Covkid

As has been said there have been "public" announcements about this project back in the summer. From what I understand Artemis want to experiment with hydraulics and stored energy, and are converting the redundant DVT for trials. The car is being fitted with JCB hydraulics engine etc and the aim is to capture kinetic energy during braking, then reuse it for pulling away. The vehicle is intended to be trialled for three months as a replacement for a Chiltern Railway DVT on one of their class 68 hauled / pushed Mk3 sets. AIUI DVTs have little extra weight capacity over what they were plated for as luggage vans so the equipment Artemis are installing will need to be conservative in weight even if not in volume. The class 19 designation I believe is a red herring as certification of new traction to operate on NWR is substantial, but for the DVT to operate at any realistic speed with any kind of payload would also need substantially more horsepower than a JCB engine. I am sure we will hear more when the vehicle is ready for it's three month trial, and I admire CR for apparently taking on the risk of such developing technology within the current TDA system used by Network Rail to apportion delay In the industry.

Interesting one John I would say the pipe is too large in diameter for vacuum brakes even if it were to be sited that high up in the cab. Also too large for any kind of liquid. If I had to guess I would say it is some kind of warm air heater ducting to the cab from a radiator heat exchanger under the bonnet. But I certainly wouldn't stake any money on it !!!! Good find

Probably the way of most new things. They seem to work well and mostly do their job without fuss and within the limitations of a four axle mixed traffic loco working heavy train.

Thanks Michael and "Corbs". Where does "Cunarder" and her ilk come in then Michael ? I agree they all look very similar so is the 5'x5' wheelbase common to them ? TIA

Mmmmmm "Treasurer" nice "Corbs" thanks for posting that Where was it based ? Assume "Birch Coppice" worked it's namesake Colliery, at least at one period.

Sort of vaguely on topic, a batch of outside cylindered, Walshaerts valve geared Hunslet 0-6-0s were delivered to John Mowlem and Edmund Nuttall for construction work. The survivor of the batch is HE 1690 "Cunarder" which is believed to be on a private site undergoing restoration. Here is a link to Quainton Road's history of the loco although they don't quote the Hunslet maker's number. http://www.brc-stockbook.co.uk/cunarder.htm According to the Warwickshire Railways site http://www.warwickshirerailways.com/misc/misc_hcw173.htm Edmund Nuttall purchased six similar locos and one ended up working collieries in South Staffordshire - HE 1685 named "Nuttall". Returning to "Cunarder" which has led a rather nomadic and "schizophrenic" lifestyle as both a saddle tank and a side tank - apparently currently returning to it's original configuration as a saddle tank. Struggling to find any online dimensions quoted for this type, but the look in some way like an outside cylindered 16" Hunslet, but with a "squashed" bunker. Does anyone have a few dimensions like wheelbase, length etc please ? TIA

Do you mean the Cubanised version Capt ? - to HO scale of course

I think most power stations are located near a plentiful water supply and Trawsfynydd did have that as a nuclear station. However, coal is heavy and Trawsfynydd is on top of a bloody big hill. Neither route to Trawsfynydd would be suitable for heavy coal trains so it would rather pointless siting a coal fired power station in the middle of rural Merionethshire miles from the nearest coal mine. Consider the locations of other power stations, Aberthaw for example. It is at the bottom of the Welsh valleys and piped into loads and loads of water. Fiddlers Ferry - again a coastal site in the hub of Northwest coal production. West Midlands examples Hams Hall was right next to Daw Mill, Baddesley and Birch Coppice, as well as many other pits in North Warwickshire. Rugeley "A" was fed conveyored coal straight from Lea Hall colliery, and the "B" station also fed from local collieries and cooled from the river Trent. I suppose one exception is Didcot where the power generation, whilst benefiting from local water, did need coal shifting miles to it, but gradients were reasonable and coal trains such as the Three Spires - Didcot services ran with 45 MGRs hauled by a single type 5, whereas the East Midlands flowes were based on standard 36 wagon sets. In my view, if you were to site a coal fired power station anywhere in North Wales it would have been somewhere around Talacre or Mostyn or in that area. Serviced with coal from the Wrexham area pits and the Point of Ayr pit, the tranportation would have been very local - maybe even conveyor belt fed from Point of Ayr, as well as brought in by sea as an alterrnative. Considering this point it might have been service with Cumbrian coal shipped by coasters from Workington if necessary. Apologies if this doesn't fit with the "what might have been" thread but I foresee an extension to the "Mostyn" layout to take account of the 1956 designed Mostyn "A" power station fed by trains of HUOs hauled by even more pairs of class 24s !!!!

A BR(WR) non corridor Third in chocolate & cream, lined maroon and unlined crimson, in multiple identities would sell like hotcakes, and allow a later composite and a brake to be "self funded".

How many different bodyshell mouldings would that be ? Presume each end car is identical, and the brake vehicle car in the middle is different ? and it is five vehicles like the Brighton Belle - very expensive.

