Milepost 30¾ – January 2010
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30 MILEPOST JANUARY 2010 III THIS BEATS A CLASS 143 ... See Page 273 67016 at Temple Meads Photo: David Adams RPS railway performance society www.railperf.org.uk 30th ANNIVERSARY ISSUE Milepost 30¾ – January 2010 The Quarterly Magazine of the Railway Performance Society Honorary President: Gordon Pettitt, OBE, FCILT Commitee: CHAIRMAN Frank Collins 10 Collett Way, Frome, Somerset BA11 2XR Tel: 01373 466408 e-mail [email protected] SECRETARY & VC Martin Barrett 112 Langley Drive, Norton, Malton, N Yorks, YO17 9AB (and meetings) Tel: 01653 694937 Email: [email protected] TREASURER Peter Smith 28 Downsview Ave, Storrington, W Sussex, RH20 (and membership) 4PS. Tel 01903 742684 e-mail: [email protected] EDITOR David Ashley 92 Lawrence Drive, Ickenham, Uxbridge, Middx, UB10 8RW. Tel 01895 675178 E-mail: [email protected] Fastest Times Editor David Sage 93 Salisbury Rd, Burton, Christchurch, Dorset, BH23, 7JR. Tel 01202 249717 E-mail [email protected] Distance Chart Editor Ian Umpleby 314 Stainbeck Rd, Leeds, W Yorks LS7 2LR Tel 0113 266 8588 Email: [email protected] Database/Archivist Lee Allsopp 2 Gainsborough, North Lake, Bracknell, RG12 7WL Tel 01344 648644 e-mail [email protected] Technical Officer David Hobbs 11 Lynton Terrace, Acton, London W3 9DX Tel 020 8993 3788 e-mail [email protected] David Stannard 26 Broomfield Close, Chelford, Macclesfield, Cheshire,SK11 9SL. Tel 01625 861172 e mail: [email protected] Publicity/Webmaster Baard Covington, 2 Rose Cottage, Bradfield,Wix, Manningtree, Essex CO11 2SH Tel 07010 717717, E-mail: [email protected] Steam Specialist Michael Rowe Burley Cottage, Parson St., Porlock,Minehead, Somerset, TA24 8QJ . Tel 01643 862182 E-mail: [email protected] Non-committee official:- Topical points Martin Robertson 23 Brownside Rd, Cambuslang, Glasgow, G72 0NL e-mail: [email protected] Directors of RPS Rail Performance Consultants Ltd.:- Frank Collins (chairman), Peter Smith (secretary), Martin Barrett CONTENTS Notices 255 Fastest Times Update Martin Robertson 264 This beats a 143 John Heaton 273 Pendolino Performance Analysis Dave Stannard & Virgin Driver 280 Swindon plan 283 Blue Pullmans Bruce Nathan 284 Dunkley Collection Martin Barrett 291 Recorders Guide to SNCF Alan Varley 304 Letters 310 News Alert 319 Enclosures (where subscribed): UK and Foreign Distance Charts, 2009 MTD, Membership Renewal Copyright The Railway Performance Society Ltd, registered in England & Wales No. 04488089 Use of the material in the magazine is permitted only for the private purposes of the reader No material in the magazine can otherwise be used for publication or reproduction in any form without the express permission of the Society The views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the RPS, the Editors or any of their advisers. Whilst efforts are made to ensure accuracy, the Editor his advisers and the RPS accept no responsibility for any loss or damage arising from any inaccuracies howsoever caused. Readers are asked to note that the RPS encourages contributions from all members, and articles may appear that are interesting in content, but occasionally may not be to the standard of the rest of the publication. Material sent to the Editors, whether commissioned or freely submitted is provided entirely at the contributors own risk; neither the Editor nor the RPS can be held responsible for any loss or damage howsoever caused. Published by The Railway Performance Society Limited, 92 Lawrence Drive, Ickenham, Uxbridge, Middx, UB10 8RW Printed by Prontaprint Harrow, 7 Central Parade, Station Rd., Harrow, Middx, HA1 2TW. Milepost 30¾ 254 January 2010 Chairman’s Foreword As I write this, on New Year’s Eve, it doesn’t seem a year since the start of 2009, let alone a full decade into the 21st Century 2009 was probably a year that many people, for a whole variety of reasons, will be keen to forget fairly quickly. Moving into the second decade of the 21st Century however brings lots for us to look forward to. There is probably more of excitement in terms of railway investment in the UK, and traction performance, to look forward to over the next few years than we have had for a long time. High Speed domestic rail services between London and Kent have just started; CrossRail and the Thameslink enhancement projects seem finally to be underway; major capacity enhancements are starting at Reading; the Cotswold line is being redoubled, and a host of lesser projects for speed or capacity enhancement are either underway or at various stages in the planning process. Despite the economic climate, rail passenger usage has remained strong and capacity has remained an issue; one which will take a lot of additional rolling stock to fully address. We