London Tramways - Picture No 26998

Picture No. 26998

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Data sheet

date taken	-/2/47
car no	1729
service
class	E1.
company	LCC
location	Purley Depot
description	This car was built in 1921 and scrapped in February 1947. The 'wagon' on left was made from the lower saloon framework left on unmotored bogies from an earlier scrapped car. It is an E/1 under frame on its trucks. The profiled and riveted cross-member at the end is a good clue to its origin that form can be seen in many other pictures as well as in the LT Museum's 1025. The end member is also correctly positioned relative to the side channel members. The high 'sides' are stiffening members. The channel under frame longitudes would not be stiff enough to support the body under varying loads without compromising the body structure. The upper members stiffen the longitudes and restrain flexure between and outboard of the body bolsters. The steel members can be compared in function and shape to the truss members under a railway carriage, and would have been housed between outer and inner body panels. There are large holes in the stiffeners at either end. I'd suggest these formed routes for the power cables down to the trucks. The main power cables ran along the vehicles between inner and outer panels and I'd guess that the cables to motors and plough carrier branched off through the holes and down. Inside the structure, just visible, are brackets just about where the floor members would have been fixed. The vehicle was used to move scrap from the rear open space where cars were scrapped to the forecourt of the depot as there was no direct Road vehicle access to the scrapping area of the depot. At this time one or two Thornton Heath depot 16/18s were kept overnight at the front inside of the depot which was otherwise non-operational

photographer	D. W. K. Jones

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