MILEPOST 27 I I OCTOBER 2006
VIRGIN GLASGOW-EUSTON RECORD - See Page 227
Milepost 27½ - 159 - October 2006
MILEPOST 27½ - October 2006
The Journal of The Railway Performance Society
Honorary President: Peter Semmens MA CChem FRSC MBCS MCIT Commitee:
CHAIRMAN Nigel Smedley 40 Ferrers Way, Darley Abbey, Derby DE22 2BA. e-mail: [email protected] tel: 01332 541267
SECRETARY Frank Collins 10 Collett Way, Frome, Somerset, BA11 2XR e-mail: [email protected] Tel: 01373 466408
TREASURER Peter Smith 28 Downsview Ave, Storrington, West Sussex RH20 4PS (and Membership) e-mail: [email protected] 01903 742684. EDITOR David Ashley 92 Lawrence Drive, Ickenham, Uxbridge, Middx, UB10 8RW
e-mail: [email protected], Tel 01895 675178
Meetings Officer Martin Barrett 112 Langley Drive, Norton, Malton, N Yorks YO17 9AB
[email protected] tel 01653 694937
s Fastest Times Editor David Sage 93 Salisbury Road, Burton, Christchurch, Dorset BH23 7JR
e-mail: [email protected] tel; 01202 249717
Distance Chart Editor John Bull 37 Heathfield Road, Basingstoke, Hants RG22 4PA
email;[email protected]
Milepost 27½ - 160 - October 2006
Archivist & Librarian Lee Allsopp 2 Gainsborough, North Lake, Bracknell RG12 7WL e-mail: [email protected] tel; 01344 648644
Technical Officer David Hobbs 11 Lynton Terrace, Acton, London W3 9DX
Tel 020 8993 3788 [email protected]
Publicity Officer Jeremy Hartill, 7 Curlow Close, Beverley, N Humberside HU17 7QN. Phone 01482 870507 e-mail: [email protected]
Non-committee officials:- 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), Martin Barrett (secretary), Nigel Smedley.
CONTENTS Page Notices 162 Fastest Times Martin Robertson 168 Voyagers in Distress 1 Virgin Driver 175 Voyagers in Distress 2 Alan Varley 179 Kentish Mysteries David Ashley 183 Last of the Summer Wine Frank Collins 187 Dunkley Collecton: 1956 Martin Barrett 196 Journeyplan 211 Green Heart of Germany Bill Long 213 Letters 222 News Alert 226 AGM Minutes/Meeting Report Supplement 231
Enclosures (where subscribed) Historical Fastest Times, UK Distance Charts, UK Fastest Times, CD-roms.
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 27½ - 161 - October 2006
Foreword from the Chairman
Hopefully you will have noticed the new look Milepost.
On this occasion it is the cover’s turn to feel the pressure of change! The Committee felt that the previous format, unchanged since the mid 1980s, had seen its day. I think the new more modern format, together with better quality paper is an enormous improvement. Many thanks to Editor Dave Ashley for his great work on this. Any comments or suggestions on the new format are, as always, gratefully received.
I am very much looking forward to the impending talk to the RPS by arguably the most famous living railwayman Chris Green. We are delighted that Chris has agreed to talk to us about the life of InterCity (from the inside!). Your support for this prestige event at Imperial College, South Kensington on Saturday October 21st is very much appreciated.
On the UK rail scene in general, as always things tend to blow hot and cold particularly in England as opposed to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. A notable triumph from Virgin took place on 22nd September with a new non-stop record achieved from Glasgow Central to Euston at last showing the potential and benefit of the £8bn West Coast upgrade. Yet only a few weeks earlier rival Anglo-Scottish operator GNER was announced as being on the verge of financial collapse. Where this leaves the East Coast operations longer term remains far from clear. The news about Eurostar’s intention to replace Ashford calls with Ebbsfleet also caused some understandable consternation to the residents of East Kent. Finally, the successful retention of South West Trains by Stagecoach is expected to see the much mooted hourly service from Waterloo to Exeter with some minor redoubling around Axminster and a new loop at Whimple. So, as always a whole set of mixed almost contradictory messages.
As this is the final Milepost for 2006, please accept my seasonal best wishes to all members.
Nigel Smedley Chairman
SOCIETY NOTICES
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.
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.
Milepost 27½ - 162 - October 2006
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 23 ¾ 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/OVERSEAS DISTANCE CHARTS
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.
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. The 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.
Changes – as a result of a Committee decision this issue of Milepost will see the last paper Update of GB Fastest Times. In future both GB and Overseas FTs can be viewed on the website. The Annual editions will continue as normal.
David Sage October 2006
HISTORIC FASTEST TIMES
For members subscribing to this item, the 2006 issue should be included with the October copy of Milepost. New items include Electric Loco records on the WCML, HST records on the WCML, and a special feature on the Class 91 + Class 43 combinations used on Kings Cross - Leeds services in the early days of ECML electrification.
The 2007 issue will probably include HST records on those other parts of the Cross Country network that no longer have daily HST operation. An update of the ECML diesel loco-hauled FT is also due, so if you can beat any of the existing records (2002 issue), or if you can offer any other items or suggestions for the 2007 issue, please send these to the compiler by e-mail to [email protected] , or by post to Bevan Price, 24 Walmesley Road, Eccleston, St. Helens, Lancs., WA10 5JT.
SALES ITEMS Back Numbers: Certain back issues of Milepost, from Milepost 6 onwards, can be supplied at a price of £2.50 each including postage. Supplies are extremely limited and once sold they will not be reprinted. Details of issues available will be supplied on request.
Milepost 27½ - 163 - October 2006
Milepost is available in the British Library; the Bodleian Library, Oxford; the University Library, Cambridge; The National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh; The Library of Trinity College, Dublin, the National Library of Wales, the National Railway Museum and the Railway Studies Library at Newton Abbot Library. Where a requested edition is out of print the member will be provided with a letter of authority from the Society (as copyright holder) to enable a complete copy to be taken from any of the Library copies. Indices for volumes 7, 8, 10, 12 to 19 and 21 are available and will be supplied free of charge on receipt of an A5 size stamped addressed envelope. UK Mileage Supplement: £20.00 in two binders. The complete collection of RPS mileage charts compiled to date. Individual new and revised charts are issued with Milepost when available. Sets of the Charts are made up individually to order, but every effort is made to supply within the normal 28 day delivery allowance.
Overseas Distance Supplement (Section 1: France): £10.00 in binder. The complete collection of RPS charts on SNCF lines compiled to date. Individual new and revised charts are distributed occasionally with Milepost to those members who have paid a small supplementary membership fee. Historical Fastest Times 2004 and 2005 Editions: £2.00 each. All orders please to Peter Smith. All prices include postage. Please enclose the correct remittance with your order and allow 28 days for delivery.
VOYAGER / ADELANTE / CHALLENGER / PENDOLINO RECORDS. Many thanks to those who responded to my request for records achieved by the above classes. As stated in Milepost 23¾ it is the intention to track the development of records by these classes. The file will be passed to David sage for publication as circumstances allow.
At this stage I simply need a line of entry, preferably by e-mail or post, to showing Unit no/s. Vehicles/Recorder/Section*/From/To/Date and time.
* as per FT booklet. e.g. Paddington to Reading would be gw1, Euston-Coventry wc2. Any recognisable abbreviation is fine.
In order to save David a lot of work in processing records for these classes until standards are set, please send your contributions for these classes to - John Heaton, 57 West Cliff Park Drive, Dawlish, Devon, EX7 9ER or [email protected]
MEETINGS:
NEXT MEETING DATES
SATURDAY THURSDAY SATURDAY 13TH JANUARY 2007 15th FEBRUARY 2007 3RD MARCH 2007 York Bristol Crewe 1200 for 1215 1700 for 1730 1200 for 1215
Nigel Smedley Discussion Stephen Griffin
A video timing Talk on current operation simulation – ‘Illusions and performance of of Accuracy’ Pendolinos over WCML(S)
Milepost 27½ - 164 - October 2006
Future Meeting dates.
We hope to arrange a speaker for the AGM at York on 12 May 2007.
Later in 2007 we expect to arrange meetings in mid September and mid November.
The Society has a digital projector and if any member would like to give a short presentation at a society meeting using this projector (or without if they prefer), or if anyone has any topics for discussion at meetings please contact the Meetings Organiser.
DIRECTIONS TO THE VENUES
CREWE – THE CREWE ARMS HOTEL Come out of the railway station and turn right, cross the road, the hotel is 50 metres on the left hand side.
YORK – THE RAILWAY INSTITUTE (Committee Room on 1st floor)
Come out of the railway station and turn right. York RI is accessed from the road bridge after about 50 metres by descending the steps to the entrance under the footbridge.
BRISTOL - at THE GWRSA CLUB, is on the right hand side of Bristol Temple Meads station approach road heading away from the station about 150 metres. It is reached by steps from the approach road. The GWRSA Club opens at 1100, but we will meet at the main entrance of Temple Meads station at 1700 in order to enter together (if possible). Due to licensing laws the manager of the GWRSA Club needs the names of members attending, if you could let John Heaton know at least 2 weeks before the date on 01626 865526 or [email protected] (those who attended previously do not need to let John Heaton know) . FREE SOCIETY MEETINGS All society meetings are free of charge to Members attending; i.e. no contribution will be asked towards the hire of rooms. The committee wishes to encourage Members to come along to meetings, talk to other train timers and share information and experiences of traction performance.
