Class 68 Photos and videos

[ruggedpeak]

Storm Dennis on 15/02/20, Nova 3 sets from Leeds to Liverpool Lime Street and back with 68021 and 68022.

 

For those interested in weathering, notice exhaust on roof edge and top of the body side. Also lit destination board at the rear of the train.

 

 

Edited February 23, 2020 by ruggedpeak
typo

[balders]

Literally a quick shot from the hip....still attached to headphones and phone in left jeans pocket. Leamington Spa......68009 Titan opens up the taps on 1H55 10.55 Moor Street Marylebone as 68012 rolls in on 1R21 10.10 Marylebone Moor Street. I was quite pleased with the result given I nearly dropped bag as well! 

[Owd Bob]

11-3-20. I had a cheap day out £4 return to York yesterday thanks to the recent TPE ticket sale. Nice to hear the 68's and see them so close up at last. I had a full afternoon on the station and managed to see 68's 020, 023, 028.

[Crisis Rail]

Nice - as modern goes - I see you are emerging from hibernation Robert  - You back over again for the Knavesmire? Passport and wallet ready for some more SP additions?

 

Ian

[Owd Bob]

7 minutes ago, Crisis Rail said:

Nice - as modern goes - I see you are emerging from hibernation Robert  - You back over again for the Knavesmire? Passport and wallet ready for some more SP additions?

 

Ian

I've just one more cheap TPE return ticket left in early April up to Carlisle from Wigan NW. ...and with a Yorkshire Wife i can't afford to be seen paying proper or full fares, so i'll wait for another sale I'll be hibernating in Hospital again next week, but i would'nt bet on the appointment being canceled yet again! Good job the railway interests stop me from going ga-ga.

[Crisis Rail]

First image no through middle roads. Still can’t get over that so different from the 70’s. Still can hear the sound of Napier under that roof. Lines removed due to change of usage circumstances I suppose. 

[RusselBridge2017]

88 and 68 on the Bridgewater to Crewe yeaterday ( photo take as part of my daily government advised 20 minute excercise routine)

 

Wonder if the 88 uses overhead power from Birmingham area?

 

[TomScrut]

On 23/02/2020 at 15:37, ruggedpeak said:

lit destination board at the rear of the train

 

I wonder if 033 and 034 have these, they supposedly have the equipment to talk to the carriages.

 

Are the TPE ones pretty much all in service now? There seems to be a lot more 68s on the Scarborough run than 185s now.

[RusselBridge2017]

Part of my daily government approved exercise at 8 am saw this Bridgewater flask second on two days, not sure what they are upto at Hinkley Point.

 

[Steadfast]

Nice catch with the 88 leading, typically an 88 was tucked inside when I was out a few weeks back.

Bridgwater hadn't run for a while due to maintenance on a crane apparently

 

Jo

[newbryford]

Not a bad view from my WFH desk.

 

 

Edited April 22, 2020 by newbryford

[TomScrut]

I got this on Railcam today. I presume Railcam grabs are allowed?

 

An 88 at York with 4 flasks

 

And now I am just editing to say I have just remembered this it a 68 thread... sorry. Also deleted the screenshots as I have just seen the copyright on there.

 

 

 

Edited April 22, 2020 by TomScrut

[DRS Crewe On A Mission]

17 minutes ago, TomScrut said:

I got this on Railcam today. I presume Railcam grabs are allowed?

 

An 88 at York with 4 flasks

 

And now I am just editing to say I have just remembered this it a 68 thread... sorry. Also deleted the screenshots as I have just seen the copyright on there.

 

 

 

 

That will be 88003 you will have seen, with four nuclear flask wagons working Carlisle Kingmoor to Doncaster Roberts Road, probably for tyre turning. 

 

Hope this helps. 

[TomScrut]

1 minute ago, DRS Crewe On A Mission said:

 

That will be 88003 you will have seen, with four nuclear flask wagons working Carlisle Kingmoor to Doncaster Roberts Road, probably for tyre turning. 

 

Hope this helps. 

 

That's the one. Just thought it was an oddity and one that helps legitimise the use of flasks on ECML layouts! No reason that couldn't have been a 68 other than DRS appear to be practical with their use of electrics,?

