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"1905 REA Standardization of Permanent Way Rail Joints Drawings"

The "1905 REA Standardization of Permanent Way Rail Joints Drawings" are 53 watercoloured drawings from the 1905 Railway Engineers' Association report, Ross_1905, by A Ross, on "Standardization of Permanent Way Rail Joints". This was the first report prepared for the REA committee that had been set up on 27 January 1905 to consider standardization of permanent way rail joints. The report was prepared by the chairman of the committee, Alexander Ross, and was sent to the other members of the committee on 2 June 1905.

The drawings show the joints, fishplates and chairs in use by many British railway companies in 1905. They also show some joints being used experimentally and joints suggested by inventors. There is a lot of useful information on drawing 2, which is a summary of the design details of the joints used by the companies who contributed to the report.
In 1904, the Engineering Standards Committee (ESC) of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) had designed the first standard British sections for bull-head railway rails. The ESC became the British Engineering Standards Association (in 1918) and then the British Standards Institution (in 1931). Drawing 52 of the REA report shows the designs for fishplates and fishbolts for 85lbs "BS" to 100lbs "BS" rails that the ESC had suggested in May 1904 to suit the new British Standard ("BS") rails.

The drawings accompany a written report, Ross_1905 (Details of report), which details the initial findings of the committee, including comments on rail joints from the companies consulted, a summary of the findings, defects of current joints, suggested improvements and conclusions.

Most of the drawings on oldpway are mid-resolution scans made from the colour photographs of the BR ER CCE PWDO copy of the drawings, taken in 1974, as detailed in Ross_1905 details. Drawings 1 to 21 were taken in electric lighting and have a blue colour bias; the other drawings were taken in sunlight and show true colours. The remainder of the drawings on oldpway (which have file names ending "_nrm") are high-resolution scans made by the NRM from their copy of the drawings (NRM library book E3/86X). The NRM scan colours are true.

These drawings are free to copy and use within the terms and conditions of Open Government Licence version 3.0. Please credit oldpway as the source.
For the purposes of copyright, the drawings are "artistic works", previously unpublished, of the form "graphic work", with "unknown authorship". The "author" is the draughtsman who drew the original drawings. For most drawings the author is unknown and unknowable, but some drawings bear the initials of a draughtsman (e.g. the North Eastern Railway drawings were drawn by "W.J.N.") which might enable the author to be identified, though no names are currently known.
All the drawings were drawn by draughtsmen working in railway drawing offices, in the course of the duties for which they were employed. The work was done at the request of Chief Engineers, some of whom were members of the REA. The drawings were then sent to Alexander Ross at the GNR drawing offices and were compiled into books of drawings that were sent out as REA documents.
In this situation the original copyright belonged not to the REA but to the railway company at which the drawing was made, who was the employer. The copyright ownership passed through successive railway companies to British Railways Board (Residuary) Ltd., and is now assigned to the Crown.
The drawings will remain in copyright until 31 Dec 2039 (or until 70 years after the death of the draughtsman if known), but they are now public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence version 3.0 (OGL v3.0). They are used on the oldpway website within the terms and conditions of OGL v3.0 and can be used by anyone else within the terms and conditions of OGL v3.0. OGL v3.0 is on-line on the National Archives website at http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/, with a copy of OGL v3.0 on oldpway at copyright/OGL_v3_0.pdf. The report is also subject to OGL v3.0, as explained in Details of Ross_1905.

The files are pdf format. They have not had the scaling factors adjusted, so when viewed at 100% size, they are not the size of the published drawings. The original size of most drawings is 20" wide by 14" high. Most drawings include rulers at the sides to show the original sizes. The scans are currently without borders and labels and without adjusting rotation. They are each about 1MB in size. Borders, labels, rotation adjustment and scaling adjustment will be done when time permits. The drawings include very small details that are best viewed at 200% size. Drawings 40 and 43 include some details that are hard to read and are clarified within the list below.

Prints scaled to fit A4 are mostly usable, but A3 is better, and larger prints or zoomed in screen viewing are needed to read small details and dimensions.

