rodent279

And yet, in terms of power to weight ratio, a class 20 is virtually the same as a 31, at about 9.5kW/t. For comparison, Deltic=24.6kW/t, 24-27 ~ 11.5kW/t, 37 = 11.8kW/t, 40= 11.5kW/t, Peak ~13.5kW/t, 47~17kW/t, 50 = 19.5kW/t.

I guess I'll get a bit of flak for this! Three suggestions from me that I guess are bound to be unpopular. Euston (the "new" 50year old one) Milton Keynes Central Reading, the new one All new, bright modern stations, but with very different styles. I particularly like the marble floor in the hall at Euston. Milton Keys is functional, has clean lines and an impressive glass building that when it was first built, really stood out.Now its a bit crowded by more recent developments, but I still like it. I never visited the old Euston, but from what I can gather, it was dark, dingy, cramped, and simply didn't have the operating flexibility, or work as well for passengers as the new one. And as for that monstrosity, the Doric Arch-best left in the river I say. Why on earth would you disguise a railway station as some sort of temple? There is a group that wants to salvage as many of the remaining stones as possible & rebuild it. Why? Can't we do our own thing these days, why do we have to look backwards and copy what has gone before? The new Reading is well designed, and a bold imaginative step, in line with the upgrading of the line. It maybe lacks the interesting & varied motive power of a couple of decades back, but I think it serves passengers needs well-and that is what it's there for. Cheers N

And why exactly are 31's so heavy? For a similar power, classes 24-27 & 33 managed with 25 or so tons less? Is it the design of the bodyshell, or the fact that they used a 12cyl engine? You'd think re-engining with the Sulzer 8-cyl machine used in 33's would have made more sense, that would have made a lighter engine.

What interests me is why 31's were A1A-A1A, why not 1Bo-Bo1. Why put the carrying axle in the middle? Weight distribution? And as for coupled axles, apart from the hydraulic transmission diesels, most French electrc locos are either B-B or C-C, with monomotor bogies, a single motor driving all axles through a gearbox & final drive. I can't think of any diesels with monomotor bogies-can anyone enlighten me please? cheers N

Does that have a Buchli drive?

I have a suspicion that if it had been left to it's own devices, BR/BTC would have quite happily settled for a fleet of class 20/37/40's. That would have handled 90% of traffic requirements-all except the heaviest freights & fastest passenger jobs. I also wonder why a leaf was not taken out of the DB book-in both locos & MU designs from the 50's & 60's, engines & transmissions from different manufacturers were completely inetrchangebale. I think the V200's could, and did, have engines from 3 different manufacturers & and transmissions from 2 different suppliers. Surely if that was possible, loco designs could have been specified to have either Sulzer or EE engines, and EE or Brush or C-P transmissions, and be used interchangaably? I suppose that did happen to an extent, in that the class 45 & 46's had different transmissions, & class 25's had AEI, GEC & C-P transmissions, but to my knowledge it was not interchangeable. And of course, some HST's have Brush traction motors & control gear, some GEC.

I notice in cold wetaher very often the couplers on Sprinters etc are covered with a plastic bag. I assume this is to prevent icing up. Is there a specially designed cover for the coupling, or do they just use the nearest available bin liner? cheers N

The first two withdrawn were 001 & 020, in Jan 1980, though I believe in fact they had been out of traffic since 1978. Depending on exactly when they went blue, they may have lasted under a decade in traffic in blue, & about the same time in green.

Quick question, I know the genral subject of first/last etc into BR blue has been done to the death on here. When was the first Deltic repainted into blue? At a guess, 1967? cheers N

The EU does not require us to franchise out our railway system. It simply requires separation of infrastructure from operations for accounting purposes, and open access to the network. I think, in theory at least, infrastructure & ops could actually be under one roof, as long as the accounting lines were separate, and access to the network was granted on a free and fair basis to all comers. In other words, Railtrack could have existed as a subsidiary of the BRB, with IC, NSE, Scotrail, RR & the freight sector all being separate subsidiaries of the BRB, and access being granted to other outside operators such as GBRf. All of this is entirely academic really, but it does show that the franchise system we have is only one possible model.

I've seen that done at New St, maybe not quite in 5 min, but something very close. Not on different ends either, on the same end. Commonplace on the Continent, engine swaps are routine and seem to happen very slickly and efficiently.

How far does a rail have to move out of gauge before a derailment is likely to occur? Put another way, how much movement from "standard gauge" is allowable, in a low speed terminus road like this. Understandably you'd want to permit less on a high speed main line, but on a road such as this, how much is allowed?

The rules won't be any different. We'll either be in it, or we won't, we just won't have any say.

You think Paddington has problems? <iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Funiladmag%2Fvideos%2F2916452238377816%2F&show_text=1&width=560"width="560" height="562" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" allowFullScreen="true"></iframe>

Yes, I've seen that somewhere too. And don't forget that the UK's rail franchise system has been the model for many in Europe.

Ta!

Why? Not sure I understand that. Is/was there not a German ICE derivative offered in bi-mode?

Presumably, with Railtrack hived off as a separate entity, BR itself could have continued as a train operator. That is pretty much what DB has done. In a lot of Euroean countries, there is one national, state owned operator, and a multitude of smaller regional operators, some local government run, like our PTE's, some private enterprise.

Excuse my ignorance, but what is a wheeltimber? Is that what I would call a longitudinal sleeper?

So no >200km/h on lines not specially built for high-speed in Europe as far as we know? I raise this because the difference between upgrading & electrifying an existing mainline that is the thick end of 200 years old, and building a new railway dedicated to high speed passenger trains, is that it is possible on new build lines to keep the contact wire at a virtually constant height above rail level. That will be much more difficult on an existing railway, if not impossible. I think on the WCML the allowable height variation is something like 4ft.

I've had more problems using Scottish pound notes in England! Annoyed the hell out of a Bristolian taxi driver. He was fairly adamant he couldn't take the Clydesdale £10 I offered him, until I said it's that or nothing.

Passengers? Are you kidding? There wouldn't be any-problem solved!

Is there any running at over 200km/h in Eurpoe that is NOT on specially built high speed lines? Genuine question-I don't know.

To get back on topic-how often would a stretch of platform road at a major terminus such as Paddington require renewal? Could some of that track potentially have been around since the real GWR was in existence?

Loyalty is rarely rewarded or respected these days. I think as important as experience is an ability and willingness to learn, and (a large dose of) flexibility & adaptability. No one likes a smart arse, so if you've any sense, you listen to those around you.