MARTIN TASKER MEMORIAL LIBRARY
The Society holds a large number of books (~130) containing articles on performance, or containing information of use to Society Members. Full details of the books held are contained in past issues of Milepost.
The books are available for borrowing by contacting me by letter, phone or E-Mail. The borrower will be responsible for postage in both directions. It will be possible in many cases for arrangements to be made to pass books on at Society Meetings to avoid postage costs in one direction at least. The length of the loan can be flexible by agreement.
The Society will be happy to receive donations to the Library. Items should be related to Railway Performance (no Magazine Collections please). Again please contact me regarding this. New items received into the Library will be notified in updates published in Milepost. The entire contents of the library will shortly be listed on the Society Website.
Lee Allsopp
Milepost 27½ - 165 - October 2006
RPS ARCHIVES – CD DISTRIBUTION
The RPS Archive consists of material collected over the years from submissions and donations of material and collections by members. We are also indebted to the Steam Railway Research Society (SRRS) for giving us the opportunity to scan some of their material for inclusion in our archive.
Members who have registered to receive the CDs will receive 2 CDs with this copy of Milepost:
(i) The third in a series of CDs containing the scanned collection of Ian Umpleby, one of our current active members. This second CD contains Ian’s runs from 1989 to 1993. The collection is centred on Leeds, with many runs up and down the East Coast Main Line and across the Pennines, together with a large number of Railtours. Recordings abroad also feature, including Italy, Germany, Austria, Spain and New Zealand.
(ii) The first in a series of CD containing the Society Magazine – Milepost starting at the very beginning! All the early Mileposts have been scanned and will be made available on CD. Later ones that we have soft copies available for, will be issued as a series of pdf documents. Apologies in advance for the quality of some of the images. The print quality of many of the originals available is not what we would take for granted today. However we felt it was worthwhile making the entire collection available to members. This first CD contains Milepost Volume 1 No 1 to Milepost Volume 3 Number 2 (8 copies of Milepost in total)
To keep the cost to the Society down (and the overhead of CD copying), the CDs will only be issued to those who ‘register’ for the updates. It’s not too late to register. To do so please contact Lee Allsopp by letter, phone or E-Mail to register for the CDs.
**** RPS ARCHIVES – DVDs and Web Access *****
We are currently looking at the possibility of moving over to issuing the RPS Archives on DVD instead of CD. This has the main advantage that we can get the archive material out to the members quicker on one DVD ROM (One DVD has the capacity of about 6 CDs). For those of you who haven’t copied the CDs to your hard drive, this would also make finding the images easier by reducing the amount of CD changing required.
We are also looking at putting the archives on the web in future and doing away with issuing physical media. The database is already there on the RPS website for those of you who have looked at the website recently.
To help us with assessing the feasibility and demand for this I would be very grateful if those of you who receive the CDs, could E-Mail me (address inside front cover) to tell me whether you have DVD capability on your computer and how you currently connect to the Internet (Dial Up or Broadband (inc speed)).
Lee Allsopp
NEED MATERIAL FOR ARTICLES?
Do you feel that you could write an article for Milepost if only you had access to material to do so? Just want some information to satisfy an idle curiosity? Even if you don’t have access to the Society Archives and database on CD, you can still get information and logs for that
Milepost 27½ - 166 - October 2006
article or whatever by contacting me direct by either E-Mail, phone or letter. Just ask me the question and I’ll see what we can come up with!
Lee Allsopp
PROVISION OF CURRENT MATERIAL FOR RPS ARCHIVE
With many members now being connected by Broadband, we are now in a position where we can receive contributions via E-Mail of current material from as many members as wish to contribute. A member could record a log one day and send it to me immediately for inclusion in the database and archive. Would any members who may wish to participate in this please contact me by E-Mail for further details.
I can accept material in a number of formats, Word, Excel, Acrobat pdf files and scanned images of hand written material (eg notebooks). For scanned images we find that scanning at 150dpi gives perfectly acceptable results, while producing files of a reasonable size (200- 400KB)
Lee Allsopp
DISTANCE CHART NEWS.
UK Distance Charts
Accompanying this issue of Milepost is the latest release of the UK Distance Charts (Issue 42), including both updated and new charts. Following feedback, there are two slight changes to the format – firstly a vertical bar against a line indicates it has changed since the last revision, and secondly redundant or excessive information (e.g. demolished signal boxes) will be removed from the printed charts. This information will be available on the versions of the charts available from the members area of the society website. The information can be turned on/off using some of the inbuilt macros that have now been added to the excel spreadsheets.
Charts being reviewed/produced for future release are added to the website at regular intervals, so it always worth checking the website if you need a chart that hasn’t yet been published.
If you have any updates/suggestions regarding the UK Distance Charts then please send me (John Bull) a letter or email at the address at the start of the magazine.
Website
Access to the members area of the website is being simplified. If you haven’t yet accessed the site, then you will already have a user id/password setup consisting on your last name and first name. Those members who already have access the website, then your existing user id/password is still valid. Any problems then please contact John Bull.
The Legacy of Train Recording
Hopefully, members are aware of the importance of making wills, and less importantly, the benefits of leaving their logs and data to the RPS.
Details of possible wording were given in Milepost 26, Page 12. Members are urged to consider the contents of the article
Milepost 27½ - 167 - October 2006
FASTEST TIMES UPDATE
Martin Robertson
Welcome to another Fastest Times Update in which we have contributions from Glasgow to Newton Abbott. Fastest Times continue to be set on the WCML with contributions from Alan Varley, John Rishton and Alexander Smeaton. Sandy’s run from Carlisle to Motherwell is undoubtly the best of this summer with a first 100mph plus average recorded north of Carlisle.
Table 1 starts with two runs on one of the more unusual extensions of the Virgin Cross Country network. There are two services which originate from Glasgow, cross to Edinburgh and run south via the ECML. The 6 00 service, instead of running via Motherwell and Carstairs, is routed via Shotts and Midcalder Jn. The schedule is generous with almost an hour allowed to Edinburgh, from where the service follows the GNER 7 00 service, which is diagrammed for an HST.
The first run shown had a very cautious start from Glasgow Central, a common complaint these days, but once clear of Eglington St Tunnel the driver ran up to the line limits where possible. There may have been a tsr at Uddinghston Jn as the psr is 60mph with a general limit of 70mph thereafter until Midcalder Jn. Two psr’s, one on either side of Midcalder Jn and a stop before Haymarket East Jn could not stop an early arrival. The unit had all engines working, a reasonably common feature of the Voyager Units these days. The second run with a Class 220 Voyager had a much faster start and the driver made good use of the power available from four working power cars. I did not note speeds from Uddingston to Shotts as it was a murky morning. Once on the main line there were lightning fast accelerations away from Midcalder Jn and the 50mph tsr after Kirknewton. I had hoped that we might have got through Haymarket East Jn without a check but signals intervened again.
Table 2 has a run in each direction between Nuneaton and Euston recorded by John Rishton. Despite the numerous minor tsr’s and the signal checks on the final stages of the northbound run, John achieved Fastest Times in each direction. His comments are:-There used to be the occasional good day s on the WCML. Now they are the rule. Thursday 10th August was one of the good days. For me it was almost perfect. I travelled up on the 07 49 from Nuneaton, the only weekday service without an intermediate stop. A two minute late start was just right for an almost clear run throughout, the only stop signal being noted was approaching Park Street Tunnel but that cleared as we started to descend Camden Bank. We approached Rugby Trent Valley Jn faster than my recent experiences but, confirming a journey of the previous day, the temporary speed restriction through Rugby has apparently been raised to 60mph, up from a presumed 40mph on other recent trips.
Note the divergence from WTT timings during a textbook run. The start from Nuneaton is very easily scheduled and two minutes was gained by Ledburn, held until Harrow, but then a minute was lost to Camden. The final half minute loss can be attributed to the Park Tunnel signal check.
I did not note any occasion where the 125mph limit was exceeded, in fact the driver was rather cautious, but the higher speed through Rugby combined with the lack of any slowing through Northchurch and Berkhamstead produce a run 2.5 minutes quicker than the previous Society record. By coincidence the return journey on the 18 05 ex Euston, was the only weekdays service which runs non stop to Nuneaton.
