This meant far more interaction between the crowd ( which unfortunately dipped in numbers on Sunday afternoon due to the England v Germany World Cup fixture ) and the model exhibitors, some of whom also had literally ringside views of the traction engines and other vehicles going through their paces.
Despite this, Terminal 1 stood out among the other large-scale steam, internal combustion and battery powered models on display and may well have been the first N gauge layout to visit the MSRVS Tewkesbury Rally. Many people certainly seemed intrigued by its novelty!
The Tewkesbury MSRVS Rally was also the first time that the fiddle yard had been seen in public and this played an important part in rapidly changing the trains visible in the station in an attempt to keep them cool. Experience showed that that the simplest and most effective approach was to change the train at platform 4 ( furthest from airside ) and then do the same for platforms 3, 2 and 1, thereby maximising viewer interest. However, further variations could be achieved by keeping one platform's train static in the sequence to avoid the same recurring patterns of rolling stock.
G-ARVI was leased to Nigeria Airways from 1964 to 1966 and on 2 May 1964 made the first ever VC10 flight from Lagos to Heathrow via Kano and Frankfurt with Captain Atkinson at the controls. On 28 September 1966 G-ARVI flew Princess Marina and the Duchess of Kent to Johannesburg en route to represent H. M. The Queen at Botswana Independence Day.
Of these twelve BOAC VC10s, five would eventually be converted to VC10 K Mark 2 tanker standard for the Royal Air Force. Having been sold out of British Airways use to Gulf Air as Oman registered A40-VI on 10 March 1974 to 29 March 1978, G-ARVI was to acquire the RAF serial ZA142 and its last flight was to RAF St Athan on 27 March 2001, captained by Lucy Rendall, the granddaughter of Captain A.M. "Flaps" Rendall who had played a key role in the development of the four engined airliner. Carrying the tail letter C, ZA142 was finally scrapped on 30 May 2004.
The first of the Class 108 "Derby Lightweight" DMUs emerged from Derby Works in 1958 powered by two British United Traction Leyland of 150hp with standard mechanical transmissions, bodies measuring 57'6" x 9' 2" and Blue Square multiple unit wiring.
This large class was developed from the earlier series of low density seating Derby
Lightweight vehicles built in the mid-1950s, retaining the lower side
windows but with a new cab design. Designed essentially for local and branch line use, the Class 108s proved to be flexible and
reliable in service with 333
individual vehicles constructed up to 1961. Each
two car set could accommodate 117 seated
passengers.
A number of contemporary railway magazines noted "A new batch of Derby built units for the North East Region shows a reversion to light alloy construction, instead of all steel. As 57ft cars were needed for this order, light alloy was adopted again as the jigs for the original Derby "Lightweights" have been maintained and cannot be adapted to all-steel construction, which will now be the rule for 64ft bodies produced at Derby."
In March 1958 the British Transport Commission placed a £325,000 order with BUT, to provide engines, transmission and control equipment for 62 2-car sets (power / trailer sets 50938-87 / 56221-70, and power twin sets 50924-35 / 51561-72). In Feb 1959 the BTC ordered equipment for nine power/trailer sets (51416-25 / 56271-9) from BUT, together with the equipment for seven ScR Cross-Country sets and Class 127s.
At the end of 1959 it was announced that BR workshops would build a another 50 2-car sets (these would be 51901-50 plus partners) comprising 21 power trailer set for Nottingham - Leicester Great Central services, and 29 power twins for Manchester Suburban services (18 sets) and North Wales (11 sets).
While this information appeared in the December 1959 Railway Observer, 51901-50 (50 vehicles) were actually ordered on the 20 March 1959 (Lot 30601) with driving trailers 56484-504 (21 vehicles - Lot 30602), but the other partners, Driving Motor Composites 52037-65 have an order date of 31 December 1959 and a much late Lot number -30660. So it looks likely that in March 1959 there were 50 power-trailer sets ordered, but this was revised in December 1959 to change 29 of them to power twins.
In November 1959 Class 108 Driving Motor Composite 51562 became both the 1 000 th DMU vehicle to be built by Derby and also the 414 th lightweight aluminium car to be built. The vehicle is now preserved at the National Railway Museum.A 2-car Class 108 set visited Strasbourg for an exhibition of aluminium rolling stock on 20-25 June 1960 along with a 16 ton mineral wagon, a 21 ton hopper wagon, an experimental aluminium container, a London Transport Executive District Line car and a British Railways box wagon loaded with aluminium components. These crossed the English Channel on the Dover - Dunkirk train ferry on 11 June 1960.
