Class 100 Gloucester 2-car sets

Under the Modernisation Plan, the British Transport Commission placed an order with the Gloucester Railway Carriage & Wagon Co Ltd on the 21st June '56 for twenty sets, which were designed and built in collaboration with the Transport Sales Dept. of T.I. (Group Services) Ltd. A second order was placed on the 30th January '57 for a further twenty sets for the Edinburgh area of the ScR, following trials with 79xxx series Met-Camms in the Edinburgh area. The two batches were built consecutively between 5/57 and 5/58.

The main consideration affecting the design were weight saving to obtain good acceleration, and robust construction to give a long working life. The structure was of the integral type assembled from welded units, considered most suitable as this used methods within the scope of existing railway carriage workshop equipment and techniques. Closed or tubular sections were used to take advantage of their superior elastic stability and torsional resistance. This arrangement gave them a distinctive "pinched in" smooth lower bodyside arrangement, with no visible underframe.

Gloucester C&W invited visitors, including representatives of British and overseas railways to the works in July '57 where the saw vehicles in all stages of construction, as well as the finished product.

A page from a manufacturer's brochure.