Again an ‘on-time’ start, rather than the often noted “1 early” proved helpful. A clear road with just two temporary speed restrictions ( at Roade and Rugby) left me anticipating, on
Milepost 27½ - 168 - October 2006
TABLE 1 Run A B Date/day 03-Jul-06 31-Aug-06 Train 0600 Glasgow-B'mouth 0600 Glasgow-B'mouth Motive Power 222111 220027 Load (tons) 5,268/271 4,176/188 Rec/Pos/GPS? MDR 4/5 N MDR 2/4 N Miles M C location m s mph M s mph 0.00 102 20 Glasgow d (P2) 0 00 0 00 0.55 101 56 Bridge St 2 48 20 2 20 25 0.92 101 26 Eglington St 3 41 30 3 10 30 2.00 100 20 Polmadie 5 32 59 4 59 67 3.16 99 15 Rutherglen 6 28 72 5 50 73 4.96 97 23 Cambuslang 7 59 77 7 19 77 6.56 95 55 Newton 9 10 87 8 28 89 8.41 93 67 Uddingston 10 42 46* 10 11 40* (-0 10) 10.69 2 22 Bellshill 13 21 66/63 12 40 12.06 3 52 Mossend E J 0 30 12.77 1 07 Holytown 15 18 64 14 38 13.55 1 69 Carfin 16 02 62/70 15 22 15.35 3 53 Cleland 17 38 68/69 16 57 18.44 6 60 Hartwood 20 21 68 19 38 20.14 8 36 Shotts 21 51 69 21 07 22.69 11 00 Benhar Jn 24 06 66e'd 23 19 70 23.52 11 67 Fauldhouse 25 01 58/55* 24 08 60* 25.71 14 02 Briech 27 15 65 26 14 70 28.34 16 52 Addiewell 29 35 68 28 31 68 30.04 18 28 West Calder 31 42 35tsr/68 29 59 68/70 32.90 21 17 Livingston S'th 34 28 60br/35tsr 32 27 70 34.64 22 76 Midcalder Jn 89 60 37 21 42 33 60 69 35.80 90 73 Kirknewton 38 10 81/90/49tsr 34 53 90/92/50tsr 38.39 93 40 Ravelrig 40 36 73/94 37 06 76 40.39 95 40 Curriehill 41 57 93 38 24 95 42.06 97 14 Wester Hailes 43 15 67 39 38 71* 42.95 98 01 Kingsknowe 43 59 67 40 20 70 43.86 98 78 Slateford 44 53 66 41 14 60sc ss47 49 ss44 52 - 39 40- 46 49 45.52 100 51 Haymarket a 51 17 48 47 passing Trent Valley Jn, a Nuneaton arrival at around 57 to 57.5 minutes from Euston. However speed rose to around 75mph and then tailed off. A freight had joined the WCML at Rugby south just in front of us. We followed this to Attleborough Jn, now a reasonably high speed turn out and arrived in Nuneaton just inside an hour from Euston. Still a Society record. Again a very good run never exceeding 125mph and especially in the way the driver adjusted to the slower preceding train north of Rugby.
Comparing the WTT timings again produced some notable divergences from this textbook journey. Slightly quicker than allowed to Camden but then a fairly constant 1 minute slower than allowed to Rugby. Arrival at Nuneaton would have been two minutes early but for the freight ( since found to have been running two minutes late itself).
Milepost 27½ - 169 - October 2006
Table 2 Day/Date Thursday 10th August 2006 Thursday 10th August 2006 Train 06.27 Liverpool Lime St - Euston 18.05 Euston - Manchester Picc Motive Power 390.033 390.040 Weight 460/490 = 16.3hp/ton 460/490 = 16.3hp/ton Weather dry but windy dry but windy Recorder, pos,GPS J Rishton - 2/9 – No J Rishton - 7/9 - No Miles mm cc location WTT Sch mm:s s average WTT Sch mm:s s average 0.00 97 10 Nuneaton 0 0 -2 0.0 55 59:55 67.1 5.76 91 29 Shilton 4:21 79.4 54:46 sigs 73.7 13.87 83 20 Trent Valley Junction 10 8:37 tsr 114.0 47 48:10 tsr 33.3 14.62 82 40 Rugby 11 9:35 tsr 61.4 45 46:49 tsr 52.1 16.82 80 24 Hillmorton 13 11:03 77.6 43 44:17 115.8 21.87 75 20 Welton 13:50 108.9 41:40 121.6 27.34 69 63 Weedon Junction 19 16:32 psr 121.6 38 38:58 psr 113.6 29.55 67 46 Heyford 17:39 118.7 37:48 124.3 32.59 64 43 Banbury Lane 19:09 121.6 36:20 123.5 34.27 62 68 Blisworth 19:58 123.4 35:31 tsr 110.3 40.40 56 58 Hanslope Junction 26 23:04 118.6 31 32:11 123.1 44.74 52 33 Wolverton 25:17 117.5 30:04 122.2 47.32 49 66 Milton Keynes Central 29 26:33 122.2 28 28:48 116.8 50.50 46 52 Bletchley 31 28:15 psr 112.2 27 27:10 psr 120.9 54.90 42 20 Chelmscote 30:32 115.6 24:59 123.4 56.99 40 13 Leighton Buzzard 31:41 psr 109.0 23:58 124.2 58.82 38 26 Grove Lane 32:37 117.6 23:05 123.4 59.54 37 49 Ledburn Junction 35 32:58 1/2 120.6 22 22:44 122.8 61.04 36 09 Cheddington 33:42 124.1 22:00 124.1 65.45 31 56 Tring 38 35:51 123.1 19 19:52 122.9 69.24 27 73 Berkhamsted 37:41 124.1 18:01 122.5 70.84 26 25 Bourne End 41 38:28 122.4 16 17:14 120.7 72.65 24 40 Hemel Hempstead 39:20 1/2 124.3 16:20 123.9 74.06 23 07 Apsley 40:02 122.3 15:39 124.3 76.20 20 76 Kings Langley 41:05 122.3 14:37 112.1 79.72 17 34 Watford Junction 45 43:00 psr 110.2 12 12:44 psr 107.3 81.15 16 00 Bushey 43:47 109.6 11:56 116.1 85.76 11 31 Harrow & Wealdstone 48 46:03 122.0 9 09:33 124.5 89.15 8 00 Wembley Central 50 47:45 119.6 7 07:55 102.2 91.62 5 42 Willesden Junction 51 49:19 psr 94.6 6 06:28 psr 84.9 93.46 3 55 Queens Park 50:32 psr 90.8 05:10 psr 52.0 95.51 1 51 Camden Junction 54 53:00 psr 49.9 3 02:48 psr 34.1 97.10 0 00 London Euston 57 56:24 p12 28.1 0 00:00 p13 0.0
Table 3 moves north to the Cumbrian area with two northbound runs recorded by Alan Varley. The Preston Lancaster time of 14m 15s is slightly below the current Society record of 14m 09s also held by Alan. However an apparently relatively slow start and the tsr after Oubeck would appear to offer scope for future improvement. The Lancaster to Oxenholme sections were virtually identical runs, with the first run equally Chris Taylor’s current Society record time. The Oxenholme to Penrith runs both bettered the previous record times by in excess of 15seconds. Neither run managed to match Bevan Price’s effort of 2002 with 86242 and a time of 22m 32s. In passing one would say that there is no apparent change in the permitted speeds since Bevan’s run. As a footnote John Heaton has advised that Charles Foss has recently submitted a 22m 22s time with a Pendolino, although no log of the run was available.
