Edwin_m
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Posts posted by Edwin_m
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3 hours ago, keefer said:
I think the biggest issue with combining Pacers and Sprinters was remembering there was a Pacer on the back when driving from the Sprinter cab.
Sprinters were 90/100mph but the Pacers were only 75mph!
150s, 153s, 155s and 156s are 75mph too.
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The 159s also had a modification to disable the saloon to vestibule door behind the cab (with an illuminated sign) when that cab was active, in case the driver needed to exit the train with no separate cab door. They certainly had this in 1996 but I'm not sure if it was a mod from new.
Getting back to the original topic, Sprinters in multiple was very rare indeed in the BR days. One exception was my morning commute in 1987-88, two 150/1 units which came from Lincoln and Skegness, joined at Nottingham and split at Derby for Crewe and Birmingham. Coupling was literally hit and miss, especially if they tried to do it on the curved bit of the platform. It was abandoned in the 1988 timetable.
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40 minutes ago, stewartingram said:
I must admit, I'm in the thought of the entry to a loop being straight, in both directions, with the exits being curved (to the right) via the points, as a train starting will be normally slower.
A modern multiple unit, driven according to modern "defensive driving" policies, may well have a rate of acceleration greater than the rate of service braking used in normal operation, so would be moving faster at the loop exit assuming the station is at the loop midpoint and speed restrictions allowed it.
However, another reason for "straight entry" at loops is that a train approaching too fast has more distance to get under control before it hits the slow turnout at the far end of the loop.
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1 hour ago, PortLineParker said:
Hi all,
Thanks for all the responses; some very useful information up above.
Yes, it is Stalbridge - my mistake. Looking on an OS map and photographs, the points don't seem to be particularly 'shallow' to allow higher speeds than normal. I'd expect a speed of around 10 or 15mph would have to be observed to avoid derailing.
Cheers,
PLP
As the right hand track has no signal alongside the one for the left hand track, it can only be used in the direction shown here.
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17 hours ago, 30801 said:
It has a 'circuit safe running safely tube' so you're all good.
I think it's actually a "Circuit not working stoply fuse, when blow no can replace"
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34 minutes ago, Kris said:
I've just spent a week at Harlech (the station is just as your plan) and spent a while watching the patterns of the trains using the station. Down trains and up trains always used the same platform even if there was no other train due. I suspect that this makes it easier for passengers to know where they need to be.
Harlech is part of the Cambrian ETCS area with no signals and much more flexibility to send trains in either direction on any track without the cost of extra signalling (but still the risk of a train being unexpectedly at the opposite platform if service disruption creates a need for an unscheduled crossing move).
With older signalling technologies, bi-directional running through a loop creates extra complication and probably needs extra signals, so the extra cost would only be agreed if there was a good reason. In the cases described above there is a benefit in being able to switch the box out without non-stopping trains having to slow down, or in only needing one platform for a lightly-used station.
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You could just use a car battery, as these can supply huge currents. According to Wikipedia the cigarette lighter socket is likely to be rated at 10 amps.
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I can't see how the proposal could possibly work. The "antenna" is shorted by every axle of every train and most of it is also track circuited, with variously insulated joints and receivers that rely on detecting similar (few hundred Hz) frequencies at much lower currents than would be needed to communicate with a submarine an ocean or two away.
Some years ago I was involved in an experiment to measure the electrical impact of Croydon Tramlink on Network Rail where the two run adjacent between Birkbeck and Beckenham. Having closed the railway and shut off both 750V supplies, we hooked up a very large signal generator to circulate hundreds of amps at various audio frequencies out through the overhead wire and back through the rails. This loop induced only a handful of amps in the railway track some six feet away, though it did make some quite nice singing noises in the overhead.
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If the power supply is properly designed then it will cut out rather than suffering any damage,, but you won't be able to run the heater.
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Gizmo will eat the occasional pea that drops onto the floor, and now and again he has a nibble at the lawn without obvious ill-effect.
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18 minutes ago, The Border Reiver said:
I have obtained my late friend's photos who never recorded numbers, dates or locations. The previous slides in sequence were taken in south west England. Now it looks like he headed to the midlands. Thanks to everyone I have narrowed the date to 1981 and as he took his railrover holidays in June the date is June 1981. Now we have two photos seemingly taken at the same location. We have class 20 20087 and another hauling coal and class 56 56047 light engine. Can anyone identify the location?