While power car 52045 was displayed complete, the Driving Trailer Composite vehicle appeared as a shell, without any interior fittings or panelling whatsoever, so that the bodyside, roof and floor construction, and the layout of conduits and piping could be seen in full.
Finally supplanted by second generation diesel hydraulic multiple units in the 1990s, the lack of asbestos in the construction of the Class 108s made them ideal for preservation on heritage railways.
While Terminal 1 was specifically built around trains which were designed to be driven at both ends, my recent dealings with Network Rail steam specials hauled by 70013 "Oliver Cromwell" and 60163 "Tornado" show that many of these now have a diesel locomotive attached to the back to allow for real-life stations that, in the Twenty First Century, lack run-round facilities let alone turntables.
As my example of electro-diesel 73 128 had no other role, I found that this would run perfectly well top and tailing with a steam outline locomotive along with a rake of Graham Farish Mark 1 carriages in Southern Region Malachite Green kindly loaned by Gloucester Folk Museum. And considering that Terminal 1's fiddle yard was inspired by Jeremy Kyle, what better steam locomotive to use than a Stanier?
As far as I can see on the internet, however, Jeremy Kyle's Rochdale-born genius Director of Aftercare Graham is not directly related to William Stanier who was born on 27 May 1876, the son of W.H. Stanier, Stores Superintendent at Swindon Works.
William Stanier was educated at Wycliffe College, Stonehouse, and became an apprentice in the Great Western Railway (GWR) at Swindon in 1892. From 1897 to 1900 he worked as a draughtsman, before becoming Inspector of Materials in 1900. In 1904, Great Western Railway Chief Mechanical Engineer George Jackson Churchward appointed him as Assistant to the Divisional Locomotive Superintendent at London but Stanier returned to Swindon in 1912 to become Assistant Works Manager. In 1920 he became Works Manager and then Principal Assistant to George Jackson Churchward's successor Charles Baker Collet. As such he accompanied Collet's new locomotive 6000 "King George V" to the centenary celebrations of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in the USA in 1927.
In 1931, Stanier was approached by the London, Midland & Scottish (LMS) Railway to succeed Sir Henry Fowler and solve the motive power problem left over from the rivalry between its pre-1923 constituents. On 1 January 1932, Stanier became the LMS's Chief Mechanical Engineer, succeeded in reducing the struggles between his subordinates, and chose a close team to help with designing the LMS's much needed locomotive designs.
Stanier's first LMS design was the Princess Royal heavy passenger pacific, which incorporated many aspects of Churchward's GWR designs.
In 1937, the Princess Royals were followed by the 105 ton Princess Coronation Class which incorporated a number of improvements including a larger superheater and streamlining. On a press trip in 1937, the Coronation Scot express hauled by one of these locomotives set a new British record of 114mph while 6234 "Duchess of Abercorn" achieved 3348 indicated horsepower whilst pulling a test train up to Beattock Summit at 62mph.
In 1941 Stanier was elected President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and a year later seconded as Scientifi Adviser to the Ministry of Production. He was knighted in 1943 and retired as LMS CME in 1944 although continuing to serve as a technical consultant when Charles E. Fairburn too his former job.In 1944 Sir William Stanier also became a Fellow of the Royal Society and during the Second World War was both a member of the Aernautical Research Council and a director of Power Jets Limited, the company formed by Sir Frank Whittle to build his revolutionary gas turbine. How apt then that a Stanier Black Five should be steaming so close to a VC10!
Indeed, Sir William Stanier's 8F 2-8-0s and their War Department offspring also helped the Allied cause in no small way to victory and doubtlessly helped their creator secure the Gold Medal of the Institution of Locomotive Engineers in 1957 and the James Watt International Medal of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 1963.
Sir William Stanier died aged 89 years at Rickmansworth in 1965.
45407 was built by Armstong Whitworth and introduced to traffic on 3 September 1937 and was withdrawn from Lostock Hall depot on 4 August 1968.
Wessex Trains was created on 14 October 2001 when the former Wales and West and Valley Line franchises were reorganised. Wales and West Passenger Trains Ltd took on the trading name of Wessex Trains and the operation of services in southwest England. Their geographic area being bounded by Penzance Cardiff, Gloucester, Worcester and Brighton although this stretched to Great Malvern in 2004.
