Maximum length?

[455driver]

I see nobody has mentioned overlaps!

 

[DJL]

I see nobody has mentioned overlaps!

Except Edwin, on the post before yours, some 3 hours prior.

 

[3141]

Didn't some wartime trains load to 20 plus?

Yes, they did. And even though carriages were shorter then, if you had 20 x 55 feet long carriages = 1100 feet that's longer than 12 x 20 metres = about 790 feet.

445driver's point about what you can fit at a terminal station is valid if you're thinking about regular services, but I recall reading about wartime trains at Kings Cross where the loco at the head was almost in the tunnel, or maybe actually in it. Such a situation might also cause approaching trains to have to be held because the route to their platform was blocked by the very long train waiting to depart. That's another reason why trains of that length could only be exceptional.

On some modern multiple-unit stock there may be a limit on how many units can be controlled from the leading cab.

 

[DownSouth]

Yes, they did. And even though carriages were shorter then, if you had 20 x 55 feet long carriages = 1100 feet that's longer than 12 x 20 metres = about 790 feet.

445driver's point about what you can fit at a terminal station is valid if you're thinking about regular services, but I recall reading about wartime trains at Kings Cross where the loco at the head was almost in the tunnel, or maybe actually in it. Such a situation might also cause approaching trains to have to be held because the route to their platform was blocked by the very long train waiting to depart. That's another reason why trains of that length could only be exceptional.

The wartime trains were done that way (fewer longer trains instead of more shorter trains) because manpower was stretched. Fewer trains allowed them to be controlled by fewer signalling staff, and pushing the locomotives to perform feats they wouldn't perform in peacetime allowed the required work to be done by fewer staff on the trains.

This kind of thing was repeated not just in Britain but all across the world in countries on both sides of the war, but nuclear weapons can't be un-invented so whole national 'home front' efforts will never be seen on that scale again.

 

[Kentish Paul]

I remember back in the 70's a few locations where a train would start from a terminus where the cab was in front of the starting signal. One was Brighton where a man on the platform would relay the signal aspect to the driver, who once satisfied he had the road would proceed when given the right away.

I assume its changed now but then a 12 car train would have a third of the front car beyond the starting signal.