Milepost 27½ - 170 - October 2006
Table 3 Date Th 29/06/06 M 3/07/06 Train 1646 Euston-Ed 0646 Eust-Glas Load Pendolino 9/458/470 Pendolino 9/458/470 Loco 390041 390025 Recorder, position AV 7/9 AV 8/9 Weather Fine Fine m c miles Location m s mph m s mph 00 00 0.00 Preston 0 00 3 late 00 40 0.50 Fylde Jc 1 17 1/2 36 01 27 1.34 Oxheys 2 12 1/2 73 03 00 3.00 OB 3 23 1/2 94 04 60 4.75 Barton 4 24 109/122 07 36 7.45 Brock 5 46 120/106* 09 35 9.44 Garstang 6 51 1/2 108 12 59 12.74 Scorton 8 31 1/2 124/123 15 20 15.25 Bay Horse 9 44 1/2 124 17 64 17.80 Oubeck 11 06 1/2 88*tsr/94 19 66 19.83 Old Jc 12 32 72* 20 79 20.99 Lancaster 14 15 00 00 0.00 16 35 3½ late 0 00 1 late 01 00 1.00 MP 1 32 70 1 35 70 01 73 1.91 Morecambe S J 2 12 1/2 92 2 14 92 03 11 3.14 Hest Bank 2 57 102 2 58 104 04 31 4.39 Bolton 3 37 1/2 118/120 3 38 121 06 20 6.25 Carnforth 4 36 106* 4 37 108* 09 40 9.50 MP 9½ 6 14 123/124 6 14 1/2 123/124 10 60 10.75 Burton 6 50 1/2 123 6 51 123/125 13 43 13.54 Milnthorpe 8 13 1/2 120 8 14 117 15 38 15.48 Hincaster Jc 9 16 106/110 9 16 1/2 107/110 17 00 17.00 Sedgwick 10 6 1/2 108 10 6 1/2 107 18 00 18.00 MP 10 41 91* 10 41 85* 19 08 19.10 Oxenholme 12 04 2½ late 12 09 19 08 0.00 Oxenholme 14 57 4½ late 16 14 4 late 20 56 1.60 Peat Lane 2 07 82 2 03 83 22 40 3.40 Hay Fell 3 18 1/2 94 3 13 1/2 94 24 20 5.15 Lambrigg 4 25 1/2 93 4 21 1/2 93/82 26 13 7.06 Grayrigg 5 43 82/90 5 42 86/90 27 59 8.64 Low Gill 6 46 87 6 45 1/2 87 30 00 10.90 MP 30 8 15 100/98 8 14 1/2 97 32 17 13.11 Tebay 9 35 102 9 34 104 33 40 14.40 Tebay N 10 19 108 10 19 108/105 35 12 16.05 Scout Gn 11 14 107/76 11 15 109/78 37 49 18.51 Shap Summit 12 53 78 12 52 1/2 81 39 58 20.62 Shap 14 19 95/102 14 16 1/2 106 41 53 22.56 Harrisons RR 15 32 84* 15 26 1/2 88* 42 65 23.71 Thrimby Gr OB 16 22 1/2 80/79 16 16 1/2 79/78 44 67 25.74 Bessie Ghyll OB 17 54 83 17 48 1/2 83 47 03 27.94 Clifton 19 14 1/2 102 19 08 105/106 49 00 29.90 MP 49 20 22 1/2 106 20 16 95* 50 13 31.06 Eamont Jc 21 14 75* 21 08 76* Slow 51 20 32.15 Penrith 22 38 22 40 stop
Milepost 27½ - 171 - October 2006
Table 4 Date: Sat 1.7.06 Sat 12.08.06 Train: 11.35 Euston-Glasgow 15 35 Euston-Glasgow Unit: 390.020 'Pendolino' 7650kW 390 007 Load: 9 cars/ 452/460 9:452/460 Weather: Dry and very warm Dry and Mild Recorder/Method: A.Smeaton/Times:stopwatch A.Smeaton/Times:stopwatch Position: 3/9 2/9 Mileage Ms Ch LOCATION Sch* Mn Sc Av Spd Mn Sc Av Spd 0.00 0 00 CARLISLE (Plat 3) 0 0 00 (-1 3/4) 0 00 (-1 1/4L) 0.75 0 60 Caldew Jn 2 09 20.9 1 53 23.8 2.08 2 06 Kingmoor 3 18 69.3 3 02 69.4 4.08 4 06 Rockcliffe 4 27 103.7 4 12 103.1 6.09 6 07 Floriston 5 28 118.8 5 13 118.6 8.75 8 60 Gretna Jn 7 01 103.4 6 44 104.9 10.38 10 30 Quintinshill (OB) 8 01 97.5 7 45 96.6 13.00 13 00 Kirkpatrick 9 30 105.8 9 14 106.5 16.75 16 60 Kirtlebridge 11 21 121.8 11 04 122.1 20.21 20 17 Ecclefechan 13 10 114.4 12 52 115.2 22.00 22 00 Milepost 14 07 113.1 13 49 113.5 25.84 25 67 LOCKERBIE 16 05 117.1 15 47 116.4 28.69 28 55 Nethercleugh 17 28 124.2 17 09 124.5 31.75 31 60 Dinwoodie 18 56 124.1 18 38 123.5 32.50 32 40 Milepost 19 18 123.4 123.8 34.50 34 40 Wamphray 20 17 123.7 19 58 123.8 36.88 36 70 Murthat 21 26 123.8 21 07 124.4 39.75 39 60 Beattock 22 50 122.8 22 31 123.4 42.00 42 00 Milepost 24 03 110.8 23 36 123.7 45.00 45 00 Greskine (MP) 25 39 112.8 25 15 119.5 47.00 47 00 Harthope Viaduct 26 45 108.9 26 25 96.6 49.75 49 60 Beattock Summit 28 33 91.6 28 14 90.2 52.61 52 49 Elvanfoot 30 25 92.3 30 05 92.7 55.10 55 08 Crawford 32 04 90.2 31 44 90.3 57.86 57 69 Abington 33 54 90.4 33 34 90.2 60.25 60 20 Wandelmill 35 21 98.3 35 03 97.0 62.00 62 00 Milepost 36 19 109.9 63.25 63 20 Lamington 36 56 120.2 36 38 113.7 66.61 66 49 Symington 38 34 123.3 38 16 123.3 68.50 68 40 Thankerton 39 29 123.9 39 11 124.7 70.05 70 04 Leggatfoot OB 40 14 124.2 39 56 123.5 73.20 73 16 Carstairs S Jn 41 59 108.2 41 46 102.9/sigs DY 73.61 73 49 CARSTAIRS 42 16 87.6 42 03 89.1 76.00 76 00 Lanark Jn 43 41 100.9 43 31 97.4 78.50 78 40 Craigenhill 45 15 95.6 45 04 96.5 80.69 80 55 Braidwood 46 37 96.1 46 26 96.4 81.94 81 75 CARLUKE 47 22 100.4 47 11 99.8 84.00 84 00 Law Jn 48 41 93.9 48 31 92.9 84.75 84 60 Garriongill Jn 49 24 63.2 86.25 86 20 Milepost 50 40 71.1 50 30 68.1 87.00 87 00 Milepost 51 08 95.7 87.75 87 60 SHIELDMUIR 51 34 105.5 51 25 98.1 89.00 89 00 Milepost 52 19 99.6 52 48 54.2 sigs 89.44 89 35 MOTHERWELL 56 53 16 27.4 54 29
Milepost 27½ - 172 - October 2006
Table 5 Date 17.1.06 Train 2P09 07.09(WTT) Haslemere-W'loo Units 450 071/008/077 Recorder/position J Cattermole (JC), 8/12 Min Av spd Distance WTT Sec Speedo mph
(DEP 0.00 GUILDFORD 0 0.00 7L) 3.55 WORPLESDON arr 4.5 4.20 Max 82 5.5 5.13 0.00 WORPLESDON dep 0 0.00 - (DEP 5L) 2.04 Woking J (24.75) 3 3.04 60/*40 39.9 2.46 WOKING 4 3.32 54 54.0 5.09 West Byfleet 5.44 90 71.7 6.36 Byfleet & New Haw 6.34 93 91.4 7.67 Weybridge (0.5) 7.26 91/92 90.7 9.69 Walton 8.46 94/93 90.9 10.80 Hersham 9.29 92 92.9 12.44 Esher 10.34 91/93/92 90.8 13.45 Hampton Court Jct 12 11.16 87 86.6 14.75 SURBITON 13 12.11 82/83 85.1 15.86 Berrylands 12.59 82/84/83 83.2 17.04 New Malden 13.55 76 75.9 18.14 Raynes Park 14.48 78/77 74.7 19.57 WIMBLEDON 17 15.54 75/74 78.0 21.16 Earlsfield 17.11 78/76 74.3 22.81 CLAPHAM JUNCTION 20 19.00 *40/63 54.5 25.42 Vauxhall (2.5) 21.57 *43/*/sig stop 53.1 26.70 WATERLOO 29 26.00 - 19.0 Net time: 25 Table 6 Run A Date W 5/07/06 Train 1225 Plymouth-Glasgow Load 5/273/280 Loco 221139 Recorder, position AV 5/5 Weather Overcast, damp 214 04 0.00 Newton Abbot 0 0 RT 212 40 1.55 MP 212½ 2 09 1/2 slip/70/91 210 20 3.80 MP 210 ¼ 3 43 1/2 90/57* 86.2 208 75 5.11 Teignmouth 5 03 1/2 58/73 59.0 207 42 6.52 Parsons Rock T W 6 19 1/2 58* 66.8 206 12 7.90 Dawlish 7 44 1/2 61/71/70 58.4 204 40 9.55 Dawlish Warren 9 10 77/79 69.5 202 36 11.60 Starcross 10 45 74/77 77.7 200 60 13.30 Powderham 12 06 1/2 74 75.1 199 54 14.37 Turf Lock 12 52 1/2 93 83.7 198 55 15.36 Exminster 13 29 100/101 97.6 196 00 18.05 MP 196 15 06 1/2 br 99.3 194 66 19.23 St Thomas 16 02 1/2 68* 90.8 193 72 20.15 Exeter St Davids 17 15 1 early 45.7 V firm stop in Exeter!
Milepost 27½ - 173 - October 2006
Run B Date Th 6/07/06 Train 0724 Ptsmth H-Waterloo Load 4/ Loco 450025 Recorder, position AV 3/4 Weather Misty, sultry
47 58 0.00 Basingstoke 0 0 46 00 1.73 MP 46 2 2 1/2 78 50.8 42 17 5.53 Hook 4 39 1/2 89/90 87.1 39 65 7.93 Winchfield 6 16 89 89.5 38 00 9.73 MP 38 7 30 1/2 80 87.0 36 41 11.23 Fleet 9 14 52.2
Table 4 features two runs from Carlisle to Motherwell, both on the 11 35 Euston-Glasgow service and timed by Alexander Smeaton. Both runs had a slightly late start as an incentive to the driver. Sandy has not included actual speeds, only the averages between the timing points. The averages illustrate the transformation in the speed profile of the line from Carlisle to Greskine and Wandel to Carstairs. I do not know why the 95mph limit at Quintishill has not been raised and why the 90mph limit from Harthope to Wandelmill has not been upgraded. The line north of Carlisle has been free of any form of temporary speed restrictions for most of the year, which has allowed some excellent times to be recorded.
