The numbers are small plastic or metal numerals screwed to the canopies,
often painted over and scarcely visible.
To enable them to work the full service of eight cars, with one spare, the
corporation purchased from a dealer at
Benfleet in September, 1949, two cross-bench control trailers from the former
Southend Pier trains, the cars of which
were being offered for sale at £10 each for toastracks and £15
each for saloons.
The Southend cars were not individually numbered in their later years, but the two bought by Brighton appear to be from the batch built in 1898 by the Falcon Works at Loughborough (No. 8 still has this name on its axleboxes), and rebuilt with end bulkheads and 48 seats by Brush about 1911. At Brighton, the folding end benches on the rather cramped platforms are rarely used, so the normal capacity is 40. The Southend vehicles were re-gauged and reconditioned at Brighton and were fitted with two second-hand 120 volt motors from battery-electric delivery vans, one motor serving for each direction of travel; the controllers are those used at Southend.
These cars, now numbered 8 and 9, entered service in 1950 and 1953 and
brought the fleet to nine cars again.
One of the old-world features of Volk's Railway was for years the open stud
controller on the canopy above the driver's
head, controlling the single motor by a rotating brass contact moving over
seven copper segments, with a lamp alongside
to show whether the current is on. (The cars do not run at night, and are
otherwise unlit, though some were decked out
with coloured lights for the 1953 Coronation.) Unfortunately these controllers
did not incorporate any star-wheel or other
device to centre the arm on a segment, and when the arm was left off-centre
an arc could easily be created between the brass contact and the next higher
segment, burning away the contacts and causing so much trouble that the
controllers had to be cleaned every day and renewed every few weeks.
To obviate this expense, the Manager and Engineer (Mr. W. V. Hall) devised
a simple ratchet controller with a
spring-loaded toggle working against a star-wheel, and the first of these
(made in the line's own workshop) was fitted to No. 6. The same set of segments
was retained (but reduced to four) and is now hidden in a box on the platform
with a detachable handle as the only visible part, the resistances being
under the floor. A magnetic circuit breaker is incorporated in the box and
is operated by the handle mechanism so that immediately the driver starts
to move the control handle towards the off position the main circuit is
broken, and thus no arc is produced at the segments. This not only saved
considerable maintenance but was also the first step in the 1963 experiments
of coupling two cars together, both electrically and mechanically.
Cars I and 2 were modified first for coupled working, with couplings that
allowed for considerable lateral swing when negotiating points and curves;
the brakes of the rear car were operated on the over run principle. The
rear car becomes the front car at each terminal, so a simple mechanism is
incorporated to reverse the operation of the brakes. The motors of both
cars operate in each direction, and these are reversed by a cam-operated
reversing switch common to both
vehicles. After 1 and 2 had run for an experimental season, Nos. 3 and 4,
5 and 7 were coupled in 1964 and by 1966 Nos. 8 and 9 had been completed.
Eight cars can now be run in service, with four drivers.
When the Corporation in 1960 decided not to buy new cars, they also decided
to recondition the old ones, and the first to be dealt with (No. 6) was
taken apart carefully and then rebuilt in the same form but with some new
parts. Another recent change has been the fitting of domestic-type fuses
instead of circuit-breakers, and the day cannot be far off when the present
30-inch chilled iron wheels (the last in stock) finally wear out and have
to be replaced by something more easily obtainable. But at least the cars
will be the same ones that we have always known, and not the futuristic
creations in aluminium or fibreglass that might have appeared had the 1960
suggestion been adopted.
VOLK'S ELECTRIC RAILWAY — FLEET LIST, 1884 TO DATE
| No. | Built | Type | Capacity as Built | Present Capacity | Remarks
|
| 1 | 1884 |
Saloon | 30 | - | Scrapped 1948 |
| 2 | 1884 | Saloon | 30 | - | Scrapped 1948 |
| 3 | 1892 | Semi-open | ? | 40 | Still in use |
| 4 | 1892 | Semi-open | ? | 40 | Still in use |
| 1 (II) | 1897 | Saloon | 32? | - | Scrapped 1928 |
| 6 | 1901 | Semi-open | 32 | 40 | Still in use |
| 7 | 1901 | Semi-open | 32 | 40 | Still in use |
| 8 | 1901 | Semi-open | 32 | 40 | Now No.5 (III) |
| 9 | 1910? | Cross-bench with bulkheads | 40 | 40 | Now No.2 (II) |
| 10 | 1926 | Cross-bench | 40 | 40 | Now No.1 (III) |
| 5 (II) | 1930 | Winter Saloon | 24 | - | Scrapped 1948 |
| 8 (II) | 1898? | Cross-bench with bulkheads | 40 | 40/48 | ex Southend Pier |
| 9 (II) | 1898? | Cross-bench with bulkheads | 40 | 40/48 | ex Southend Pier |
For the present cars 1, 2 and 5, see under 10, 9 and 8 respectively. From 1897 to 1928. No.1 of 1884 was
renumbered 5.
By Alan. A. Jackson
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