[DRS Crewe On A Mission]

15 minutes ago, TomScrut said:

 

That's the one. Just thought it was an oddity and one that helps legitimise the use of flasks on ECML layouts! No reason that couldn't have been a 68 other than DRS appear to be practical with their use of electrics,?

 

From what I gather it is a way of exercising the use of their 88s, because what you will find is two or three of them will always be on Kingmoor depot, either available for use or that are ready for use again after an exam, repairs or maintenance. So for most of the trips that depart from Kingmoor or where train loco/s swop at Kingmoor it's easy for any traction, especially 88s with several of them available to just slip onto such workings. Besides with so many 68s now handed over to TPE, their is much less availability on the 68 front, so making use of the 88s is another good option. 

[TomScrut]

15 minutes ago, DRS Crewe On A Mission said:

 

From what I gather it is a way of exercising the use of their 88s, because what you will find is two or three of them will always be on Kingmoor depot, either available for use or that are ready for use again after an exam, repairs or maintenance. So for most of the trips that depart from Kingmoor or where train loco/s swop at Kingmoor it's easy for any traction, especially 88s with several of them available to just slip onto such workings. Besides with so many 68s now handed over to TPE, their is much less availability on the 68 front, so making use of the 88s is another good option. 

 

But on a run like that today it made perfect sense too given over half the journey was under the lines and whilst I'd be interested to know how well it would perform on diesel with 4 flasks 940hp or whatever should be adequate.

[DRS Crewe On A Mission]

6 minutes ago, TomScrut said:

 

But on a run like that today it made perfect sense too given over half the journey was under the lines and whilst I'd be interested to know how well it would perform on diesel with 4 flasks 940hp or whatever should be adequate.

 

Yes like you say under the wires it makes perfect sense to utilise an 88 as per today's move and as for operating on diesel with only four flasks the 88 should handle it really well, despite not been double headed as what is usually seen with the nuclear flask moves. 

[TomScrut]

11 minutes ago, DRS Crewe On A Mission said:

 

Yes like you say under the wires it makes perfect sense to utilise an 88 as per today's move and as for operating on diesel with only four flasks the 88 should handle it really well, despite not been double headed as what is usually seen with the nuclear flask moves. 

 

It's only when they are full they need 2 locos isn't it?

[DRS Crewe On A Mission]

3 hours ago, TomScrut said:

 

It's only when they are full they need 2 locos isn't it?

 

No, usually they always have two locos for assurance and failure scenarios whether loaded or not. This was one of the reasons why this working caught my eye today, because even on the previous few moves to Roberts Road wheel lathe, their have been two locos on the working. The only thing I can think of as a reason for this is because the wagons aren't actually 'in service' on a working and are just off for maintenance to the wheel lathe, so even if 88003 failed, the train could be just rescued in the usual way e.g. rescue loco, thunderbird loco etc. 

[TomScrut]

8 hours ago, DRS Crewe On A Mission said:

 

No, usually they always have two locos for assurance and failure scenarios whether loaded or not. This was one of the reasons why this working caught my eye today, because even on the previous few moves to Roberts Road wheel lathe, their have been two locos on the working. The only thing I can think of as a reason for this is because the wagons aren't actually 'in service' on a working and are just off for maintenance to the wheel lathe, so even if 88003 failed, the train could be just rescued in the usual way e.g. rescue loco, thunderbird loco etc. 

 

I know the extra loco is for redundancy but are you sure that they are on when empty for redundancy and not just convenience? When they are on their usual workings, if 2 locos are needed when full then I would expect almost all of the time then both locos would need to be back where they came from? Therefore is it that they HAVE to have 2 on when running empty (I'd say not given yesterday's situation) or that normally it makes sense to have two on when empty given they have been/are going somewhere with full ones?

 

I have always thought it is to do with being able to get a train carrying nuclear material moving again quickly from a security perspective, and you'd expect anybody clued up to know what to do with nuclear material when they get it would also know when its going to be full or empty!

 

There are plenty of pics on Flickr of DRS locos running about with flasks single loco, although definitely in the minority as you'd expect.

