The Rail Enthusiast thread

[Mad Doug Biker]

Can't find anything right now.

 

[Smurfy]

"Flying Banana"!

That'd be the network rail livery for high speed track surveys.

Weren't some of them stored there or something similar??

Yes, I think I must have been mistaken. From the page I linked to earlier:

With Virgin dispencing with so many HST sets it wasn't possible to find a home for all of them, for the first time in many years their future seemed uncertain and many went into store. On the 10th October 2004 43155 and 43123 entered warm store on the West Somerset Railway along with several other vehicles, while they awaited new operators to take them into their respective fleets.

While on the West Somerset Railway, the powercars were kept operational, with weekly inspections and engine startups. The WSR even managed to use one set in a diesel gala weekend during May 2005. 43094 is seen leading 43123 away from Stogumber on the 8th May heading to Bishops Lydeard at a max speed of 25mph, a full 100mph short of it's actual top speed!

As it happens, I did actually visit WSR twice around 2004 and 2005, and I'm pretty sure I saw the Virgin HST then.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Thanks, I knew I wasn't imagining it!!

Serves me right for not looking more closely at the link!!

 

[Spartak]

Passed Bristol Temple Meads on my commute to work at lunchtime, and 37425 was standing in the sidings so took a picture on my phone

 

[Smurfy]

This little stretch of track seems to cause a few wheel slip incidents. I've been there when Gauge O Guild slipped three times in a row. The result was the same each time, an impressively thunderous racket that reverberated around the entire station, although the driver soon brought it under control.

However, you've got to wonder what was going on in the cab here! Did the regulator handle fall off after the driver had opened it full bore?

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ft2RD9c_T34

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

This little stretch of track seems to cause a few wheel slip incidents. I've been there when Gauge O Guild slipped three times in a row. The result was the same each time, an impressively thunderous racket that reverberated around the entire station, although the driver soon brought it under control.

However, you've got to wonder what was going on in the cab here! Did the regulator handle fall off after the driver had opened it full bore?

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ft2RD9c_T34

I don't know about Black 5s', but certainly when Blue Peter had its nightmare slip at Durham in 1994, the reverser was suddenly pushed open due to the amount of pressure, breaking the Driver's arms.

Seemingly there is a certain way to deal with wheelslip on it that is different to other loco types and the driver, being inexperienced on the loco did the opposite of what he should have seeing as the right way would have been counterintuitive to him.....:


View: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=E54HUQYeFNg

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Oh and going back to the previous topic

Sheer beauty!:


View: http://youtu.be/xdJB3N9pK0k

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

View: http://youtu.be/AGBQxWwMbIA

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

And

This is genuinely interesting. The sad part of the story is that there were, of course, originally two of them, one at each end, but the other one was scrapped in about 1990:


View: http://youtu.be/GihvcmbrA0Q

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

SCREAMING Valentas'!!:


View: http://youtu.be/8q2o7QUzY6k



View: http://youtu.be/av8blE8Ilf8

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

If they haven't achieved the status of 'National Icon' yet, up there with the QE2 and Concorde, then I don't know when they ever will!!

Yet again, genuinely interesting, its the story of the HST, Sir Peter Parker (the guy who rescued D1015 remember, not Spiderman), the unions, Margaret Thatcher and how the HST saved BR!:


View: http://youtu.be/wXN4GEJgKZ8

That said, the whine/screeam of the Paxman Valenta engines has now become standard stock for a train noise, especially the BBC, so who noticed the production APT sounding like an HST when in actual fact it was an electric??!!

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

OOOOOHHHH!!!! Interesting!!

Unfortunately, this video shows that since they were re - engined with MTUs', their distinctive whine has been lost, so now they sound all boring :


View: http://youtu.be/QDS6DNtVWSk

 

[GaryA]

Ahhhh nostalgia!



View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYCyOQAyAp8

 

[EltonFrog]

This made me giggle

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

Our local Bishop had a 'Black 5' named after him