rodent279

If you want to really start tackle this problem (London bias, funding imbalance compared to rest of country etc), you need to address the fact that the country revolves around London. The solution is not just CR1/2 etc, or MML/GWML/TP electrification. There needs to be a more even distribution of power, wealth and decision making throughout the rest of the country.

Yes. And yet still people vote for them in droves.

BR's political remit was to provide a service, albeit on a smaller budget every year. The remit now is to make money.

From memory, around 1986/7 battery lamps became prevalent, with virtually no oil lamps by about 1989. Oil and petrol trains had battery lamps since about the 60's.

Slower than GWML, in fact I reckon the wires will have reached Swansea by the time I finish this! 1 bogie is now complete, and the 2nd coming along ok. I'll post some pics tomorrow. Cheers N

I did wonder about LG. Where were the Rio sets based? NL? My 2006 P5 Motive Power book shows a load of LE-based power cars.

No, 3rd rail is not less expensive, mainly because for a given load, you need more feeder stations, to overcome the greater volt drop. There are something like 20 feeder stations on the south coast line between Brighton & Portsmouth, it's been estimated you could save the cost of renewing all but 2 of these by converting to 25kV OHL. Yes there would be a cost penalty in associated civils work to achieve clearances, but for a high intensity, high speed service, with power-hingry trains like IEP or Pendo, there is no real alternative to 25kV OHL. Not that I'm suggesting converting the south coast line should be converted, but I know it's been looked into.

I suspect there is a lot of truth in this. If politicians are good at anything, it's blame-shifting.

I can think of OO, PM, LA, LE, BN, HT, NL & EC. Are there any more? Cheers N

Agreed, spot on. Plus of course, electricity generation can be powered by renewables. As for OHL "defacing" the countryside, I don't agree. I think it enhances it. I love the succession of catenary curves along a railway, and watching them rise and fall from within a train.

Aye...

I think you've just summed it up quite neatly with those 14 words.....

I think part of the problem lies in the big gap of 2 decades or so between large electrification projects. ECML finished 1990-91. GWML started - what, 2010? Ok there was CrossCity and a couple of other bits, but nothing on the scale of either of those two. Skills have been lost.

No. Effectively all locos are prefixed with 0, though it isn't in the number. So all locos, both diesel and electric, are in the range 000-099.

To what extent has there been budget overruns? Cynical is my second name, I suspect there may be an amount of blame shifting on the part of politicians here, looking to exploit something in order to hide their own failings.

Going back to numbers, and avoiding clashes, I've always wondered why BR didn't adopt a similar approach to DB, use 6 digit numbers, and number all electric locos starting with 1, diesels with 2, EMU's with 3, DMU's with 4, passenger coaches with 5 etc etc.

Can't answer the questions, but what are roe vacs? Cheers N

You are correct. It was on the up side about 100m south of the main station, and was in regular use until the late 80's. There was usually an NPV/GUV or two stabled there most days.

I thought so!

But those 3ph ac supply networks are designed to be run in parallel. A 319 isn't designed to act as an alternative supply of juice to the 3rd rail. What if there's an earth fault on the dc with a train in section with pan up on the OHL? If there's no breaker between shoe gear and rectifier output / chopper i/p, a massive current flows from the OHL via the transformer/rectifier into the 3rd rail.

I would have thought the risk of a D.C. circuit breaker failing in Farringdon, causing the train to be stranded, is minimal, and acceptable, compared to the risk (and consequences) of track or train staff accidentally coming into contact with an unprotected shoegear, live at or near 750v. Plus of course, as above, when in the platform at Farringdon, the dc output from the transformer/rectifier would be in parallel with the third rail, which sounds like a smoke-generating event to me!

Would seem a bit strange not to have some way of isolating the shoe gear when not in use.

I was there, and a jolly good wheeze it was too!

319's are chopper control, aren't they?

Apparently growing...?