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Next batch of Class 70's


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I was told today that No9 is at Basford Hall.....when and where did the bogie exchange take place then.??

 

Or is that B....x, and is it still at Newport.??

 

Bob.

 

Yeah, it's B....x, it's on it's way to Midland Road :lol:

 

I think it was a wheelset change rather than bogie though, it came up to Crewe yesterday and is off to Leeds today

 

hth

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The bogies on 70009 were changed at Newport docks, adjacent to Transit Shed 5, using two road cranes, one 350 tonner and a 250tonner, working in tandem.

 

A big job to do in the active docks, but all went well, and the job was near as damn it finished by 16.30 on Wednesday, finished off on Thursday and released for service.

 

R

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Is this yet more bad news.....!!!!

Bob.

WAITING FOR THE BANG...

 

70001 out of service Basford Hall Low Oil Pressure...new engine please never a good sign low oil pressure usually followed by the pistons/rings melting into the cylinder liner walls and a rather large BANG not long after! As it throws a leg out of bed

 

NOW I THINK WE HAVE PAST THE WHEN BUILT CLASS 60 BEDDING IN PROBLEMS (AND DON’T FORGET THESE CLASS 70’S HAVEN’T PULLED A TRAIN OVER 2000TONS TRAILING LOAD IN THIS COUNTRY YET) EVEN THE ROMANIAN BUILT CLASS 56’S WEREN’T THIS BAD!

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more 'Powerfail' and 'Powerfall' than 'Powerhall'.

 

Have they started fitting copper capped chimneys? :P

 

NOW I THINK WE HAVE PAST THE WHEN BUILT CLASS 60 BEDDING IN PROBLEMS

 

Not sure of that, wasn't it famously two years before some of the 60s were accepted into traffic?

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Is this yet more bad news.....!!!!

Bob.

WAITING FOR THE BANG...

 

70001 out of service Basford Hall Low Oil Pressure...new engine please never a good sign low oil pressure usually followed by the pistons/rings melting into the cylinder liner walls and a rather large BANG not long after! As it throws a leg out of bed

 

NOW I THINK WE HAVE PAST THE WHEN BUILT CLASS 60 BEDDING IN PROBLEMS (AND DON’T FORGET THESE CLASS 70’S HAVEN’T PULLED A TRAIN OVER 2000TONS TRAILING LOAD IN THIS COUNTRY YET) EVEN THE ROMANIAN BUILT CLASS 56’S WEREN’T THIS BAD!

 

Hmm - not exactly my recollection with the class 60s, they took forever on 'trials' before the first was released to traffic and even then they were not permitted to work 7 days a week and those that did manage to be got into traffic fell out of it with monotonous regularity in their early days (and very much influenced Foster Yeoman's decision to buy from the USA as a result).

As for the Roumanian Class 56 build I cant even imagine how you could compare them with anything else! Built to drawings with features directly lifted from Class 47 design features which had long since been proved not to work (and still didn't when incorporated in the 56s) in a factory where UK official visitors were barred from access to check anything to do with quality control and incorporating material which in some cases was of such sub-standard/specification quality that it wasn't fit for purpose but still went into the locos. So it was hardly surprising that bad design features and atrocious construction standards resulted in rubbish that didn't perform properly.

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70011 was stabled with 3 FL 66s at Stoke Gifford Yard yesterday at around 13:45.

 

 

 

70011 was on the Rugeley - Stoke Gifford empties and arrived at Parkway at 15.46. Today it was in the yard at Stoke Gifford before this time so not sure whether it was the same turn arriving early or.......

 

Here are a couple of photos.

post-6970-0-06589300-1296579463_thumb.jpg

post-6970-0-06374200-1296579477_thumb.jpg

 

66550 also in the yard

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Hmm - not exactly my recollection with the class 60s, they took forever on 'trials' before the first was released to traffic and even then they were not permitted to work 7 days a week and those that did manage to be got into traffic fell out of it with monotonous regularity in their early days (and very much influenced Foster Yeoman's decision to buy from the USA as a result).

 

 

?? The FY 59's were introduced before the 60's (4 years before). The specification for the 60 was based upon the 59.

 

 

Cheers,

Mick

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?? The FY 59's were introduced before the 60's (4 years before). The specification for the 60 was based upon the 59.

 

Cheers,

Mick

 

Strange how things telescope over the years - so to put it back into perspective Yeomans were offered what emerged as the Class 60 design and rejected it in favour of what they were able to get from GM and they duly took it out of the box and it worked. In the meanwhile the Class 60 plodded on through development, not so much based on the Class 59 as working to the same (or a very similar) traffic specification with delays in design and construction and very definitely not working when it was taken out of the box but going through a lot of testing, trials and mods before being released for (very tightly controlled at first) traffic use. No doubt if the 60 had been based on the 59 it might have worked when taken out of the box and it might even have matched from Day 1 the 59's capabilities - but it didn't.