The following table is a duplicate of the list on the oldpway drawings page. It details all the drawings, gives links to view them on-line, and includes the rail weights in lbs per yard. All the rails are bull head except on the Midland Great Western Railway of Ireland drawing 50 which is flat bottomed (FB).
The un-numbered and unlisted drawing, showing Burt, Boulton and Haywood's patent joint, is only in the NRM copy. It was probably not included in the set of drawings circulated to the committee. It is listed here between drawings 17 and 18.

Dwg	File	Link	Rail	Description
1	1905jt_d01_drawings_list	View		List of drawings.
2	1905jt_d02_dimensions	View		Summary table of Dimensions from all drawings. [From BRER CCE PWDO]
2	1905jt_d02_dimensions_nrm	View		Summary table of Dimensions from all drawings. [From NRM]
3	1905jt_d03_GCR	View	96lbs	Great Central Railway. Details of Permanent Way.
4	1905jt_d04_GER	View	95lbs	Great Eastern Railway. Details of Joint and Fastenings for 95lbs Bullheaded Steel rails.
5	1905jt_d05_GNR_80lbs_1875	View	80lbs	Great Northern Railway. Deep fishplate for 80lb rail 1875.
6	1905jt_d06_GNR_82lbs_1887	View	82lbs	Great Northern Railway. Joint in 82lbs GN rail 1887.
7	1905jt_d07_GNR_85lbs_1892	View	85lbs	Great Northern Railway. Joint in 85lbs rail 1892.
8	1905jt_d08_GNR_96lbs_1903	View	96lbs	Great Northern Railway. Joint in 96lbs rail 1903.
9	1905jt_d09_GNR_BS_1906	View	95 & 100lbs	Great Northern Railway. Joint proposed in 95 or 100lbs BS rail 1906.
10	1905jt_d10_GNR_from_1860	View	72 to 100lbs	Great Northern Railway. Types of fishplates in general use since 1860.
11	1905jt_d11_inventors	View		Index of joints put forward by inventors.
12	1905jt_d12_Hart	View	95lbs	Hart’s Patent Joint for 95lbs rail.
13	1905jt_d13_Stossfangchienne	View	85lbs	Patent Fishrail "Stossfangchienne" for 85lbs GN rail 1898.
14	1905jt_d14_Wright	View	85lbs	Wright’s patent joint for 85lbs GN rail.
15	1905jt_d15_GNR_BS_angle	View	95lbs	GNR Suggested angle fishplate for 95lbs BS rail.
16	1905jt_d16_Bonzano_95lbs	View	95lbs	Bonzano’s Patent joint for 95lbs BS rail.
17	1905jt_d17_Bonzano_100lbs	View	100lbs	Bonzano joint adapted to a 100lbs Bullheaded BS section rail.
--	1905jt_dxx_burt_boulton_haywood_nrm	View	85lbs	Burt, Boulton & Haywood's Patent Rail Joint 1905.
18	1905jt_d18_GWR	View	97½lbs	Great Western Railway. Details of Permanent way for main lines. Bull head steel rail section 00. 97½lbs/yd. [From BRER CCE PWDO]
18	1905jt_d18_GWR_nrm	View	97½lbs	Great Western Railway. Details of Permanent way for main lines. Bull head steel rail section 00. 97½lbs/yd. [From NRM]
19	1905jt_d19_HBR_nrm	View	88lbs	Hull & Barnsley Railway. Permanent way rail joint.
20	1905jt_d20_LYR_old_86lbs	View	86lbs	Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway. Details of permanent way rail joints now in use for 86lbs rail.
21	1905jt_d21_LYR_new_86lbs	View	86lbs	Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway. Details of permanent way rail joints intended to be used for 86lbs rail.
22	1905jt_d22_LYR_95lbs	View	95lbs	Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway. Details of permanent way rail joints for 95lbs rail.
23	1905jt_d23_Holme	View		Holme, Hart and Watson’s Patent rail joint.
24	1905jt_d24_LNWR_1905	View	95lbs	London & North Western Railway. Details of Permanent way 1905. BS section of rail. 95lbs/yard.
25	1905jt_d25_LNWR_from_1853	View		London & North Western Railway. Types of fishplates in general use since 1853.
