Met-Camm Lightweight 2-car DMUs
Non-Passenger use
Two DMBS vehicles entered the Departmental fleet in 1968 allocated to the Derby Railway Technical Centre. Cars E79047 and E79053 were paired together as "Lab 21" and renumbered as DB975018 (E79047) and DB975019 (E79053).
The formed a Plasma Torch Research train, using a flame to burn the top of the railhead as a means of improving adhesion. Tests were conducted from Tinsley, operated by R&DD staff on behalf of the Eastern Region, on the coal contaminated Merry-Go-Round network of lines in South Yorkshire.
The set had a large floor to ceiling vacuum container fitted to carry argon, which would be refilled from a road tanker, and also carried hydrogen in a rack of cylinders. There was a substantial amount of electrical equipment added to supply a constant current to the torches, with each torch being cooled by water pumped through a radiator.
In 1975 the set was used for linear motor trials, with a 60kW linear induction motor stator unit mounted under one of the bogies of the set. It was powered by two 150kVA alternators, and ran over 240m of the Mickleover test track which had a reaction rail fitted.[1]
The image shows DB975018 at the Railway Technical Centre in 1979. Malcolm Clements.
The were scrapped at Mayer Newman's Snailwell plant near Newmarket in June 1981.
More details of the Plasma Torch testing and linear motor trials can be found on the Old Dalby website.
References
- ⋏ Modern Railways, November 1975, p434, Ian Allan