. I've often wondered if they had some joint shareholdings or directors behind the scenes. They also built further follow-on orders of these types into the 1950s They include:

- Underground O and P stock.
- LMS Wirral electrics
- LNER Shenfield and Glossop
- LNER Tyneside

Each had its own nuances, probably down to the customer specification, but if you compare various combinations of these you find a lot of similarities. All had sliding doors, but for some reason the Tyneside design had them hand-sliding instead of air doors of the others.

 

[WesternLancer]

Met-Cam and Birmingham RCW worked together on a number of electric unit designs in the late 1930s, and many batches of stock were built jointly by the two Birmingham companies. I've often wondered if they had some joint shareholdings or directors behind the scenes. They also built further follow-on orders of these types into the 1950s They include:

- Underground O and P stock.
- LMS Wirral electrics
- LNER Shenfield and Glossop
- LNER Tyneside

Each had its own nuances, probably down to the customer specification, but if you compare various combinations of these you find a lot of similarities. All had sliding doors, but for some reason the Tyneside design had them hand-sliding instead of air doors of the others.

Thank you Taunton, interesting to read those points.

 

[Springs Branch]

I described in the other thread the Ian Allan headcodes book of the era; that had (has, if you get a secondhand one) them all, for each system - which had all done their own separate thing.

Ah yes, classic old-school Ian Allan, comprehensive as ever. Maybe I should look out for a copy on eBay.

Met-Cam and Birmingham RCW worked together on a number of electric unit designs in the late 1930s, and many batches of stock were built jointly by the two Birmingham companies. --[snip]-- They include:

- Underground O and P stock.
- LMS Wirral electrics
- LNER Shenfield and Glossop
- LNER Tyneside

Each had its own nuances, probably down to the customer specification, but if you compare various combinations of these you find a lot of similarities. All had sliding doors, but for some reason the Tyneside design had them hand-sliding instead of air doors of the others.

Interesting to note, now you mention Met.Cam and BRCW, that LT Underground stock built by these companies during that period also featured a similar pattern of marker lights to the LNER EMUs. I had wondered if the lights on the various LNER stock had been a Nigel Gresley thing - but maybe it was more a carry-over of London Transport practice.

E.g. this example of 1938 Tube Stock:-

Preserved 1938 stock at South Ealing in 2023.
© Maxopolitan on Wikimedia. Licenced for re-use under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0

It seems the bottom right-hand marker light on this preserved specimen has been 'repurposed' as a red tail-light. In original form, all five lights in the cluster would have been white.

Here's a link to the key to historic 'dice' codes on LT: www.trainweb.org/tubeprune/Marker lights.htm#Tube Lines
Good luck to the staff working on multi-destination lines like the Northern or District who would be required to memorise all the codes for their line (including rarely-used ones).

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I described in the other thread the Ian Allan headcodes book of the era; that had (has, if you get a secondhand one) them all, for each system - which had all done their own separate thing.

Thanks for the tip-off to the Ian Allan Headcodes books. I've been able to glean the main marker light codes used on the Glossop/Hadfield units. These were my main interest - the only ones I was the right age to see displayed 'in the field'.

I had expected this topic would have arisen already somewhere on a simulation or modelling forum (e.g. RMweb) but, as far as I can tell, there's nothing squirreled away on the internet in any place Google can find it.
So, for the record, here they are:-