Metropolitan OO gauge British Thomson Houston. (An electrified horse box)

[Jarmstro]

Next up. The Met British Thomson-Houston electric. This has to be a strong contender for the ugliest loco ever to run on UK rails! I believe it offered better visibility for the driver over the Metro-Cammell but at the cost of it being mistaken for a horse box. The lining cheers it up a bit. Not sure how long they lasted.



Same ingredients as my Metro-Cammell which is too quick but runs fine at 3v-4v when pulling a load.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Not sure how long they lasted.

They disappeared at the same time as the Westinghouse camelbacks. All tied up with the 1919 'reconstruction' as described in the Westinghouse Bo-Bo thread.

With the BTH locos you can start to see the early stages of the body design of the Metropolitan Vickers Bo-Bo.

 

[Jarmstro]

Ah! What did they do with them? Were parts used for the Metro-Vic's or were they scrapped?

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

The information about the fate of the Westinghouse and BTH locos is a bit vague. It is known their electrical gear and motor bogies were stripped and re-used in multiple electric units. Some of the chassis/solebars were lengthened by Metro-Vic with new bogies, electrical gear and bodywork. Otherwise the Metro-Vic locos were entirely new. It is possible to deduce from the rivet pattern on the solebars of the Metro-Vics which ones were rebuilt or new. This was something I tried to delve into when building my 7mm Metro-Vic Bo-Bo and the kit construction notes identifies six were partial rebuilds viz 3, 6, 7, 10, 15 and 17.

However, they couldn't have withdrawn all of the Westinghouse and BTH locos at the same time for reconstruction as it would have left them with no locos to run the services. Information regarding this is somewhat elusive.

 

[Jarmstro]

As I understand it the Met maintained a fleet of around 35 locos until 1933 of which about 24 were serviceable at any one time.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Are all these electric locos? or both steam and electric? Does the number also include the camelbacks operating on the GN & City which was owned by the Met.