Cardiff Railway Company Ltd, which changed its trading name from Valley Lines to Wales and Borders Trains, operated most trains in Wales and the adjoining parts of England. Both franchises were owned by the National Express Group until Arriva took over a slightly modified Wales and Borders franchise in 2003.
Originally it was planned for Wessex to take over the diesel services of South West Trains. However, this would have left most services from the South West to London under the control of one operator and a change of government policy led to the decision to merge Wessex and First Great Western into the new First group owned Greater Western franchise on 1 April 2006
More specifically, Alphaline services offered passengers reservable seats, an at-seat trolley service of cold snacks, sandwiches and hot and cold drinks available for all or part of the journey, a British Telecom card phone and air conditioning. Although such card phones are seen as old technology when almost everyone has a mobile telephone in 2010, only the Class 158s had these - and air conditioning - in the Regional Railways fleet of the early 1990s.
After Privatization in 1994, both Central and Wales and West Trains continued with the Alphaline brand although by 2003 it was unique to Wessex Trains, which continued the use of a silver livery although with purple rather than maroon or navy blue doors to distance itself from Wales and West markings. The Alphaline concept did not survive the 2006 merger of Wessex Trains with First Geat Western.
The picture above was taken by John Chalcraft on 29 April 2000 at the mouth of Parsons Tunnel, Teignmouth and appeared in the 2001 Platform 5 Combined Motive Power. It shows 158 746 in the Wales and West version of silver Alphaline livery, differing only from the Bachmann model in the franchisee lettering and door colour. By this time, too, 158 746 was allocated to Cardiff Canton depot where it would be based until 2003.
The basic design of the "Seacow" bogie ballast hopper, for example, was first introduced by the London & South Western Railway in 1903 and the wagons currently used on Network Rail - dating from the 1970s and 80s - have very little detail differences apart from the bogies.
Each slab side of the Seacow hopper has 7 vertical ribs and the hopper itself is divided into two sections. Each section has three discharge chutes, one to the outside of each rail and one in the centre. At each end of the wagon is a control platform with three large handwheels to control each of the chute doors.
The first batch of 50 similar wagons built for BR appeared in 1952 and was numbered DB992481-DB992530. Like the earlier Southern Railway examples they were built by Metro-Cammell and fitted with vacuum brakes, although the BR examples had GWR plate type bogies in place of the diamond frame type fitted to the SR ones. The telegraphic name "Walrus" was applied to both builds and all were eventually given the TOPS code of YGV: Y representing bogie service vehicles and V standing for vacuum brakes.
No further examples were built until the 1970s, although a batch of 90 similar but longer bogie hoppers called Whales was constructed in 1966.
In 1971 a total of 128 wagons was built at Shildon works, still to the basic Southern Railway design but mounted on Gloucester bogies. 100 of this batch (DB982440-DB982539) were fitted with dual brakes to allow the most operational flexibility. The vacuum brakes were of the AFI (Accelerated Freight Inshot) type, which allowed faster emergency braking. The result was that one end of the wagon carried a small air brake cylinder, while the other had two larger cylinders for the vacuum brakes. Under TOPS this particular combination of brakes was assigned the letter H, so these wagons were coded YGHs and given the telegraphic code Sealion.
The last 28 (DB982540-982567) were intended for the Southern Region, where adoption of air brakes was more advanced. As such, they had air brakes only but with the addition of a vacuum through pipe. Coded YGB ( B standing for air brake and vacuum pipe ) this variation carried the name Seacow.
Between 1972 and 1974 a further batch of 360 Sealions was built at Shildon and numbered DB982568-DB982927. Finally in 1981 and 1982, 251 more Seacows were built, shared between Shildon and Ashford. This last batch (DB980000-DB980250) presented a slightly different appearance as the hopper body was now primarily welded instead of rivetted and the vertical ribs were formed of box rather than U-sections. The wagons were also mounted on more modern looking type Y27CS bogies
When the Walruses were delivered, standard engineers fleet livery was black with yellow lettering. By the time the Sealions and Seacows came along, this had been changed to olive drab, and a further change to grey with a yellow top almost coincided with the delivery of the last batch. Wagons that were overhauled or repaired were repainted in the current livery but many served for long periods without a change. Local variations were fairly common and examples of the later types (Sealion / Seacow) appeared in yellow / black and yellow / white. Certain wagons received Mainline blue or Loadhaul black / orange while Transrail logos were carried by others. With the advent of EWS, an increasing number of the more modern wagons are appearing in maroon with a yellow top rib.
