Bulleid's first Laminate - in 1946

[Mol_PMB]

I stumbled across this webpage today, which gives details of Bulleid's prototype plywood coach, built in 1946 when he was still at the Southern Railway:

https://sremg.org.uk/coach/bulleid.shtml

"The design has been likened to an inverted ship's hull with the keep plate or ridge rail running along the centre of the roof like the keel of an upsode-down ship. Pre-formed sections 9ft 5ins wide made of 9/16ths in nine-ply birch were bolted to the ridge rail and underframe and resin-bonded to the saloon framework which was of similar ply construction. "

This form of construction sounds like the prototype of the 'laminate' construction that he later introduced for CIE. They had the further refinement of an aluminium outer skin on the ply, of course.

Someone has built a model of it, here:

Bulleid’s on Display at Taunton, and also something for the sleepy film buffs… - General - Muz's modelling mastications - RMweb

Just thought this might be of interest as I hadn't heard of it before. Like triangulated underframes and the bogie steam locos, it's another example of Bulleid's innovations that were initiated on the Southern but found their final development in Ireland.

[Niles]

Interesting, I wasn't aware of this either.