You might well conclude that I am not a fan of Class 60s and I'm not - because we got more than fed up with promises of what was to come and waiting yet more months for it to arrive and still finding it couldn't do what had been claimed for it let alone what we wanted of it. Mind you when I had one out on a test I ran in the early '90s I found it was quite a comfortable loco to ride on and the Driver seemed quite happy with it but we hardly had a large load behind us and and even then the performance was not sparkling - not as impressive as a 59 but I've only ever ridden on one of those with 5,000 tonnes behind it so not exactly fast but certainly no trouble in shifting the load. Oh and the work I was testing the Class 60 for is now worked perfectly well by Class 66s.

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70011 was on the Rugeley - Stoke Gifford empties and arrived at Parkway at 15.46. Today it was in the yard at Stoke Gifford before this time so not sure whether it was the same turn arriving early or.......

70011 has been on 4V06 for the last week or so from Rugeley - this is booked in Parkway about half 1 IIRC. It was running a bit late today from what I've heard

Here's a piccy of it last week passing Charfield loops, running about 15mins early, also in the other 70 thread on here

post-6899-0-96611700-1296587047_thumb.jpg

From here http://joalder.fotopic.net/c1937063.html

cheers

 

jo

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I guess that this should be over on the 60 thread.....

 

Mind you when I had one out on a test I ran in the early '90s I found it was quite a comfortable loco to ride on and the Driver seemed quite happy with it but we hardly had a large load behind us and and even then the performance was not sparkling - not as impressive as a 59 but I've only ever ridden on one of those with 5,000 tonnes behind it so not exactly fast but certainly no trouble in shifting the load.

 

There were extensive tests done with 59's and 60's on South Wales Ore Traffic. The 60 was marginally better over the likes of Stormy Bank. Even now, a 60 is preferred to a 59 on the Liverpool Bulk terminal duty. 66's are most definitely not. 66's are not a patch on 60's or 59's for that matter and that's another discussion entirely.

 

If the 60's had been a small fleet, concentrated on one depot with a dedicated team maintaining them, on a relatively small geographical area, (just as the 59's have been for most of their lives), then I'm sure it would be a different story today.

 

You might well conclude that I am not a fan of Class 60s and I'm not.

 

You could say the same about me and 59's! ;)

 

 

Mick

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Err Mick, a 66 often works one of the diagrams :unsure:

 

Oops. Should've remembered that, as when I had 20 mins down that way a couple of weeks ago, it was a 66......

 

But isn't it a reduced load compared to a 60?

 

Cheers,

Mick

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Bit of useless info- 70012 is the loco featured in the recent RM article on class 70 construction. Seeing it in its unpainted and fresh state is actually quite sad knowing what has happened to it since.

 

Incidentally has the crane driver come down yet- if it was me I certainly would still be up there hiding!

 

Some people seem to indicate problems with these locos and insuniate/speculate as to their efficiency, are they considered as prototypes or are the new batch (70007-12) now being delivered considered as production locos?

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There were extensive tests done with 59's and 60's on South Wales Ore Traffic. The 60 was marginally better over the likes of Stormy Bank. Even now, a 60 is preferred to a 59 on the Liverpool Bulk terminal duty. 66's are most definitely not. 66's are not a patch on 60's or 59's for that matter and that's another discussion entirely.

 

Mick

 

Strange to relate we never tested a Class 60 with 5,000 tonnes trailing or indeed tested them with 12,000 tonnes trailing on Mendips workings - both of which the 59 (or the right number of 59swink.gif) could manage with ease. The big difference with a 59 - which is probably what occurred on Stormy Bank - is their tendency to drop to very slow speeds on really steep gradients when they have a good load on - but very little, if nothing, is likely to overpower them. what will be interesting over time is to see how the 70 compares, if at all, in the really heavy haulage stakes although I doubt we'll ever see that sort of test with them.

 

 

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The first of the new batch made it onto my local coal today

 

02 February 2011

Ellesmere Port

70010 on 6F02, 12:07, Ellesmere Port Manisty Wharf - Fiddlers Ferry Power Station loaded HHAs

 

post-6662-0-32458900-1296673189_thumb.jpg

 

post-6662-0-60134700-1296673207_thumb.jpg

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Various sources are suggesting Friday's 4V50 Soton - Wentloog and 4O51 return will be 70003 - the first run of a 70 along the GWML as far as I'm aware.

This train leaves Wentloog about 10am, through Swindon before 12

HTH

 

jo

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......66's are not a patch on 60's or 59's for that matter and that's another discussion entirely.

Mick, why would a 66 need to be compared to a heavy hauler like a 59 or 60?

They're different types of freight loco. The 66 is a general workhorse, with a fair amount of grunt to boot, but the 59 & 60 are dedicated heavily haulers designed for particular types of traffic.

It's like trying to compare Apples with Oranges.

 

Some people seem to indicate problems with these locos and insuniate/speculate as to their efficiency, are they considered as prototypes or are the new batch (70007-12) now being delivered considered as production locos?

Dedicated prototypes would be a rare thing in the present day, but the information given out at the time of their introduction stated that the first six (70001-6) are/were fitted with monitoring and telemetry equipment so that engineers back at Erie in the USA could monitor progress.

In effect the 70's have been on test since they were first introduced and I would expect that software and hardware modifications have been carried out or are planned for later batches.

The second batch (70007-12) are already physically different (minor changes to the weld/panel lines around the cab). - 70012 is significantly different in appearance, but that wasn't planned. wink.gif

 

 

 

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