YGH Sealions had the vacuum brake removed and became YGB (if a vacuum through pipe was retained) or YGA. In most cases these were recoded as Seacows, as is the case with the Graham Farish model reference 377-001 pictured in this article. Numbered DB 982473, it represents one of the Gloucester bogied AFI wagons built at Shildon in 1971.
At the same time, some of the YGB Seacows lost their vacuum pipe to become YGAs. A third modification was the fitting of lights. Some wagons have these on the protective shields, while others also have lights fitted to the hopper sides to aid operation at night. A new fishkind of Stingray was introduced about this time and is thought to refer to the fitting of lights, or perhaps the generators fitted to some of the conversions to power the lights of an entire rake.
Of the BR-built wagons, the vacuum only Walruses were the first to go, over half being withdrawn by 1989 and the remainder by 1994. The much newer Seacows and Sealions lasted longer with over three quarters (559 wagons) remaining in stock at December 2005, working alongside newer autoballasters and a growing number of box wagons.. Throughout their lives, operation of the fleet has covered much of the country, either in block trains or in sets as part of mixed departmental workings.
To begin with, the track bed should have a relatively waterproof flat, cambered surface which allows water to run off it into trackside ditches or drains. This prevents the ballast from becoming waterlogged, leading to damage to the track-bed and the sinking or "dipping" of the track.
The sub-ballast is spread out on this track-bed and levelled before the sleepers are laid, rails fitted and connected ( assuming that pre-fabricated track panels are not being used ) and top ballast added to prevent the assembled track from moving sideways. Efficient top ballasting from a Seacow or similar wagon depends on the skill of the operators, the friction in the door control mechanism and the slow, steady speed of the train. However, excessive ballast often ends up between the rails and has to be removed.
The ballast plough brake van was developed to reduce the labour (and thus the time taken) to do this job. Its heavy weight ensured that it could not be easily derailed by ballast on the rail head and the ploughs at either end were raised or lowered as needed by large handwheels.
"Shark" is the code used by BR to describe all its ballast plough brakes and under TOPS many of these also confom to the category ZUV, Z indicating two axle service vehicles, U standing for plough and V for vacuum brake. However, Sharks are not used on Southern Region lines with conductor rails and in more recent times the work of ballast spreading was taken over by specialist self-propelled machines.
A closer look at the Graham Farish N gauge model that purports to be a ZUV Shark reveals that although it has the right markings and colours it is really an ordinary London Midland type brake van in disguise as it has too long a wheelbase, lacks both room for the ploughs ahead of the wheels and the ploughs themselves, the vertical "ship's wheels" to raise and lower theploughs and any one of four variants of rainstrip over the doors.. Hopefully a true N gauge model of a ZUV will be available in the future.
| BR BALLAST PLOUGH BRAKE VANS | |||||
| NUMBER | DIAGRAM | LOT | BUILDER | TO TRAFFIC | QUANTITY |
| DB993700-993701 | 1/596 | 2028 | DERBY | 1949 | 2 |
| DB993702-993708 | 1/596 | 2172 | RY PICKERING | 1950 | 7 |
| Identical to 16 ton LMS diagram D2025, through piped and correctly coded OYSTER | |||||
| DB993709- 993712 | 1/597 | 2186 | DERBY | 1951 | 4 |
| DB993713-993726 | 1/597 | 2431 | BIRMINGHAM RCW | 1956 | 14 |
| 20 ton SHARK, vacuum brake fitted, upright vacuum brake pipe, self contained buffers, split or one piece axle box covers | |||||
| DB993727 -993756 | 1/597 | 2536 | BIRMINGHAM RCW | 1956 | 30 |