The first run had a slower exit from Carlisle to passing Kingmoor, being 16 seconds behind. The difference at Leggatfoot, 68 miles later was 18 seconds, a testament to the uniformity of running which is prevalent on the line. The second run suffered a slight signal check approaching Carstairs, from a preceding GNER service but was still 9 seconds ahead on passing Shieldmuir. Signal checks then intervened on the second run whereas the first run had an unchecked run into Motherwell station with a good time in from Shieldmuir. The time of 53m 16s gives an average start to stop speed of 100.7mph, the first 100mph plus average I have seen recorded in Scotland. I managed 54m 01s on the 19th August, on the same train. A time of 3m 12s to Kingmoor, but the driver braked to 100 before Floriston, for no obvious reason, and was 6 seconds behind Sandy’s first run at Kirkpatrick. Twelve seconds adrift at Shieldmuir, but a quite severe brake application to 40mph before a good stop into Motherwell station. We had left Carlisle 32 minutes late, which was probably quite fortunate as the suburban services from Lanark and Motherwell operate on a 30 minute pattern. Sandy also forwarded the first run that I have seen of Voyagers operating to the EPS limits with a 68m 18s run from Glasgow to Carlisle. I was on a four car Class 221 the following day which stuck to the 110mph limits.
Table 5 features a run from Worplesdon to Waterloo with a twelve coach formation of Class 450 units, recorded by J Cattermole. I am unaware if the units are limited to 90mph or what the line limits are. A signal stop outside Waterloo could not prevent a three minute gain on the schedule.
Table 6 features two short snippets recorded by Alan Varley. The first run between Newton Abbot and Exeter bettered John Heaton’s previous effort by 12 seconds. The time is still however some way short of the 16m 34s HST record held by Mark Mouldsworth. Without an improvement in the line speeds, the HST record may be hard to beat. Alan did not comment if the unit had all power cars working. The second run in the table is a short sprint along the slow lines between Basingstoke and Fleet. A 73mph start to stop average.
Milepost 27½ - 174 - October 2006
VOYAGERS IN DISTRESS - 1
By Virgin Driver
I have recently undertaken driver training on class 220/221s in preparation for the takeover by west coast drivers from ‘hired in’ cross country drivers on the Euston-N Wales services. It was originally considered that working with both types of TASS/TILT systems (Pendolino and Voyager) would confuse drivers so the traction knowledge was kept separate between West Coast (390s) and Cross country (221s). Due to loss of contracts on the West Coast side it became financially compelling to use their own drivers to operate the services using 221s. Drivers from Manchester and Liverpool are taken by taxi to and from Holyhead to operate the 3 trains that arrive in the evening and form early morning departures the following day. The changeover took place on June 12th without the necessary amount of trained drivers, requiring some ‘creative’ rostering from the Resources Office to maintain a full service. Consequently, the author has already gained experience with the units and has been able to test his newly acquired knowledge of the route and traction.
Voyagers come with a reputation of engine problems and (221s only) constantly failing tilt systems. Bombardier has been working hard to reduce the amount of units that enter traffic from Central Rivers with engines isolated. At one period units were being allowed to enter traffic from Central Rivers with 2 out of 5 engines isolated such was the depth of the problem. Recent press releases quote statistics that indicate an improvement in casualty and an increase in operational engines.
The first day worked involved. travelling to Crewe which was affected by the consequences of a lightning strike on the signalling system south of Warrington on the WCML. Electric trains were allowed to travel through the area under emergency working arrangements while diesel powered trains were diverted via Chester. At the time the author was not aware of any problems, I travelled to Warrington as diagrammed on the 1016 M/C Picc to Llandudno, then waited for the booked train to take me to Crewe at 1112. There were no announcements over the PA system or any indication on the passenger information screens. The 1053 voyager to Plymouth (1V45) ran in so I boarded it and made my way to the back cab. When the train began to move I went into the DMF to let the train manager know I was travelling to find an old friend, now a Driver Team Manager route conducting the train manager as it was to be diverted via Chester. I tried to contact Resources to advise I may be late, but due to the combination of poor mobile signal and engaged telephones in the office, this became a lengthy process, eventually making contact around Mickle Trafford. We had made slow progress due to the 1016 from Manchester being in front and having booked stops at Frodsham and Helsby. Further extensive delay occurred outside Chester with high track occupancy in the station, with a northbound XC voyager passing us on the bank after reversing followed by some WCRC coaching stock top and tailed by a class 33 and class 47. We were then allowed to run in to platform 4 to reverse, and while we waited for the driver to change ends an EWS Enterprise train departed from the through line heading for Warrington. There was a final delay outside Crewe for another northbound XC voyager to depart towards Chester, before we were allowed in to platform 6. I walked immediately across to platform 11 where my train (1A46) 221 117 had been stood for 30 mins, (incoming driver long gone) advising one of the platform staff of my presence as I crossed. Getting the train dispatched took long enough time to discover that there was one engine isolated but the tilt system could work. We waited a few minutes before being given the road on to the up slow, while 1V45 departed and a class 350/1 arrived in platform 8. Eventual departure was 38 late; we went on to the fast line at Basford Hall Jn; passed the Plymouth at Stafford; then received only one signal check all the way to Euston. This was approaching Colwich, caused by a class 90 hauled freightliner, which we passed between Rugeley and Armitage Jn. The
Milepost 27½ - 175 - October 2006
tilt system stayed operative until Harrow; loss was the result of a faulty track balise, so could not be blamed on the unit. We recovered 13 mins, taking about 97 mins overall. I returned north with the set at 1549, just before departure I was given a special stop order to drop off a fitter at Watford to attend to a southbound class 390 with an NRN problem. The tilt system did not operate on this journey; the train management system indicated that there was insufficient pressure in the system to function correctly. Further delays meant that the reduced speed necessary was not of any consequence. The next delay was a signal check at Rugby due to occupation of the platform by a Coventry bound train; preparation work for remodeling has meant that all trains using the Trent Valley line have to be routed through the down platform, hence the stop. Arrival at Crewe was approximately 10 late.
The following day- the same diagram. There was no disruption while traveling to Crewe. The same green ex-Central Trains 158 on the 1016. At Warrington 1V45 arrives formed of a 4 car 221.When I entered the back cab there was a Bombardier travelling fitter who I had met previously during training. I took the chance to discuss the faults I had experienced yesterday. He remarked “this one is tilting.” Approaching Weaver Jn an emergency brake application brings speed down to 85 mph, the brakes release, and then power was re- applied. These are the symptoms of tilt system failure. The fitter checks the TMS and advises maintenance control. The rest of the journey to Crewe is spent discussing the benefits of tilt and the weight penalty compared to a class 220. The fitter gave his opinion based on his experience on the main difference between the two types climbing the steeper gradients further north.
1A46 is delayed by a lineside fire somewhere on the North Wales coast and cattle on the line near Beeston Castle. The 1153 departure for Euston leaves RT with calls at Stafford and Watford. 221 117 arrives about 25 mins late, after a platform change from 12 to 11, with the same set as the previous day. A gang of cheerful drivers with an instructor bail out, advise me of the ‘state of play’ which is (still) one engine isolated. They soon disperse and head for home, having started at 4am. As I settle down into the driving position, I realise that the set must have reversed as the standard class is now at the south end of the train. I search for an explanation, concluding it must be a result of working the 0150 Holyhead to Birmingham and 0520 back to Holyhead, going ‘round the houses’ (via Bescot) at some point. The consequence of this manouvere is that the non tilt end is now facing south, so we will be running at permissible (non tilt) rather than enhanced speeds. Ironically, after leaving approximately 27 late, we then experience a run completely free of signal checks, and I feel inclined to submit a signaling irregularity form on arrival at Euston. Compared to yesterdays tilting run we lose 2 ½-3 mins from Rugby to Euston, with an overall Crewe-Euston time of around 95 mins, arriving 12 late. The unit accelerates to 100 at the top of the 1 in 177 before Madeley.
The 1549 has the ‘good’ end leading. We are instead handicapped by a shower which starts before departure. This has the effect of preventing acceleration beyond 32/33 up the steep incline where the X line joins the E line (previously the down departure line). Signal checks from a preceding class 390, probably on a Glasgow service, leave us 10 late at Rugby and continues to delay us to Crewe. As we enter platform 12 the passengers are still boarding the train in platform 6.
In the following week I am rostered two days involving a trip on the up from Crewe to Euston with a 221 (back to Manchester with 390), and one day making a pleasant journey from Crewe to Llandudno and back. The first day on the WCML started promisingly with 221 115 with 5 engines followed by activation of tilt south of Basford Hall after a punctual departure from Crewe. With all engines functioning, the set produced 78 at Basford Hall, 103 at Betley Road and 113 at Madeley. Swift progress passing Stafford in 15¾m was slowed first by DRS, in the form of 47501 and some container flats which was allowed a run over the double line section from Whitehouse Jn and Colwich. Shortly after passing the offending train the
Milepost 27½ - 176 - October 2006
TASS/TILT was terminally lost due to a defect on the unit. This brought speed down to 88 mph through an emergency brake application before the brakes could be released. The necessity to run at non tilt speeds became inconsequential as a late running 390 checked us leaving Rugby, who in turn was delayed by another leaving Milton Keynes. At Hemel Hempstead we were still close behind the trains in front, so I shut off power (110 mph) and we coasted until braking in the tunnel for the Watford stop (95mph). Neither train stopped at Watford, allowing both unhindered braking and a clear run to Euston, taking 14 ½m. Making a direct comparison of acceleration to a 390 is not straightforward as the starting points are different, but the 221 makes faster start to pass times and speed than a 9 car 390 at mp 17 and Bushey despite the extra distance the 221 has to travel from the appropriate stop board (roughly 3 coach length). After this the 390 storms ahead. Eventual arrival is 2 mins early against public times.
