DY444

I don't understand what point you're trying to make. I live in London and don't benefit at all from trains to here being faster than to anywhere else. It seems to me the only people who benefit from it are those who live elsewhere and want to travel here.

Virgin were not "bailed out". They merely insisted that Railtrack/NR honoured the PUG2 contract on which their franchise bid was based. It wasn't Virgin's fault that Railtrack failed to deliver on a contract freely entered into and they were entitled to compensation for that failure to deliver.

Talltim is talking way before the BedPan electrification and Thameslink. In the 60s BR was seriously looking at closing St.Pancras and diverting trains either into Kings Cross or Euston. Indeed the original "flap" departure and arrivals boards at the "new" Euston were fitted from new with Midland line destinations from Market Harborough northwards in readiness.

I thought the plan was to serve the Potteries with an additional train from Birmingham and run the Crewe-Euston direct to Stafford and then via the TV as now.

"Reasonable Route" is only applicable in the event of disruption. eg Blockage on SWML Great Western will accept tickets via reasonable routes. There is a set of (complex) rules which determine ticket validity. Try here http://tinyurl.com/y83zvtvn

The steepest part is 1 in 29

Canary Wharf to West India Quay is 199m, Canary Wharf to Heron Quays is 280m

As the distance from Old St to Moorgate is just under half a mile then the answer is "No". Highbuy & Islington to Drayton Park is the shortest but that is still over 700 yards

Further update. I gather that the northbound train was worked from Dollands Moor by a 92 (92010 I believe) using DC power on 4/8/17

One reason I've heard is that the 45s were considered to be better than 46s at higher speeds and thus more suited to passenger work

45s were CP and 46s Brush. There were a large number of differences between the two hence the separate class numbers. A 46 is much more like a 47 internally - in fact the early 47s used equipment ordered originally for more 46s. This is also why 46s tended to be allocated to depots with 47 maintenance experience such as Laira and Gateshead when the 45s weren't. The "West of England" batch of HST PCs had GEC motors. Everything else is the same. Far fewer differences than between say 47s with series-parallel and all parallel electrical equipment and yet they were a single class. I agree it is a bit of a lottery though. BR seemed to manage ok pre-TOPs in dealing with 3 operationally very different variants of Class 33, classes where some locos had boilers or dual brakes or dual AWS, the various combinations of heat, brakes, SSC on 47s etc.

Until 1/10/16 it was the other way round. For two season/zonal tickets the train had to stop at the boundary station and for the season/zonal + station specific ticket it did not. Since 1/10/16 neither combination requires the train to stop.

Since posting this I've learned that the Irvine train is 92 hauled southbound between Wembley and Dollands Moor but northbound a 66 is used with the 92 DIT.

True. And after I posted it I realised they were not curves! The approach to Northam curve on the down is pretty distinctive though.

Northam used to be 15mph until the 80s but it's 25mph now. As to being the lowest on a "main line", that rather depends what your criteria are - lowest absolute speed limit, biggest decrease from line speed on approach etc, and indeed your definition of a main line. For example Derby has a 15mph limit with an 80mph limit on the UM immediately to the north. The old layout at Reading had a reduction from 125mph to 50mph in both directions. Northam has a 75mph limit on the DF approaching the 25mph curve. Birmingham New St has a 10mph limit. There are no doubt many other examples which could qualify.

Don't know about Class 374 but on the Class 373s it makes no difference. The driver still has to do the same set of things for every changeover irrespective of what the change is from and to, and there are 5 of them between St.Pancras and Paris/Brussels.

The compressor on a 4TC required an ets supply which could only come from a locomotive or a REP. The VAB had no ets connections. As above - a TC attached to the VAB would only have emergency lights and no heat due to no ets. When being propelled by a 33/1 the TC had to use the auto air brake as the 33/1s didn't have EP brakes.

Every Eurostar journey still has one changeover which occurs at locations where the signalling changes to/from TVM. Those are on/off the high speed lines outside Paris and Brussels. The workload there is high especially going onto the classic networks. You've also got the two changeovers at Lille which are often accompanied by restrictive speeds on TVM due either to other traffic or the speed reduction necessary to go into one of the platform roads. The Calais changeover is on a steep gradient and checks approaching the ET boundary are not uncommon either if you present early or late.

There are only 6 operational DB Class 92s in the UK and they are no longer certified to run under their own power on NR so they only work through the Channel Tunnel and on HS1 to Ripple Lane. There are a few GBRF freight turns (including I believe one from Dollands Moor that uses 3rd rail) but I don't have the details.

As there has been no announcement that the York-Leeds-Manchester electrification has been scrapped then that story is just a load of whingeing nonsense

Landore never had an allocation although they often did major power car work there including the ATP fitment

The diesel engines can be running whilst the unit is on AC power so they can be started in plenty of time. I believe the intention is that the changeover will be done automatically with the driver only needing to intervene if there is a problem. For a non-stop changeover from AC-> diesel, I would expect the transition to start some distance before the wires run out so that if the pan doesn't drop the train can be brought to a stand. Otherwise the first overbridge west of Newbury will claim more pantographs than Saltwood Tunnel.

The real reason is the ORR's ongoing residence in cloud cuckoo land where money grows on trees and gold plating comes as standard.

This is a complex issue. Trials of the modified engine software in 800s have shown that when running at the higher rating for extended periods of time the engine cooling is very marginal. It is thus entirely possible that the engine protection system will start to derate the engines to protect them particularly on hot days. In "muzzled" mode the IET cannot match HST point to point times on sections with higher line speeds. This will affect timekeeping. It is jokingly said that the real reason the Box road is being electrified as as far as Thingley Jn is to avoid the embarrassment of IETs labouring up Dauntsey Bank from a stop at Chippenham on hot days. Whilst the official reason is to do with grid feeds, I think there may be an element of truth in it. Performance up Stormy Bank on a hot day will be interesting. A second issue with extended 800 diesel operation which is often overlooked is brake pad wear and its effect on exam intervals. The dynamic braking on the 800s only functions when running on AC so the more miles you do on diesel the more frequently you need to change the pads. 802s have dynamic braking on both AC and diesel and an uprated rheo system to support that. My understanding is that changing 800s to match is non-trivial. The final point is the cost of these changes in operation. Any half decent project manager knows that you make your real money on contract changes and in this case there is a major change in the way the 800s are going to be operating. That will be reflected in the lease and maintenance charges. I think there is a distinct likelihood that those costs over the 27.5 year lease will be greater than the money saved by not completing the electrification as originally envisaged.

The motor design was changed part way through the build so those built first received 282AZ and those built later received 282BZ. As locomotives were overhauled they didn't usually come out of the works with the same set of motors they went in with so over time the AZ and BZ motors got distributed randomly amongst the class (although a locomotive always had a set of 4 the same). When the flexicoil programme started those that had BZ motors at the time were selected for fitment. Class 86 did not have field weakening. Classes 81-5 and 87 did.