Definately the best time of the year for tests in Devon and Cornwall.

A very short circuit in the West Midlands in the early 1980s at least (probably quite a period prior) was Daw Mill colliery to Hams Hall power station. Probably because the latter was never equipped for MGR operations.

In this case though Pete, there are only three 150s on the books and only two diagrams - off Bletchley and off Tyseley. It would be pretty elementary to mess the diagrams up !!!!

They havn't "Tiger". There are two liveries. Spearmint for the LNW trains to Euston and ghastly purple and orange for the West Midlands area trains.

The balance was a 1700 Waterloo-Soton / Salisbury. The train split at Basingstoke and the 4VEP departed to Southampton, then the rest turned right at Worting Jn

Did I see a couple of those Southend Pier vehicles parked up in the yard of one of the Conwy valley stations some years ago ? Also appears the leading car has a naval style circular windscreen wiper

Going back to 1A03 this week I think we need to be utterly fair here and acknowledge a few facts Firstly IETs have been tested for quite a period of time prior to service introduction this week, but have been driven by GBRf drivers. It is only starting this week that GWR's own crews have started operating IET in service and these are crew who have just learnt them. AIUI the doors are controlled by a GPS gizmo linked to an onboard database. This database which Hitachi uploaded to the units going into service was based on the platforms NWR intended to have, not that they currently have. Therefore the incident at Bath Spa was apparently based on the train thinking the Up platform was xxx metres long so that it could auto open the doors on x number of vehicles, which wasn't actually the case. The GWML between Maidenhead and Paddington is a very busy route and there is congestion particularly in the morning peak. It is a fact of life that ever since Geo Stephenson was a youth that trains havn't always run on time. Therefore 1A03 and all other up trains will have been delayed by other traffic. Whilst I am not impressed with the IET concept I think GWR should be given a grace period to get their staff up to experience and attend to niggly problems. In my view the DfT should have specified HST2 with a power car at each end and unpowered trailers in the middle, except a pan / tran passenger car with traction motors at each end, linked to the diesel power car by a bus. You would then a 2+9 dual mode trainset with 16 traction motors per train, and if ever suffcient OLE were erected then the diesel ends could be craned out of the power cars. Sadly that won't now ever happen.

Oh yes. There are train drivers that don't have road licences. A mate of mine drives 125mph expresses but has never had a desire to drive a car. DB wanted to bring their train drivers into competition with the likes of Freightliner, Colas and GBRf who I believe are all able to drive motor vehicles. This means that a train driver can drive a company vehicle to where their train is and then drive the train. It was never fully in EWS conditions of service, which DB inherited. DB had to bite the bullet, but it is a moot point as to how they went about it last year. I am sure "Big Jim" could tell you all about driving his van to and from jobs.

It is worth visiting for people interested in industrial heritage. We visited this year on a non operating day but the staff were still busy doing jobs. The new shed must be a godsend for storing locos out the weather and there is a good collection. The issue of course is there are too few workers and too little cash to make it really work well. I was kind of hoping to see some of the Ruston Bucyrus' at work and I am pleased to see a blue haze in the photos above. They really need a wealthy benefactor and some skilled welding people to repair all those rusting relics in the sidings.

Theoretically you can keep rebuilding power units with new liners and bearing shells - until you get a leg out of bed. Realistically though, how many power units are left in existence, given there are six deltics in preservation each requiring a minimum of two - owned by three diferent groups ? There are "marine engines" in the float including I believe one in 55022 at the moment. They don't seem to get a good enthusiast press, but are they really an issue ? After all 50044 on the Severn Valley is about to return to service with an engine from a Portugese 1800 which had substantially different fittings. I know the Portugese engine had to have a lot of it's external bits and bobs replaced by those from the damaged "English" engine. Is it the same difference as a marine deltic ?

To be fair though, DB management wanted to "dismiss" all the staff a year ago and invite them back on new contracts. That included all train drivers who didn't possess a road motor licence who were expected to train themselves up then reapply. From what I understand many DB staff have left and gone to other TOCs and FOCs. Hardly a surprise if DB management wanted to treat their employees thus.

Yes, these magnets and the window bars are two additional features on the Kernow model which would perhaps make it financially unviable.

I'll bow to your superior knowledge then "The Stationmaster". In my view the Manor, 43xx and large prairie share significant commonality, the former two being inherited items in the Bachmann back catalogue. Just sayin

I wonder if Kernow might consider a run of the livery for the future. Ideal for running with the Heljan "Sarah Siddons" models as well as "pretty" class 20s etc

It is a good job we are all different then !!! I think the Dapol D63xx was a far more realistic model with a correct looking "face". Even though I have a Dapol "wizzo" I am still unhappy about the headcode box area and the central windscreen glazing bar and find my D6316 a more attractive model overall.