The second journey on the up over the WCML involved 221 102 with one engine isolated and tilt active. The acceleration away from Crewe should be noticeably slower of course, but on this occasion it was marginal, definitely not in relation to the missing power. Until one of the four remaining engines went into derate mode! The tilt lasted up to Lichfield bringing the train to a halt, requiring manual isolation to release the brakes. Despite the 2-3 minutes needed to do this and advise the necessary people the schedule carried enough surplus time that we ran punctually south of Rugby. The acceleration from Watford was similar to that from Crewe; barely any difference that could not be explained by variations in individual engine output on units with all engines working; not the result of having one engine isolated.
The Thursday of that week I was rostered to work the down Llandudno train forward from Crewe. While standing on platform 12 (the advertised platform) at arrival time for the train, shown as punctual on the monitors, a freightliner class 66 arrives with an infrastructure train and prepares to run round. I edge slowly to the steps of the footbridge in anticipation of an announcement declaring a platform change. This takes place as expected so I head the charge to platform 6, reaching there before the arrival of the train, which can be seen moving off from the signal on the down fast outside the carriage shed. When I climb in to the cab the driver explains he has been running punctually despite the unit being non tilt. but was held outside the station. The unit, 221 115, now had one engine isolated and we depart a few minutes late. Even with the reduction in power available it is necessary to ease from full power to comply with the 50 mph restriction from that applies from Crewe North Jn. towards Steel Works. After relieving a train en route there is a requirement to undertake a running brake test which the author made on this occasion after reaching 90 near Worleston. The power deficit ensured that we were unable to approach the times in the fastest times supplement and as far as Llandudno Jn. the schedule seems quite tight and little time was regained. As is often the case, a generous performance time allowance permitted arrival a few minutes early. The return journey (1508 Llandudno/1A83) was similarly unspectacular about 10 -20s behind fastest times. Problems developed spectacularly after Chester when the 390-hauled Holyhead to Euston was declared a failure with the loco shut down at Beeston Castle. We were stopped by signals just before the site of Tattenhall GF and after about 20 minutes were instructed to proceed facing line back to Chester. A diversion via Warrington was suggested to keep things on the move but eventually rejected. So, we had to wait for a rescue loco to clear the line, with all the uncertainty associated with the operation. Passengers continually enquired about the anticipated delay, to which we could not reply accurately. A coach was arranged to take a selected amount of passengers to Crewe which left about 20-25 mins before we finally were allowed to proceed. Further delay added to the woe while we complied with the instruction that the first train after a failure in section is required to examine the line, eventual arrival being in the region of 80 mins. This would affect the return from Euston as there was only a 55 minute turn round at Euston, plus delay to the 1935 Euston to Manchester as this was the next part of the diagram of the driver who worked 1A83 south of Crewe.
Milepost 27½ - 177 - October 2006
The final turns of the month involving 221s are on three consecutive days from Holyhead to Crewe on the 0645 departure. This diagram involves a taxi journey from Manchester, followed by PNB, train preparation then shunt to a platform after the departure of the 0532 to Euston formed of class 57/390 and worked by Liverpool drivers. On the first day two 221s were present in the sidings at Holyhead. The ‘extra’ set, 221 108 was booked to work the 0150 departure and was present due to a loss of hydraulic oil from the tilting system on of the vehicles. A coach replacement was summoned from Shrewsbury, eventually leaving at approximately 0330. The train crew was forwarded by taxi; the driver back to Manchester and the Holyhead train manager to Birmingham, where the next part of the units diagram started with a fresh set from Central Rivers. There appeared to be no defect with my unit, 221 112, when I prepared it; however, leaving Llandegai tunnel the TMS indicated a tilt centering defect on the drivers’ screen. This requires the driver to immediately stop the train to examine the indicated defective vehicle to see if it is out of gauge through leaning in a position away from the centre. This is not difficult to ascertain as it is now daylight, but the necessity to advise the signalman at Bangor first and contact maintenance control takes most of the standing time. Just before deciding what we should do next, I refresh the fault screen and the defect is removed from the screen by this action. This means it was a false indication and we can now continue unhindered; however, we must advise the signalman again before moving that the defect has ‘disappeared’ and we can continue normally. The whole procedure cost around 15 minutes, 5 minutes of which were recovered by Chester despite acceleration and braking was affected by damp rails due to light continuous rainfall, this effort was wasted as an Arriva 158 was allowed to proceed in front of us towards Crewe out of the bay platform on the down side of the station. By Crewe we were back to 15 late.
The following day we had the same set, still with 5 engines, but with one idling roughly. During the shunt move from the sidings to the station it shut down, but I managed to re- start it before departure. Before Valley, less than 5 mins into the journey, we were back to 4 engines with no response when resuscitation was attempted. Entering Llandudno Jn the fire bells started to ring, which was the result of the appropriate batteries on the car with the defective engine going flat. In consultation with maintenance the alarm was silenced and fire protection on that car isolated. Approximately 20 mins later and just in front of an Arriva train we were allowed to proceed but were unable to reduce the delay due to low adhesion caused by continuous light rain. The train departed Crewe full and standing. The third day was relatively uneventful by comparison. 221 111 was the rostered unit for the diagram, probably as a result of yesterdays problems. This unit lost an engine about 20 mins into the journey, the TMS showing a traction fault. Parts of the coast were again affected by drizzle, so we ran within 2 mins of the timetable to Chester and early into Crewe, the clear final section taking under 18 ½ mins.
SUMMARY of STATUS of CLASS 221s DRIVEN (5 units/8 trips) unit Engine status tilt Time notes 117 One isolated YES 38L/25L Driver delayed 117 One isolated NO RT/10L Delayed by SIGS 117 One isolated NO 27L/12L Lineside fire N Wales 117 One isolated YES RT/10L Delay by SIGS 115 ALL IN FAIL RT/2E Tilt lost Rugeley 115 One isolated u/k c.5L/RT 115 One isolated u/k RT/70L Train failed in front 102 One isolated FAIL RT/5E Tilt lost Lichfield 112 ALL IN u/k RT/15L False defect on TMS 112 One fail u/k RT/17L Flat batteries en route 111 One idling u/k RT/5E Full pwr for 20mins only
Milepost 27½ - 178 - October 2006
It is worth noting that the driver would not always be aware of the tilt systems being operative and reliable when working on the N Wales coast as the route is not TASS/TILT fitted.
VOYAGERS IN DISTRESS - 2
By Alan Varley
Virgin Driver gives a fascinating insider’s view of a situation that is unfortunately also familiar to the passenger/recorder in the train. His experience on the southern end of the WCML closely mirrors my own this summer, during a week that spanned the end of June and the beginning of July and was spent largely on the northern end of the WCML, with some excursions onto the Edinburgh-Newcastle, Derby-New Street and Taunton-Plymouth sections of the cross-country route.
Virgin Driver describes 11 runs, on just 2 of which all engines were working. I timed 13 runs, 3 with all engines on, 9 with one out (like Virgin Driver), and one with only 3/5 working. On 6 of his runs tilt should have been possible, but was only in fact available on 2 of them; I too had only two tilting runs, but out of 7 possibles. Not a brilliant result in technical terms, and of course a disappointment for the recorder interested in traction performance – but what is the impact on the performance of the system as a whole, and therefore on the passenger and on commercial results?
My first day on the WMCL (28/06) ended in Edinburgh, and I planned to get there at 1819 on the 1046 from Bournemouth which I picked up at Preston. An interesting train, with its 34- minute non-stop booking from Lancaster to Penrith, though after that recovery time and the WTT/NRTT differences provide substantial possibilities for making up time even in sub- optimal operating conditions. And time recovery seemed to be the order of the day when the 1046 (and the preceding Pendolino) were announced “delayed” by a signal failure at Warrington. “Delayed” translated into 30 and then 35 late, and this had increased to 43 by the time 221 136 left Preston – not a good sign. The rear vehicle was pleasantly quiet – “pleasantly” that is for the other passengers; I was less enthusiastic about this sign of a missing engine, and even less pleased when the acceleration – only 85 by Brock – revealed that we must in fact be short of not one but two-fifths of our power. We just reached 111 before the 90 TSR at Oubeck but lost a minute to Lancaster in 16 58, 44 late. A non-tilt, 60% power situation is a big handicap as far as Oxenholme, and we took 13 45 to pass, dropping 3 minutes to Penrith in 37 09, not quite made up to Carlisle despite r3. So still 44 late from there – and we stopped for 5 seconds just half a mile out, 5 coach-lengths beyond a signal which had anyway been green. An over-enthusiastic brake test?!
As John Heaton’s Railway Magazine article on the Carlisle power box made clear, fitting increasing freight traffic into the procession of passenger trains on the WCML is becoming more and more difficult, and it was no great surprise when this out-of-path train suffered a moderate signal check at Murthat while a freight was looped at Beattock. But a 77/61 mph climb of the bank was the result, a total reversion to the speeds of the pre-electric era. Another check approaching Carstairs, a couple of TSRs before Edinburgh, and arrival was 51 late. And that was not the end of the story, for this under-powered set should in fact already have left, 18 minutes before it arrived, to return to Birmingham. The conversation between outgoing and relieving train crews was edifying, and any transcription of the parts referring to Bombardier and Super-Voyagers would require extensive deletion of expletives.
