The

Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had its headquarters. It am ...

experimented with electrification on its Heysham–Morecambe–Lancaster line in

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

, England. Electric trains started to run over this route in 1908, using the overhead 6.6 kV, 25 Hz AC electric supply installed and generated at the MR's own power station in Heysham. The

electric multiple unit An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple-unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a numbe ...

s consisted of three driving motor coaches and six driving trailer coaches. Since the DM cars had a cab at each end, this allowed trains of one, two, or three cars to be formed.

Driving motors

The three DM cars were built by the MR at their Derby Works and were in length. Two had Siemens electrical equipment fitted, while the third had Westinghouse equipment. *LMS numbers for the motor coaches 28610-28612

Driving trailers

Of the six DT cars, four were built new by the MR at their Derby works, while the other two were converted from existing hauled stock compartment coaches.

Withdrawal

In February 1951, these venerable units were finally withdrawn from service. Steam locomotive-hauled trains operated passenger services over the Lancaster–Heysham Line from then until August 1953, when electric trains took over again, this time the prototype Class AM1 units following the installation of the appropriate new equipment. The line voltage remained at 6,600 but the frequency was altered to 50 Hz and this was transformed and rectified on the trains to supply DC traction motors. This experiment led to the introduction of the 25 kV, 50 Hz system as standard for new electrification on British Railways.

Sources

* Marsden, Colin J. (1985) ''100 Years of Electric Traction'', Oxford Publishing Company, * Ian Allan Ltd (1948) ''ABC Of British Electric Trains'' {{British Rail EMU MR 6600 V AC electric multiple units Scrapped locomotives Train-related introductions in 1908