The Rail Motor Society
 
CTH BOGIE TRAILERS
for the 42-foot rail motors

    42 ft. Bogie Trailers  (Coded CTH-51 to 55)

The 42-foot Rail Motor with its reduced running time proved very popular with the travelling public and to cater for the increased patronage, specially designed trailers were built for operation with these Rail Motors on the more easily graded lines.

The New South Wales Railways designed and built five of these bogie trailers in the Eveleigh Carriage Works. These vehicles entered service during 1927 with the allotted numbers 51 to 55 and subsequently the code of CTH.

These trailers were designed to be of light-weight construction to minimise the stresses placed upon the CPH Rail Motors with which they were to operate and the layout was very similar to the CPH Rail Motor. The very light underframe was made up of two longitudinal 'I' section steel members suitably braced and the bogies were of fabricated construction with outside axle boxes.

Body Dimensions
overall length	44'  8"	over buffers
overall body length	42'   3"	outside
overall body width	9'   8"	outside
overall height	11'   7"	above rail

The body was divided into 3 sections, accommodating 40 passengers and 1 crew.
The first area or first class section accommodated 14 passengers.
The middle area or guard's compartment accommodated 4 passengers (2nd class).
The third area or second class section accommodated 22 passengers.

In later years the guard's compartment was removed and accommodation was altered to allow 51 passengers plus 1 crew and these trailers were then recoded to CTC. Trailers 51, 54 and 55 had the guard's comparment doors removed and replaced with new windows, while 52 and 53 had the guard's doors removed and sealed.

The guard's compartment separated the first and second class sections and provided space for 4-1/2 tons of goods. Wooden seats that folded away when not in use could accommodate 4 additional second passengers, later this area would accommodate 9.

Power for lighting of the vehicle was drawn directly from the Rail Motor
and bell communication between guard and driver was installed.

'RAIL MOTOR TRAILER' was painted above the windows of these varnished cars.
The vehicle had a tare weight of 11 tons 10 cwt and a speed limit of 50 m.p.h. was imposed.

Wheel & Wheelbase Dimensions
wheel diameter	2'   8-1/2"
wheelbase	5'   6"	bogie
wheelbase	28'   0"	bogie centres

Electro-pneumatic controls allowed the Rail Motors to be operated from other Rail Motors when operating in multiple unit working. The CTH trailer cars were fitted with a single cab in the second class end to allow the trailer to remain coupled to the Rail Motor for return journey, thus minimising run-round time at terminal stations.

A cowcatcher and headlight were fitted to the cab end and as a result of fitting a new cab, the seating capacity in the second class end was reduced to 19 passengers. The necessary air brake hoses and electrical jumper receptacles were mounted at both ends.

Most of the trailers had the first class section removed and the necessary luggage facilities installed to cope with the increased parcels traffic.

In more recent times several trailers were used on the following workings :-
Sutherland - Helensburgh
Blacktown - Richmond    
and these trailers were modified to allow seating for 59 second class passengers.

Various modifications increased the tare weight to almost 12 tons.

    Other Bogie Trailers  (Coded CTH-61 to 63)

The success of the 1927 CTH trailers brought about the need for a further three trailers and these were converted from old Redfern-type side-door (dogbox) steam hauled rolling stock built by Hudson Bros in 1888/89. These new trailers were allotted the numbers 61 to 63 and also given the code of CTH.

The three carriages converted were :-
HFN-122 became CTH-61 in November, 1928.
  FN-466 became CTH-62 in November, 1929.
   FN-136 became CTH-63 in November, 1930.

The first carriage to be converted was HFN-122 built by Hudson Brothers in 1889 and this vehicle had been used in locomotive-hauled working. Its bogies were of the Redfern type. The vehicle had a tare weight of 13 tons 1 cwt and this made it suitable for a Rail Motor hauled carriage.

The body was divided into 3 sections, accommodating 39 passengers and 1 crew.
The first area or first class section accommodated 16 passengers.
The middle area or second class section accommodated 23 passengers.
The third area or guard's compartment. No toilet was fitted.

The passenger compartments were open saloons and entry gained from outward opening doors, one each side of each compartment. The body style was, in many ways, reminiscent of the original Rail Motor No. 1.

The words 'RAIL MOTOR TRAILER' together with its number 61 and 'SMOKING'
were painted along the outside of the vehicle below the windows.

The gas lighting was replaced by electric illumination and
the driver to guard bell communication was installed.

Increased trailer working resulted in two further conversions similar to CTH 61
and these became CTH-62 and 63.

These cars were eventually removed from trailer service as follows :-
CTH-61 - withdrawn May, 1942 and converted to a workmen's van No. L-379.   
CTH-62 - withdrawn October, 1939 and converted to workmen's van No. L-617.
CTH-63 - withdrawn November, 1940 and became a travelling school car SCH.  

    Miscellaneous Bogie Trailer  (Coded CTH-56)

Rail Motor (CPH) No. 9 was involved in an accident in 1934 and was rebuilt as a parcels trailer for the newly built 55-foot Rail Motor No. 38 (Creamy Kate) and re-coded to HT-76. In 1941 HT-76 was converted to a passenger trailer for use with the 42-foot CPH Rail Motors and had accommodation for 20 first class and 23 economy passengers and was re-coded to CTH-56.
Rail Motor No. 36 had it body destroyed by fire and CTH-56's underframe was condemned.
A new Rail Motor emerged by placing the body of CTH-56 on the underframe of CPH-36 (1st) and the resulting vehicle was Rail Motor CPH-36 (2nd).

CPH-9 found a varied career in all its different forms.

Modified 14th February, 2000

Ron Preston has kindly given permission for this extract from his work on 42-foot Rail Motors to be used in the TRMS Web Site.