This was the nadir of my 221 experience this summer – indeed, it is difficult to imagine worse, apart from total failure. My next run was in fact a curiosity: 4-coach 221 142 on the
Milepost 27½ - 179 - October 2006
0949 Glasgow-Manchester the next day, 6.5 late in Carlisle, the CIS prediction of departure time having regressed steadily from the booked 1112 to 1114 then 1116 – again not a good sign. But all four engines were ticking over, and the one in my coach revved as we started, only to ease sharply when we reached 85 at Brisco, obviously for a non-tilt run round the reverse curves at Wreay. We duly stuck to 85/84 here and a strict 110 beyond, nevertheless gaining 30 seconds to Penrith that were lost on the next stage. For a full power run accelerations seemed sluggish, but I think we had 4/4 nevertheless. Arrival in Preston was finally 11 late, chiefly due to a severe check before Lancaster.
Later that day the 1046 Bournemouth had 221 140, one engine out – and no tilt. It was reported 5 late but was in fact 16 down into Preston. We took 15 43 to Lancaster, then had a signal check before Carnforth behind an EWS coal hopper train, then 36 44 to Penrith, 14 07 down to Carlisle, 5 late. Net time Preston-Penrith was a little over 35 minutes, so time would not have been kept. The same train featured in my itinerary on Saturday 1/09, and at Wigan 221 102 was spot on. Of course there was no difficulty in keeping time to Preston, but a maximum limited to 111 suggested once again that no tilt would be available. With a more sensible brake test than on Thursday (when we had almost stopped at Fylde Jc) we gained time substantially over the previous run, though the acceleration rate was similar – again we had an engine out. But a preceding Manchester-Windermere train was running late and we were checked into Lancaster and, more annoyingly, before Oxenholme. 1.5 late in Penrith, 36 12 from Preston, net perhaps 34.5, in fact better than the Saturday schedule.
On Sunday I was on the ECML; 221 137 was turned out for the 1050 Edinburgh- Bournemouth but only arrived from depot at 1046 so left 5 late. The combination of 4/5 power, cautious driving, three TSRs and a severe signal check meant 7.5 late at Berwick. The 1250 departure (221 116) did better: same slacks, same power, but smarter driving (at least as far as Newcastle), so 21 06 to Dunbar, 22 10 to Berwick, through Alnmouth in 18 22 with some low 120 cruising, and 43 54 Newcastle despite a brief stop outside. On to Darlington we lost four minutes, but not on account of a traction problem. Later that day 221 139 (with all engines working!) was RT in Berwick on the 1340 from Bournemouth, ran competently to Dunbar in 21 02, and was through Musselburgh inside 15 minutes after a 123 max. But a clear run into Edinburgh on a day when Haymarket was closed and traffic from the west was diverted via Portobello was too much to hope for; we were nevertheless 5 early on NRTT in 23 24.
The 0725 Plymouth-Glasgow is overtaken in Lancaster by the 1029 from Euston, which it then follows non-stop to Carlisle. Several runs on the 1029 had revealed various permutations on this situation, mostly involving the Pendolino following the Voyager, so on Monday 03/07 I decided to look at this working from the cross-country side I was rewarded by the sight of 221 105 coming into Lancaster with all engines ticking – and with a green signal to the north! We were through Carnforth in 15 seconds less than the best of the 4/5 runs – and this time we continued with 115 up to MP 9½, and 125 before Milnthorpe. So 221s can tilt after all! The rest was less good, with early easings and slow speeds for the restricted sections, and a stop and caution over a new 20 TSR at Penrith that ruined hopes of a decent time to Carlisle. Finally 52 04, net a little under 45½.
On Tuesday I went southwards, finding 221 139 again, still with all engines working, on the 0852 from Edinburgh which I picked up at Crewe. We just had time to see that tilt, too, was working, with 06 30 through Madeley and 123 after Whitmore, before severe signals intervened and ruined the rest of the run. My next train was the next-numbered set, 221 140 on the 0830 Penzance-Dundee, and four engines were enough to get us into the 120s between Birmingham and Derby and catch up the 1349 from New Street as it made its Willington stop. Easily RT nonetheless – and as a parenthesis, who would have believed that one day speeds through Tamworth HL would have been so much faster than on the Trent Valley line beneath!
Milepost 27½ - 180 - October 2006
Finally I had a couple more runs with 221 139 – that had meantime lost an engine – from Newton Abbott to Plymouth and back to Taunton, RT throughout and surprisingly logging a fastest time between Newton Abbott and Exeter: surprising because drizzle at the start meant slipping and a good ten seconds lost, but with good speeds throughout and a very fast stop we recorded 17 15 (see page 173 – Ed).
It would seem then that recorders (and drivers) must get used to the idea that four engines out of five is a standard configuration for a Super-Voyager. In fact the acceleration curves reproduced in Bombardier press kits seem to be based on this sort of power/weight ratio, and one wonders whether running times used for timetable compilation may not have a similar basis. 4/5 clearly allows most schedules to be maintained. Lack of tilt is a more serious handicap, particularly north of Carlisle, and with 4/5 and no tilt it is difficult to recover time lost to out-of-course checks – and a train out of path north of Preston is likely to suffer still further checks, not only from freight movements but also at the many flat junctions: my week’s running featured frequent conflicts at Lancaster, Carnforth, Oxenholme and Carstairs. One further thought: another “non-tilt” situation occurs when 220s appear on 221 diagrams, and I was surprised to note that most of the “even-hour-plus-ten” departures from Glasgow during my period of observation were in fact worked by 220s. With only 69/70 minutes allowed to Carlisle their schedules are surely based on 125 m/h running, and if five minutes or so are dropped to Carnforth the XX07 TP is likely to precede from there with further unfortunate consequences.
Today’s railway leaves little margin for imprecision and out-of-spec working, and a 4- engined, non-tilting 221 is definitely not up to specification. But judging by my experiences and those of Virgin Driver, this is the condition in which most of them are running
THE VIRGIN LOTTERY?
These two articles make dismal reading. I suspect that most readers are not surprised by these comments.
What is disappointing is that the units are now five years old and similar problems have reappeared throughout this time, but it appears to be beyond the capability of the manufacturer to rectify them.
Whilst it is mildly annoying for the recorder, who can bail out when he has suffered enough, or take a nap, it must be frustrating for the drivers of these units, who have to amend their driving techniques in response to the continually changing engine/tilt configurations.
Whilst it seems to be argued that the timetable allows the trains to run with one engine out and still keep time, this seems to be a form of insurance. If the units were more reliable, they could either accelerate the timetable or replace an engined unit with a trailer.
It would be interesting to create a database of members experience with the Super Voyagers, and readers are invited to submit a table in the format below to monitor our experience of their reliability.
These comments may be unduly critical, and it is hoped that we can redress the balance with an article by Frank Collins in the January magazine, who was impressed with their performance over the Northern Hills, and did not suffer too many engine/tilt problems. - Ed
Milepost 27½ - 181 - October 2006
Voyager Database Date Unit Engine Tilt Depart Arrive
fully out partially out fully working fully out partially out fully tilting 30.9 221140 5 Y T 3E
221140 prepares to leave Crewe on 15th February 2005 with the 0645 train from Holyhead to Euston.
Whilst enjoying a full complement of working engines and tilt, arrival at Euston was 17mins late due to slow line working from Watford J to Euston
NEWS ALERT
ANOTHER RANGER TICKET
A South Coast Downlander Ticket is now available online (www.southernrailway.com/downlander) covering the south coast from Southampton to Ashford, and also includes the lines inland to Christ’s Hospital and Gatwick Airport on Southern services only. It is available at the rate of £10 per day, and £12.50 for the entire Southern Railway network, but must be booked seven days in advance. There is a 0930 M-F restriction for the £10 ticket and 1000 for the £12.50.
Whilst astute readers will be aware that the Southern Daysave ticket covers the same network for £10, the Downlander ticket also offers travel on bus services and discounts on admission to local attractions. There is no evening restriction from London stations with the network Downlander ticket.
Milepost 27½ - 182 - October 2006
KENTISH MYSTERIES
David Ashley
It is said that all journeys start with a single step. When a journey starts with the purchase of a Rover ticket, that first step can be extremely fraught. The request for a 3-day Kent Rover ticket brought an expression of panic to the face of the ticket clerk. When he regained his composure, he suggested I should take a seat, but did reassure me that he had anecdotal evidence that his ticket machine had previously produced such a ticket, and was hopeful he could repeat the earlier success. With both ticket clerks scrolling through their screens, and having assured them that I did not really want a “Freedom of the Settle and Carlisle” ticket, a Kent Rover ticket was eventually produced.
The next problem is the route availability of the ticket. With precious little publicity of the facility, other than it gives unlimited travel within Kent, one is left to work out where travel is permitted. My understanding is that Orpington is in Kent, so I assumed that the ticket was available from there, and indeed travelled to and from there on the first two days without any query from the revenue protection staff. On the third day, I had already bought a zone 1-6 travelcard , so asked for day return from the London boundary to Orpington, only to be told that Orpington is in Zone 6, and therefore within London (presumably the London Borough of Bromley) and not Kent. I guess that the Kent address is purely for postal purposes: this seems to be a common problem in outer-London – my postal address is Middlesex, which has not existed for 30 years!
