How far...?

[AberdeenBill]

Hi all,

 

How far could classic diesel classes (33, 40, 47...) travel before they needed to be refuelled?   It obviously depends on the load and route but there must be some general figures...    And does anybody have any good 'running out of fuel' stories? 

 

Thanks and stay safe and well,

Bill

 

[Fat Controller]

56 minutes ago, AberdeenBill said:

Hi all,

 

How far could classic diesel classes (33, 40, 47...) travel before they needed to be refuelled?   It obviously depends on the load and route but there must be some general figures...    And does anybody have any good 'running out of fuel' stories? 

 

Thanks and stay safe and well,

Bill

 

The figure for fuel consumption for a Class 37 that I was quoted many years ago was one mile per gallon. Here are a few capacities:-

Class 33 800 gallons

Class 37 890 gallons

Class 47 850 gallons.

The only 'running on empty' story I've heard is of a High-Speed train, on a Cross-Country service between Scotland and Cornwall. The diagrammed set had been swapped for another, with slightly less fuel in the tanks. The train got within a couple of miles of its ultimate destination, Penzance, before expiring from lack of fuel.

[great central]

Best one was a few years ago, charter train to Lincoln, I think, booked for steam haulage. The steam loco was failed and the diesel (class 33?) which had brought it so far was left to carry on. 

Unfortunately this hadn't been allowed for with the fuel in the tanks and it expired in the middle of Lincolnshire.

Fortunately a farmer nearby had a tank of fuel handy and sold it to the operator there and then.

[The Stationmaster]

2 hours ago, Fat Controller said:

The figure for fuel consumption for a Class 37 that I was quoted many years ago was one mile per gallon. Here are a few capacities:-

Class 33 800 gallons

Class 37 890 gallons

Class 47 850 gallons.

The only 'running on empty' story I've heard is of a High-Speed train, on a Cross-Country service between Scotland and Cornwall. The diagrammed set had been swapped for another, with slightly less fuel in the tanks. The train got within a couple of miles of its ultimate destination, Penzance, before expiring from lack of fuel.

And knock off several % of the tank capacity for unusable much and gunge.  Then knock off a bit more for realistic planning purposes so only allow c.90% fir diagramming purposes (I might even have some actual numbers somewhere but the planning mileage for a 47 was definitely less than 850 miles between fuellings.

[The Johnster]

I was the guard on a class 7 train of empty bogie bolsters that I'd relieved at Hereford back to Cardiff (Tidal), which was unusual because it was a 31 (we didn't have them at Canton at that time) and the loco crew were Hereford men. This would have been about 1973 or maybe 4.  It was a fine summer morning and already light as we left Hereford, and the loco died about ½ a mile south o fNant y Derry box, on the climb to Penperlleni.  Seeing the Hereford secondman walking down the train I walked up to meet him, and he explained that the loco, which had worked down from Warrington IIRC, had run out of diesel.  He was quite embarrassed about this, a loco dept failure in the presence of a foreign guard, but it wasn't his fault.  We agreed that I'd go back to Nant y Derry box to protect in rear and he'd  walk towards the next box in advance, Little Mill.  The air was fresh and clean, the birds were singing, and all was lovely...  

 

By the time I got back to Nant y Derry it was past 6 am and the box was open; just as well as I reckoned it was a good hour from there to Abergavenny home where there was a phone.  It was agreed that assistance would be provided in rear by a 37 from Hereford, which arrived about half an hour later.  I picked up my dets as we closed on my van so as not to wake the neighbourhood up,  coupled the 37 on, and exchanged hand signals with the driver, and away we went, stopping at Little Mill to pick up the secondman.  The train was laid over in the refuge siding at Pontypool Road and I went home on the cushions, as it happened rejoining my original Canton driver.  The dead 31 and the train were still there the following night, but had gone the night after.

 

Running out of fuel with a diesel engine is apparently quite a problem, and a lot of cleaning and resetting has to be done before it'll start up again.  The Hereford driver reckoned he was responsible as he hadn't checked the gauge before leaving, but I can't remember that ever being normal practice when we relieved trains.

[TravisM]

47 minutes ago, The Johnster said:

Running out of fuel with a diesel engine is apparently quite a problem, and a lot of cleaning and resetting has to be done before it'll start up again.  The Hereford driver reckoned he was responsible as he hadn't checked the gauge before leaving, but I can't remember that ever being normal practice when we relieved trains.

Running out of fuel on diesel engined anything is a real headache because the system has to be bleed and then primed to allow the injector to “suck” the fuel through.  If you just put diesel into the tank and tried to start it, all you get is air going through.  I know this as I had the misfortune of it happening to me a few times whilst driving buses.

[The Johnster]

There were at one time a few 'long range' 47s with extra fuel tanks for workings like the St Austell-Inverness Motorail sleeper, which as well as being the longest distance passenger job in the country and probably the one that had the most cumulative climbing (South Devon, Wellington, Lickey, Shap, Beattock, Drumochtair), was one of the heaviest, loading to well over 600 tons.  Prior to the introduction of 25kv OLE north of Weaver on the WCML, it was worked throughout by a single 47.

[F-UnitMad]

13 hours ago, jools1959 said:

Running out of fuel on diesel engined anything is a real headache because the system has to be bleed and then primed to allow the injector to “suck” the fuel through.  If you just put diesel into the tank and tried to start it, all you get is air going through.  I know this as I had the misfortune of it happening to me a few times whilst driving buses.

In Road Haulage running out of fuel was the worst sin a driver could commit in the normal run of things.

Even on local work we'd go out with full tanks because you never knew what diversions or emergencies might come up, which might mean an unexpected long trip rather than a short one.