| DB993757 - 993783 | 1/597 | 2657 | BIRMINGHAM RCW | 1956 | 27 |
| DB993784 - 993809 | 1/597 | 2782 | BIRMINGHAM RCW | 1956 | 26 |
| 20 ton SHARK, vacuum brake fitted, upright vacuum brake pipe, self contained buffers, split or one piece axle box covers | |||||
| DB993810 - 993815 | 1/595 | 2119 | METRO-CAMMELL | 1948 | 6 |
| 12 ton ballast plough to ex LNER design with ploughs inside wheelbase known as COCKLE | |||||
| DB993816 - 993856 | 1/597 | 2931 | BIRMINGHAM RCW | 1957 | 41 |
| DB9933857 - 993904 | 1/597 | 3040 | BIRMINGHAM RCW | 1957 | 48 |
| 20 ton SHARK, vacuum brake fitted, upright vacuum brake pipe, self contained buffers, split or one piece axle box covers | |||||
| DB993905 - 993920 | 1/597 | 3150 | BIRMINGHAM RCW | 1958/9 | 16 |
| 20 ton SHARK, vacuum brake fitted, upright vacuum brake pipe, self contained buffers, roller bearing fitted | |||||
| DB993921 - 993940 | 1/598 | 3285 | CENTRAL C&W | 1962 | 20 |
| 20 ton SHARK, vacuum brake fitted, low level vacuum brake pipe, hydraulic buffers, roller bearing fitted | |||||
Wagons built before 1 January 1949 were named thus - lower case examples applying only to wagons with DB prefixes:
| STARFISH | All unfitted 10 ton ballast wagons |
| SOLE | All unfitted 12 ton ballast wagons |
| LING | All unfitted 14 ton ballast wagons |
| TUNNY | Western Region vehicles of similar design to BR Diagram 568 |
| GUDGEON | E / NE Region vehicles of similar design to BR Diagram 569 |
| Lamprey | Applicable to Lots 2065 and 2102 only |
| Grampus | Applicable to standard BR vehicles only |
| PILCHARD | E / NE Region vehicles of similar design to BR Diagram 571 |
| MERMAID | Western Region 14 ton side tipping wagons |
| Crawfish | Applicable to new standard BR design only |
| Mackerel | Applicable to Lot 2284 only |
| Catfish | Applicable to new standard BR design only |
| HERRING | All 20 ton hopper ballast wagons with vacuum brake and centre discharge, without side discharge. |
| Dogfish | Applicable to new standard BR design only |
| TROUT | All unfitted 25 ton hopper ballast wagons with centre and side discharge. |
| GANNET | All unfitted 25 ton hopper ballast wagons with centre discharge without side discharge. |
| WALRUS | All 40 ton hopper ballast wagons with vacuum brake. |
| COCKLE | E / NE Region unfitted 12 ton ballast brake vans with plough |
| OYSTER | LM Region unfitted 12 ton ballast brake vans with plough |
| Shark | Applicable to standard BR vehicles only |
| HADDOCK | All 12 ton sleeper wagons with drop sides and inside length of 20 feet or over |
| MINNOW | All 14 ton sleeper wagons with fixed sides and ends. |
| Whiting | Applicable to standard BR vehicles only |
| DOLPHIN | E / NE Region vehicles of similar design to BR Diagram 639 |
| Sturgeon | Applicable to standard BR vehicles only |
| GANE A | Western region service vehicles already bearing this code |
| SALMON | All 50 ton rail wagons capable of carrying 60 feet rails. |
| PRAWN | All 30 ton bogie bolster wagons allocated to Signal & Telegraph Department. |
| SHRIMP | As PRAWN but with sides |
| WHELK | All 42 ton bogie plate wagons allocated to Signal & Telegraph Department. |
| WINKLE | All 22 ton plate wagons allocated to Signal & Telegraph Department. |
| CREOSOTE | All creosote tank wagons. |
| LORIOT | Western region service vehicles already bearing this code |
| NAME | VEHICLE TYPE | BR DIAGRAM BOOK PAGE | LOT NO. |
| STARFISH | 10 ton ballast wagon, unfitted | 566 | 2089 |
| SOLE | 12 ton ballast wagon, unfitted | 565 | 2012 2264 |
| LING | 14 ton ballast wagon, unfitted | 567 | 2090 |
| TUNNY | 20 ton ballastwagon , fixed ends, unfitted | 568 | 2091 |
| GUDGEON | 20 ton ballast and sleeper wagon, fixed ends,bottom doors, unfitted | 569 | 2120 |
| LAMPREY | 20 ton ballast wagon, vacuum brake | 570 | 2065 2102 |
| GRAMPUS | 20 ton ballast and sleeper wagon, unfitted | 570 572 | 2241 2200 2345 2362 2482 2483 |
| PILCHARD | 20 ton bogie ballast and sleeper wagon, fixed ends, unfitted | 571 | 2121 |
