nightstar.train

Not quite a jack, but the reverse. It’s a bogie swap. The big yellow bits are supports. They slide in from the side and hold the carriage. Then the section of track between them lowers, and lowers the bogie with it. Then the depot workers wheel that bogie away and wheel a new one in, which is lifted up and attached. I think the whole thing can be done in about twenty minutes with a skilled crew. Much easier than lifting the whole train, or having to split it.

Will you be training on the HSTs Eddie? Looks like they’ll be doing some or all of the Inverness-Aberdeen trains in the future. I look forward to a trip on them sometime. Much nicer than a Turbostar I should think, or a 158 or 9

I also remember reading that they have large (or larger) resistors to allow rehostatic braking on Diesel, which the 800/801s can't do. They have to use disc brakes only. I'm not sure if the resistors are visible, or if they're hidden. The 800s don't have them as they weren't designed to be running at 125mph and braking hard away from the wires.

Well they had the serious VIP service a few weeks ago when the Queen named one of them. And I wouldn't think that the 0600 service would be very busy, as presumably there's a service around about 0700 which will get you to London plenty early for meetings or whatever. So I expect it'll be full to the brim of cranks, probably the busiest 0600 service ever. I sort of feel sorry for the staff. Instead of a nice gentle run in to London to start the day, they'll have all this. Plus I expect that there'll be a host of the news media on board. Probably with camera crews for spots on local news, maybe even national if nothing major happens that day.

From that article Seems the pods have been done away with. Double rooms sound good though. I seem to have read somewhere that then couldn't get approval for them, they weren't crash safe or something. Although pods are used on many many aircraft, which have even stricter safety standards.

The problem with this is feeding the power to the OHLE. There are only a very few places in the country that NR can tap into the National Grid and build a substation, due to the massive power draw. That's why worked started at Didcot and went out from there, that's where a feeder station is. The current is then fed along the top of the OHLE to auto transformers for each section. So having bits of wire here and there would be difficult. You'd still need to build some sort of infrastructure along the unelectrified bits to runnpower feeds.

Strictly speaking they did (still do?) operate on the WCML everyday, between Carstairs and Glasgow Central. Not what most would think of when you say WCML, but it is.

Narrow gauge Railways used to be enormously popular for construction as there simply wasn't the heavy machinery we have today. No big trucks or lorries. And much less palletisation and standardised loads. Now you have things like telehandlers that shift pallets of bricks around in a jiffy. They arrive on a forty ton lorry and the handler lifts them off and drops them down right where they need to be. In the thirties that would've largely been done by hand from railway trucks to piles to narrow gauge trucks to more piles where they're needed. Large projects like dams or harbours would've used full size railways for moving materials around like rock and earth. Again because there were no large tipper trucks.

The IEPs will need to be cleared up to Inverness and Aberdeen for ECML service. Perhaps NR will be stabling the structure gauging train there. Or they know where things need altering and that will be the base for the engineering team to go and bash platforms and signals about to fit.

It looks like a massive expansion joint with check rails to stop the trains falling off. Although why you'd need expansion joints that big I don't know. Does it go alternately through a glacier and an active volcano?! Maybe the track gang had forgotten to bring a saw that day.

A unified fleet certainly makes sense,reduces costs a lot. It could end up with a situation like Anglia though, where the 707s get sent away even though they're very new as it's cheaper long term to buy some different ones and have the unified fleet.

Do we know who will be building the new trains? I'm guessing it's one of the European manufacturers, maybe Siemens. Bombardier and Hitachi are booked up and won't be able to produce that many trains by 2020. Not sure about CAF or Alstom. It says 90 trains, 750 carriages. So I'm guessing mostly 8 car with 15 10-car trains. Sizeable fleet. How many trains/carriages will they replace?

I'll be interested to compare these figures to the new Mk5s. On the one hand they have lots of weight adding bells and whistles like at seat power and wifi, not to mention newer and presumably harsher crash worthiness standards, but on the other hand they benefit from nearly three decades of materials science and advances in engineering.

I did wonder why they didn't run Mk4s to the frozen north with a diseasel on the front. Did they not order enough Mk4 sets, or some other reason? As to the GWR fiasco. If they had ordered electric trains with diesel locos for pulling them, then the locos would be under construction now, or just about fully delivered. With a production line up to speed it wouldn't take long to bang out a few more, surely no longer than switching the SET order over to all bi-mode. Although unless the diesel could some how power the electric distributed traction package I guess they'd be absolutely stuffed on the timings, even more so than they are now.

Hence the new class 88s. Having a small Diesel engine they can go into non electrified sidings and yards, and even down branch lines. They won't be very fast under Diesel, but that's not the point really. I hope they work well for DRS and more are ordered. With the introduction of all the bi-mode SETs and the new Anglia units it seems we'll be coming to the end of diesels running for miles under wires. About time, especially in the case of the London-Aberdeen/Inverness on the ECML. 400 miles under the wires on Diesel power!

It seems the jacking trial happened in October and was a success. So hopefully this technique can be used in the future. http://freyssinet.co.uk/elevarch-masonry-bridge-arch-lift-trial-moco-farm-buckinghamshire/

Does the TGS have a hand brake for the train? Or is that not required on an HST as it's not really hauled stock? If it does I guess that'll be installed in the TFC. Really looking forward to these. Will have to start saving the pennies to buy some base models to convert. Whoever makes a OO conversion kit for the new style doors shall receive much custom.

Scotrail aren't taking the whole fleet. I think GWR have 52 sets, and Scotrail are taking less than 40. So there'll be a number of spare power cars. I would hope that Scotrail are being sensible and storing enough coaches to lengthen all the HSTs to 2+6, or whatever the platforms will handle.

Ooo. A sleeper HST. That sounds cool. Will they actually run top and tail? Would seem more sensible than running them coupled as a sort of engine. Can they deliver the correct voltage for hauled stock ETH?

That's interesting. So we may (as suggested further up) end up with mixed rakes with a dedicated complaint vehicle with the disabled loo and power doors, and then the rest of the coaches "standard" (apart from new door handles). Are the new handles so you can open the door without having to lean out the window?

That's a very interesting idea. I like it a lot. Fits in with the British "make do and mend" approach, like the class 230 converted d stock Underground trains. I don't think it'll gain any traction (pun intended) as, due to the ECML IEPs, and the Anglia complete fleet renewal there are going to be a LOT of 25kv trains available. I think ROSCOs will be offering them at absolutely bargain rates to avoid the costs associated with proper disposal. Maybe also charter operators will take the opportunity to upgrade their fleets and we'll end up with some nice smart rakes of MK3s, just as long as they're not blue and grey!

The ROSCO that owns them must see a future as they ARE spending money on them. They have been placed in warm storage so will be powered up to run the AC/heating to keep the interiors nice. They'll be moved to stop them seizing up. I think (but I'm not sure) that they'll be towed south from Ely every now and then for a run on the third rail to keep them working. This all costs money. If the ROSCO didn't see a future for them they'd just be cold stored, I.e just dumped in a siding to await scrapping.

To be honest I've never read them either. Just going off of what I read in various magazines. They all say that the Scotrail HSTs will get power doors, so I was assuming that it was needed for PRM-TSI. Can't wait for the HSTs to get here though. Think they'll look great in Scotrail blue.

If you look at this document linked above That wire seems to be something to do with the auto transformer feed. I think it's basically a 25kv bus line to supply the sections. It allows the project to use fewer transformers from the grid, which is a big saving.

I don't model 7mm, but that might tempt me...