have the electrification of the Great Western routes to look forward to in the middle of the decade, along with a new generation of InterCity trains to replace primarily the HST fleet – the latter already rapidly approaching 35 years old. Hot topic of the moment of course is the concept of a High Speed rail network between London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle and Scotland – hopefully this is a strategic project with serious political backing and not just electioneering in advance of the forthcoming General Election 2010 is also a significant year for the Railway Performance Society, marking completion of 30 years since we were founded by Bill Becket. Clearly such a significant milepost should not go unmarked, and the Committee have accordingly arranged a number of events to mark the occasion. These start with a very special talk by our President, Gordon Pettitt, on the subject of ‘Special Trains’, in London on 30th January. We follow this with two specially arranged visits to the First Trans-Pennine Driver Training Simulators in Manchester and York, on 20th March and 17th April. The events schedule will conclude later in the year with some steam running. Details of all of these events are elsewhere in this magazine; we look forward to seeing as many members as possible at these events to help the Society celebrate its first 30 years Finally, in the autumn, we will be publishing a special souvenir edition of Milepost covering performance over the last 30 years. There are still a few years for which David Ashley is looking for authors, but I am sure we are in for a treat. I wish all members and their families all the very best for 2010 and look forward to meeting as many of you as possible during the year Frank Collins Chairman PUBLICATION OF MILEPOST Milepost is published in April, July, October, and January. If you have not received your copy by the end of the month of publication it may have gone astray. Requests for replacements of missing or defective copies should be directed please to the Editor. Milepost 30¾ 255 January 2010 REPRESENTING THE SOCIETY The RPS is always keen to be represented at special media-type occasions. However, we do ask that anyone wishing to do this should do so with the express agreement of the Committee. Should the opportunity arise for any member or in exceptional circumstances, friend of a member, to do this please can contact be made with the Secretary (either by telephone or e-mail) setting out the circumstances of the occasion. Please give us at least one week in advance of the occasion. SUBMITTING ARTICLES Submissions may be sent as attachments to an email or by post as documents on a CD or diskette or as a printed document. If sending a diskette or CD, please enclose a hard copy of the article; this helps if file(s) are unreadable for any reason. Please send all submissions to the editor whose contact details are in the inside front cover of Milepost. The editor will normally acknowledge email submissions within a few days, and always within 3 weeks. If sending by post and you wish to have a receipt, please enclose an SAE for reply. If you wish any material/CD/diskette to be returned, please clearly state this. Milepost 23¾ gave detailed guidelines for submissions. The editor is happy to supply these, on request by email or by post. Please note that page margins are critical: one inch or 2.54cm top, bottom, left and right. FASTEST TIMES Please send all Fastest Times contributions to David Sage at the address on the inside cover. This is with the following exceptions:- John Heaton for Voyagers, 180s, Pendolinos and 222s. Bill Long for DB material. If in doubt then e-mail or post to my contact details on the inside cover. Please, where practicable, also copy claims and logs to Lee Allsopp for the Society archive, and to Martin Robertson for material for his Fastest Times articles. Note that the Members area of the RPS website – see www.railperf.org.uk - has the latest GB and Overseas Fastest Times. These times are also there in the general area, but without the recorder’s initials. At present all entries are as up to date as possible from submissions received. I must confess to a time-lag with regard to the general area, but Member’s site is fine. Space will be created in ‘Kent’ to accommodate the South-Eastern High-Speed services – at present only to Ashford but, if anyone else has the means to travel further, then please submit what the 395’s are up to. Beyond Ashford they will, obviously, be in competition with other e.m.u’s – if I can free the space, then there could well be a comparison with an additional line of entry. OVERSEAS CHARTS With this issue we have Grenoble-Marseile, Livron-Veynes, Veynes-Briançon and Paris-St Quentin- Belgian frontier, where subscribed.