| MERMAID | 14 to side tipping ballast wagon | Metropolitan Cammell design | 2482 |
| CRAWFISH | 20 ton side tipping ballast wagon | Not yet designed | - |
| MACKEREL | 17 ton hopper ballast wagon, vacuum braked | 583 | 2284 |
| CATFISH | 19 ton hopper ballast wagon, vacuum braked | Not yet designed | - |
| HERRING | 20 ton hopper ballast wagon, vacuum braked | 582 | 2214 2405 |
| DOGFISH | 24 ton hopper ballast wagon, vacuum braked | Not yet designed | - |
| TROUT | 25 ton hopper ballast wagon | 580 | 2117 2118 2188 |
| GANNET | 25 ton hopper ballast wagon, unfitted, with centre discharge only | 581 | 2027 2178 |
| WALRUS | 240 ton hopper ballast wagon, vacuum braked | - | 2411 |
| COCKLE | 12 ton ballast plough brake van | 595 | 2119 |
| OYSTER | 16 ton ballast plough brake van | 596 | 2028 2172 |
| SHARK | 20 ton ballast plough brake van, vacuum braked | 597 | 2186 2431 |
| HADDOCK | 12 ton sleeper wagon | 621 | 2215 |
| MINNOW | 14 ton sleeper wagon | 620 | 2081 2093 |
| WHITING | 14 ton rail & sleeper wagon | - | 2272 2459 |
| DOLPHIN | 40 ton rail, sleeper and ballast wagon | 639 | 2217 |
| STURGEON | 50 ton rail,sleeper and ballast wagon | 638 | 2322 2404 2507 |
| GANE A | 40 ton bogie rail wagon | 641 | 2094 2208 |
| SALMON | 50 ton bogie rail wagon | 640 | 2011 2216 2399 2363 |
| PRAWN | 30 ton bogie bolster wagon | 471 | 2271 2309 |
| SHRIMP | 30 ton bogie bolster wagon with sides | - | 2497 |
| WHELK | 42 ton bogie plate wagon | 490 | 2456 |
| WINKLE | 22 ton plate wagon | 431 | 2201 2481 |
| CREOSOTE | Cresosote tank wagon | - | 2371 2372 |
| LORIOT | 20 ton flat trolley | Sp 900 | 2095 2270 |
From a practical viewpoint, too, El Al liveried 4X-AGA had the same wingspan - albeit straight rather than swept - as a VC10 and so fitted a single Terminal 1 airside module. As it turned out, the doors were the same height off the ground as a VC10 too - allowing the VIPs to say "Shalom" on the same airport steps!
Of the various types identified by the Brabazon Committee, the Type I became the giant Bristol Brabazon, the Type II evolved into both the Vickers Viscount and Airspeed Ambassador , de Havilland took up the challenge of the jet propelled Type IV and the Type III formed the basis for the Ministry of Supply's Specification 2/47 for a British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) medium range airliner.
From eight designs submitted, Bristol's Type 175 Britannia came nearest to meeting requirements with a 130' wingspan, 103 300 lb gross weight to include 48 passengers, luggage and 3 370 lb of cargo, plus an expectation of 310 mph if powered by four Bristol Centaurus 662 radial piston engines. Alternative Bristol Proteus turboprops and Napier Nomad compounds were considered, but these gave no performance guarantee.
On 5 July 1948 three prototype Centaurus powered Britannias were ordered, it a proviso that the second and third machines could be converted to Proteus turboprops and that the third was also fitted out to full airline standards. Then BOAC, looking to African and Far Eastern routes, favoured Proteus engines and ordered 25 Centaurus powered Britannias, which had to be convertible to Proteus later.
Lengthy delays in signing this BOAC contract allowed Filton time to update Britannias for transatlantic service. Tankage was increased, maximum weight raised to 130 000 lb, payload included 83 passengers and the main landing gear now featured four-wheel bogies instead of twin wheel units as originally planned.
However, Bristol's Proteus turboprop was plagued with problems and after Stanley Hooker became Bristol's Chief Engineer ( Engines ) in 1950 he redesigned it. The Proteus 3 first ran in May 1952 and was more succesful than the earlier version. At the same time structural testing of the Britannia with an updated gross take-off weight of 140 000 lb offered the added bonus of extra fuel capacity.