26	1905jt_d26_LSWR_90lbs	View	90lbs	London & South Western Railway. Joint for 90lbs BH Rails.
27	1905jt_d27_LSWR_90lbs_bridge	View	90lbs	London & South Western Railway. Bridge Fishplates for 90lbs rails.
28	1905jt_d28_LBSCR	View	95lbs	London, Brighton & South Coast Railway. Details of permanent way.
29	1905jt_d29_LTSR	View	80lbs	London, Tilbury & Southend Railway. Permanent way standard rail joint.
30	1905jt_d30_MR_100lbs	View	100lbs	Midland Railway. Permanent Way, 100lbs pattern.
31	1905jt_d31_MR_100lbs_BS	View	100lbs	Midland Railway. Joint as proposed BS Section 100.
32	1905jt_d32_NER_std_nrm	View	90lbs	North Eastern Railway. Standard Rail Joint and Fastenings.
33	1905jt_d33_NER_exp_supported_nrm	View	90lbs	North Eastern Railway. Experimental Supported Rail Joint.
34	1905jt_d34_NER_exp_chair_nrm	View		North Eastern Railway. Experimental rail Joints with Special Chair.
35	1905jt_d35_NSR	View	90lbs	North Staffordshire Railway. Permanent way rail joint.
36	1905jt_d36_SECR_SE	View	91¼lbs	South Eastern & Chatham Railway. Details of Permanent way for main lines. South Eastern Section.
37	1905jt_d37_SECR_C	View	85½lbs	South Eastern & Chatham Railway. Details of Permanent way for main lines. Chatham Section.
38	1905jt_d38_CalR	View	90lbs	Caledonian Railway. Permanent Way. Standard Joint for 90lb rail.
39	1905jt_d39_GSWR	View	90lbs	Glasgow and South Western Railway. Details of rail joint.
40	1905jt_d40_GNSR	View	90lbs	Great North of Scotland Railway. Permanent way rail joint. Clarification: the notes on the fishplate are:   1/8" washer <-------- 4½" --------> 1" diam. hole in plate 1" sq. hole in other plate
41	1905jt_d41_HR_standard	View	90lbs	The Highland Railway Company. Standard Rail joint.
42	1905jt_d42_HR_supported	View	90lbs	The Highland Railway Company. Supported Rail joint.
43	1905jt_d43_NBR	View	92lbs	North British Railway. Drawing of Permanent way. Clarifications: On the "end of rail" elevation, the note says "Holes at end of rails to be drilled oval". The chair bottom is recessed. Note by spike says "Corner to be rounded". Spike diameters from top to bottom are 11/2", 11/16", 15/16", 15/16", 3/4". A pencilled note says that the sleeper centres scale 2’ – 6".
44	1905jt_d44_NBR_specials	View		North British Railway. Drawing of special joint chairs.
45	1905jt_d45_NBR_special	View		North British Railway. Drawing of special joint-chair.
46	1905jt_d46_GNRI_Mills_B	View	90lbs	Great Northern Railway (Ireland). 90lbs steel bullhead permanent way. Mills’s system B of strengthening rail joints with longditudinal timber.
47	1905jt_d47_GNRI_Mills_A	View	90lbs	Great Northern Railway (Ireland). 90lbs steel bullhead permanent way. Mills’s system A of strengthening rail joints with longditudinal timbers.
48	1905jt_d48_GNRI	View	90lbs	Great Northern Railway (Ireland). 90lbs steel bullhead permanent way.
49	1905jt_d49_GSWRI	View	87lbs	Great Southern & Western Railway (Ireland). 87lb BH permanent way.
50	1905jt_d50_MGWRI	View	95lbs FB	Midland Great Western Railway of Ireland. Joint in 95lbs Flange rail.
51	1905jt_d51_MRNCC	View	83lbs	Midland Railway Northern Counties Committee. Standard Bullheaded rail joint.
52	1905jt_d52_BS_joint	View	85, 90, 95 & 100lbs	Engineering Standards Committee. Fishplates and Fishbolts for 85lbs "BS" to 100lbs "BS" rails. Suggested May 1904. [From BRER CCE PWDO]
52	1905jt_d52_BS_joint_nrm	View	85, 90, 95 & 100lbs	Engineering Standards Committee. Fishplates and Fishbolts for 85lbs "BS" to 100lbs "BS" rails. Suggested May 1904. [From NRM]