Pretty sure these are Burton-on-Trent. The canopy has gone but those bridges are pretty distinctive.
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55 minutes ago, melmerby said:
In the original photo there are what looks like bunkers, I assume the buildings are for the green keepers equipment, now replaced with something more modern.
The Golf course has been there a very long time and the course hasn't changed much since the 1920s (their info) apart from keeping the sea at bay.
Not sure if you're questioning the similarity of the picture I linked in the quote, but I should have made clear it's taken from further north (presumably from a train) where the platform loop has ended and the tracks are converging with the shoreline.
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48 minutes ago, melmerby said:
If Dawlish Warren it must be no later than early 80s as the 46s went early in the 80s
This is the closest I can find on Geograph - similar view but not totally conclusive.
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30 minutes ago, melmerby said:
Could be taken from a train in the platform loop looking north, with the up main starter and possibly what is now Warren Golf Club on right?
That seems most likely to me. The Nissen huts don't appear on aerial mapping, but could well have disappeared in the intervening decades.
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2 hours ago, Wickham Green too said:
Well, the lettering 'Guard' appeared on a new door on a new type of coach called a TGS.
Can't see any such lettering on the power car door, but at the resolution the photo is posted it probably wouldn't show up anyway.
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3 minutes ago, melmerby said:
seems likely:
Conclusive in my opinion - field boundaries in the background match exactly.
18 minutes ago, The Johnster said:WR somewhere from the signals, and quite early in the HST careers, before the guards’ accommodation was moved into the mk.3 adjoining the power car; late 70s/early 80s. WR practice was to have the first-class accommodation at the Paddington end of the set, so this is probably an up train.
The TGS was a Standard Class vehicle, so if the train included one it wouldn't be visible on this picture. I don't think anything visibly changed on the power car itself when the guard was moved out.
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3 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:
Ah, the sounds of silence.
Sadly not in that case. One of Gizmo's several mews is a bit like the low-high note of the horn on an HST (described by one BR manager as like an asthmatic sheep).
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40 minutes ago, Captain Kernow said:
'Go on, try putting some scrap paper in here now!'...
The current occupant looks ready for a scrap.
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3 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:
Why just the Underground? Hitting a cow or horse would be a greater risk than a mere alsatian. When the ECML was closed, one of my trains diverted via the Hertford loop had to stop short of a tunnel because of a horse had been reported on the line, and the driver wasn't allowed to enter the tunnel until it had been inspected in case the beast was lurking inside.
Or perhaps something other than a conventional train horn might be more effective in keeping them away?
https://ruralis.no/en/2021/06/09/skrem-elgen-for-toget-kommer/
Not sure TfL would get away with this solution to stray dogs ...
https://knews.kathimerini.com.cy/en/news/elk-on-the-loose-causes-metro-meltdown-in-stockholm
Since the Polmont derailment in the 1980s, when a propelled push-pull train hit a cow, various measures have been introduced to protect against trains being derailed by objects on the line. Modern rolling stock on the main line has obstacle deflectors under the nose and metal "lifeguards" immediately in front of the wheels that aim to push any object along ahead of the train.
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Crackersnack
Mews at Ten (for the Cats thread)
Z Cows
Mash of the day
Skive Sunday
Waiting for Cod
Flakes 7
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22 minutes ago, Bernard Lamb said:
What is wrong with putting the roads under the railway rather than over it?
Bernard
Where road and rail are approximately at the same level, putting the road under is usually much more disruptive and expensive. With a road over rail bridge the railway can be mostly left alone, but digging down will disrupt it as well as the road.
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5 hours ago, Davexoc said:
Good old bog standard ETH was DC from generators, or third rail on the SR.
AC came about when the HST arrived, powered off an alternator, but LH Mk 3s were still DC.
The standard spec allowed a wide range of voltages and frequencies from DC upwards on a single phase. Some coaches were incompatible with Deltics and the original generator 47s (so needed AC?) but these were based on the Western well away from those locomotives.
HSTs had a totally different an incompatible system sending three-phase AC down the train, which avoided the need for rotary converters on the trailers.
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2 hours ago, Welly said:
As we probably expected, the cats need to be bribed extensively.
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Yes I now tend to agree. The horizontal bar on the fence in front of the train confuses things.
Regional Railways DMU workings & formations
in UK Prototype Questions
Posted
They would have appeared there first as that was an "Express" route considered deserving of the (relatively) better quality units. When 158s arrived they pushed 155s and 156s onto other secondary Regional routes.