The aircraft was recognised as an outstanding design with its highly pressurized 12' diameter fuselage, superb wings of 2 055 square feet area incorporating large double slotted flaps and Messier main landing gear retracting backwards into the inboard engine nacelles.
However the second prototype, G-ALRX, which first flew at the end of 1953, was on a demonstration flight with a party of Dutch KLM airline officials aboard on 4 February 1954 when one of its Proteus engines exploded, causing a fire in the wing. The aircraft force-landed on the Severn mudflats and was written off.
In May 1954 G-ALBO suffered flap drive failure and was returned to the Filton workshops, leaving Bristol's without a flyable Britannia until G-ANBA - the first production model - flew in September 1954. G-ANBA was thus obliged to fly prototype-intended tests - many considered vital following the loss of a number of de Havilland Comet 1turbojet airliners - leaving Bristol's with no hope of meeting Britannia or Proteus delivery dates.
A projected all-freight Series 200 Britannia did not materialise but from it evolved the mixed-traffic Series 250 and the long range passenger Series 300, both with a 10' 3" longer fuselage than the previous version. By May 1955 a Series 310 was flying with integral outer-wing tanks and powered by four improved Proteus 755 turboprops to lift a gross take-off weight of 185 000 lb including 133 passengers in tourist class seating.
Because of icing problems with the Proteus in 1956, BOAC did not fly Britannia 102s to South Africa until February 1957 with services to Australia following the next month..
Regular non-stop El Al non stop services between New York and Tel Aviv began on 22 December 1957 and these gradually increased to five flights a week. Within a year of beginning this route El Al had doubled its share of the Atlantic traffic. 4X-AGA was the first of five Britannias ordered by the airline and was delivered on 5 September 1957
American built jet airliners replaced the El Al Britannias in the mid 1960s and 4X-AGA was then sold to Swiss airline Globe Air in 1964 .
On 19 April 1967 the Britannia - now registered in Switzerland as HB-ITB - was on its way from Bangkok to Basel with intermediate stops at Colombo, Mumbai (Bombay) and Cairo. However, the crew elected to fly to Nicosia instead of Cairo. HB-ITB was cleared to land at runway 32, but appeared to be a little high on the approach. The approach was abandoned and a left circuit was entered to position for a new approach during which the aircraft collided with the ground and 126 of the 130 people on board died.
El Al ("To the skies" in Hebrew) was founded on 15 November 1948, the same year in which israel was created. Based at Ben Gurion International Airport, its first flights were from Tel Aviv to Rome and Paris in August 1949 with services extending to London in 1950.
The sole Series 301 Britannia - G-ANCA - tragically crashed near Bristol with the loss of 15 lives on 6 November 1957.
Two Series 302s, minus long range tanks, were sold to Aeronaves De Mexico and some Britannias were built by Short Brothers in Belfast including five for Northeast Airlines which in the end did not take up their Britannia options. Other Britannias went to Argentina's Transcontinental airline, and four ended up with Cubana in Cuba.
Six Britannias were purchased by ( and two leased to ) Canadian Pacific starting with "Empress of Hong Kong", also the subject of a 1/144 scale Corgi diecast model. This series 314 Britannia first flew on11 January 1958, was handed over to Canadian Pacific in April that year and flew with the company until 1966.
Civilian Britannias also operated with airlines in Belgium, Burundi, Czechosovakia, Ghana, Eire, Kenya, Liberia, Pakistan, Spain, Switzerland, Uganda, USA, Zaire and a number of independent British airlines including Monarch, British Eagle and British United .
Royal Air Force Britannias operated from June 1959 until January 1976, giving the service its first turboprop transport. Each RAF Britannia was named after a star. Twenty Britannia C1s, developed from the Series 250 multi-role freighter, served with 99 and 511 Squadrons, being joined by three Series 252 long range troop carriers designated C2. When British Honduras ( now Belize ) suffered from Hurricane Hattie in November 1961 six RAF Britannias flew out medical teams and returned with evacuated families. After 1976, the ex RAF Britannias continued flying for another decade in Africa and the Middle East.
However, in the five years from the first flight of G-ALBO to the first revenue earning Britannia service with BOAC both Boeing and Douglas rapidly advanced with their turbojet 707 and DC8 designs. As a result only eighty five Bristol Britannias were built before production ceased in 1960.