[DRS Crewe On A Mission]

14 hours ago, TomScrut said:

 

I know the extra loco is for redundancy but are you sure that they are on when empty for redundancy and not just convenience? When they are on their usual workings, if 2 locos are needed when full then I would expect almost all of the time then both locos would need to be back where they came from? Therefore is it that they HAVE to have 2 on when running empty (I'd say not given yesterday's situation) or that normally it makes sense to have two on when empty given they have been/are going somewhere with full ones?

 

I have always thought it is to do with being able to get a train carrying nuclear material moving again quickly from a security perspective, and you'd expect anybody clued up to know what to do with nuclear material when they get it would also know when its going to be full or empty!

 

There are plenty of pics on Flickr of DRS locos running about with flasks single loco, although definitely in the minority as you'd expect.

 

From what I know it's that two locos have to be used on the 'in service' nuclear flask movements whether they are full or empty. Obviously yesterday's move with 88003 is different and an exception to this rule because the movement wasn't an 'in service' movement. It was just that the wagons are been transferred from one depot to another. With this in mind, I am sure that I have read before that it's a contractual arrangement/agreement that at least two locos are provided per nuclear 'in service' working. Thinking about this, this probably excludes maintenance moves because the wagons are not 'in service'. Yes their have been the odd occasions in which only one loco has appeared on an 'in service' working, but this is most likely due to fleet availability. If you notice their hasn't been many of these occasions for the past couple/few years since DRS gained further 68s and then 88s. Their older traction fleet, most of which is now mostly  redundant wasn't always available to have two trains per movement just because the locos e.g. 20/3s, 37s, 47s, 57s all needed more repairs, maintenance, and heavy exams during some periods meaning that certain locos were not available for weeks sometimes. Back in 2016/2017 when 37s were still used on nuclear flask trains they were be stopped at Crewe or Kingmoor for weeks on some occasions before released back into traffic. Obviously the older that locos are, then the more likely that such time out of service is needed on some occasions. Now that the 68s and 88s dominate the nuclear flask trains reliability and availability is not so much of an issue. Repairs, maintenance and exams can be completed relatively quickly and within a few days sometimes a loco can be seen back out in service on some diagrams. Obviously a B Exam which happens with the 68s at Kingmoor requires more time to complete, so it takes more than a few days to do, but still takes less time to complete than the aging locos that the 68s and 88s have replaced. 

[newbryford]

Another TPE 68 on freight work.

(10 mins walk from where I live and from private land - with permission)

 

 

[TomScrut]

10 hours ago, newbryford said:

Another TPE 68 on freight work.

(10 mins walk from where I live and from private land - with permission)

 

 

 

Was this yesterday, or another one today (I saw the one yesterday on Railcam at Ribblehead, at least I think it was yesterday)? Given I have 2 of these on order and presently only 1 set of coaches on order I might need stuff like this to give it something to do! Although I may cancel one yet or order another set of coaches. It's not like either are coming in the next month or two!

 

FWIW there were 3 68s in convoy light engine this morning at Crewe, DRS-TPE-DRS, and also a TPE one flying solo there this afternoon. I don't have pics but thought if anybody subscribed to RC then they can find the stills easy enough. Also aforementioned 88003 went back up to Carlisle with the flasks this afternoon.

Edited April 25, 2020 by TomScrut

[newbryford]

52 minutes ago, TomScrut said:

 

Was this yesterday, or another one today (I saw the one yesterday on Railcam at Ribblehead, at least I think it was yesterday)? Given I have 2 of these on order and presently only 1 set of coaches on order I might need stuff like this to give it something to do! Although I may cancel one yet or order another set of coaches. It's not like either are coming in the next month or two!

 

FWIW there were 3 66s in convoy light engine this morning at Crewe, DRS-TPE-DRS, and also a TPE one flying solo there this afternoon. I don't have pics but thought if anybody subscribed to RC then they can find the stills easy enough. Also aforementioned 88003 went back up to Carlisle with the flasks this afternoon.

 

There's a clue in the date on the video.

 

Also - not sure that there is a 66 in TPE............

[TomScrut]

9 hours ago, newbryford said:

 

There's a clue in the date on the video.

 

Also - not sure that there is a 66 in TPE............

 

Ah, thanks I watched it in the RMWeb window so didn't get the full title.

 

And yes excellent point I had best get that amended!