The purpose of the visit was to assess the current operations, now that the 375 emus have settled in, and to concentrate on the route from Orpington through Ashford to Dover. Whilst it is sad to see the demise of heritage units, I never really “warmed” to the VEPs as they would deliver a icy blast through the ill-fitting doors and windows during the winter months, and visibility due to the door pillars was particularly poor.
The line from Orpington starts with a climb of 1in120 to Knockholt, followed by a descent at 1in143 through Polhill Tunnel to Dunton Green, followed by a subsequent climb to Sevenoaks, and a similar descent away from the North Downs towards Tonbridge. Beyond Tonbridge, the route is more undulating, although uphill gradients of 1in250 south of Pluckley continue past Ashford to Westenhanger, where thereafter similar downhill gradients continue through Folkestone to Dover.
Regarding speed limits, the temporary diversion of Eurostar trains to the route has resulted in differential speed limits, which also apply to the 375’s now being used. Consequently, this is one of the few routes in the south-east where significant acceleration has been possible following the introduction of new stock. Whether this has resulted in an acceleration of the timetable is questionable. Consequently, 100mph is now permitted most of the way from Tonbridge to Chart and from Ashford to Sandling, although speed restrictions of 90mph apply through Pluckley. Strangely 100mph is permitted on the uphill section through Hildenborough towards Sevenoaks, but not downhill.
The weekday service comprises four trains per hour. The xx00 ex Charing Cross calls all stations between Tonbridge and Ashford, where it terminates. The xx23 calls at Paddock Wood, Staplehurst and Ashford, where it divides, and then goes all stations to Dover. The xx30 calls at Paddock Wood, Staplehurst and Headcorn and terminates at Ashford. The xx53 goes non stop between Tonbridge and Ashford, where it divides, then goes on to Folkestone and Dover. It is a similar situation in the up direction, although the slower trains from Ashford are overtaken at Staplehurst by fast trains, except on Saturdays when one of the slower trains leaves after the fast train. This can result in strange operating practices: a
Milepost 27½ - 183 - October 2006
fast train is due in at 1659 (and was slightly late), and out at 1703, and the slow train follows at 1704. Whilst both trains left more-or-less on time, the fast train was held for the slow train to pass to the west of Ashford station. The slow train leap-frogged the fast train, and went TABLE 1 Run 1 2 3 Date/day Sun 22-Aug-04 Sun 25-Jul-04 Sun 28-May-06 Train 0854 Charing X-Ramsgate 1154 Cannon St-Ramsgate1319 Victoria-Ashford Motive Power 2 x VEPS 375702/626 375626 Load (tons) 8 8 8 Rec/Pos/GPS? D Ashley 1/8 Y D Ashley 1/8 Y D Ashley 1/8 Y
Miles M C location m s mph ave m s mph ave m s mph ave
0.00 13 66 ORPINGTON 0.00 0.00 0. 00 1.48 15 25 Chelsfield 2.17 58 38.9 1.57 63 45.6 1. 56 65 46.0 2.71 16 43 Knockholt 3.26 71 64.2 3.03 73 67.2 3. 03 73 66.2 4.90 18 58 Polhill S 5.16 /82 71.6 4.47 /79 75.7 4. 42 79.5 6.71 20 43 Dunton Green 6.35 77/40/45 82.3 6.09 76 79.3 5. 58 90 85.6 8.28 22 09 Sevenoaks 8.45 43.6 8.06 48.5 7. 46 52.5 0.00 22 09 Sevenoaks 0.00 0.00 0. 00 2.86 24 77 Weald 3.24 50.4 3. 10 80/82 54.1 4.89 27 00 Hildenborough 4.45 92 90.6 4.33 85 64.5 5. 26 53.9 4.89 27 00 Hildenborough 4.45 92 4.33 85/86 0. 00 /68 6.84 28 76 Medway Bridge 6.30 44 66.9 6.12 48 70.9 2. 21 40 49.8 7.42 29 42 TONBRIDGE 7.50 25.9 7.28 27.2 3. 36 27.6
TABLE 2 Run 4 5 6 Date/day F 20-Aug-04 Sat 27-May-06 Sun 28-May-06 Train 1123 Charing X-Ramsgate 1253 Charing X-Ramsgate 1449 Victoria-Ramsgate Motive Power 2xVeps 375819 375612 Load (tons) 8 8 8 Rec/Pos/GPS? D Ashley 1/8 Y D Ashley 1/8 Y D Ashley 1/8 Y
Miles M C location m s mph ave m s mph ave M s mph ave
0.00 29 42 TONBRIDGE 0.00 0.00 0. 00 2.66 32 15 Peebles Crag 3.10 77 50.4 2.58 85 53.8 2 .53 81/93 55.4 5.29 34 65 Paddock Wood 5.00 88/90 85.9 4.35 98 97.4 5 .30 60.2 5.29 34 65 Paddock Wood 5.00 4.35 98 0 .00 7.23 36 60 Teise R Bridge 6.19 89/91 88.3 5.45 99 99.6 2 .23 75/96 48.8 9.86 39 31 Marden 8.04 87/90 90.4 7.20 99/98 99.9 4 .07 94 91.3 12.30 41 66 Staplehurst 9.44 85 87.8 8.49 99 98.6 6 .38 58.1 12.30 41 66 Staplehurst 9.44 85 8.49 0 .00 14.23 43 60 R Beult Bridge 11.13 77 77.9 9.59 98 99.0 2 .08 81 54.1 15.66 45 15 Headcorn 12.17 81 80.9 10.52 99/100 97.6 3 .07 94 87.7 18.25 47 62 Swifts Green 14.12 82 81.0 12.26 99 99.1 4 .41 99 99.1 20.91 50 35 Pluckley 16.05 86 84.8 14.04 89/99 97.8 6 .25 90/98 92.2 24.49 54 01 Chart 18.47 59/sigs 79.4 16.23 78/sigs 92.6 8 .46 92 91.3 26.64 56 13 ASHFORD 23.10 29.4 20.47 29.3 12 .23 35.7
into the loop at Headcorn, where the fast train passed 70seconds after our arrival – presumably all caused by premature route-setting.
Milepost 27½ - 184 - October 2006
The Sunday service comprises two trains per hour: the xx24 calls all stations between Tonbridge and Ashford and then goes to Margate via Canterbury West; the xx54 calls at Paddock Wood and Staplehurst and then goes all stations from Ashford to Dover and Ramsgate.
TABLE 3 Run 7 8 9 Date/day Sat 18-Jul-98 Mon 29-May-06 Sat 27-May-06 Train (1322 Ashford)- Charing X 1543 Ramsgate-Charing Cross 1157 Ramsgate-Charing X Motive Power 2 x VEPS 375714/617 375812 Load (tons) 8 8 8 Rec/Pos/GPS? D Ashley 8/8 N D Ashley 4/8 Y D Ashley 8/8 Y 0.00 0.00 56 13 ASHFORD 0. 00 0.00 0.00 2.15 54 01 Chart 2 .33 70 50.6 2.28 76/91 52.3 2.27 78/99 52.7 5.73 50 35 Pluckley 5 .11 89/88 81.5 4.55 90 87.6 4.49 89 90.6 8.39 47 62 Swifts Green 6 .58 89/95 89.6 6.34 99 96.8 6.29 99/96 95.9 10.98 45 15 Headcorn 8 .37 94 94.1 8.08 99 99.1 8.05 99 97.0 12.41 43 60 R Beult Bridge 9 .36 88 87.7 9.00 96 99.5 8.57 99 99.5 14.34 41 66 Staplehurst 11 .21 66.0 10.52 61.9 10.07 98 99.0 14.34 41 66 Staplehurst 0 .00 0.00 10.07 16.78 39 31 Marden 2 .48 75/84 52.2 2.42 83 54.2 11.36 99 98.6 19.41 36 60 Teise R Bridge 4 .46 82 80.5 4.22 101/102 95.0 13.12 89 98.9 21.35 34 65 Paddock Wood 6 .48 57.2 6.16 61.2 14.23 97 98.2 21.35 34 65 Paddock Wood 0 .00 0.00 14.23 23.98 32 15 Peebles Crag 3 .05 73/sigs 51.1 2.58 80/84 53.1 16.00 99 97.4 26.64 29 42 TONBRIDGE 6 .46 43.4 6.17 48.2 19.31 45.4 TABLE 4. Run 10 11 12 Date/day Sat 12-Sep-98 Sun 28-May-06 Mon 29-May-06 Train (1322 Ashford)- Charing X 1143 Ramsgate-Victoria 1543 Ramsgate-Charing Cross Motive Power 2 x vep 375714/627 375714/617 Load (tons) 8 8 8 Rec/Pos/GPS? D Ashley 8/8 N D Ashley 5/8 Y D Ashley 4/8 Y
Miles M C location m S Mph ave m s mph ave m s mph Ave
0.00 29 42 TONBRIDGE 0. 00 0.00 0.00 0.57 28 76 Medway Bridge 1 .15 40 27.6 1.18 41 26.5 1.15 38 27.6 2.53 27 00 Hildenborough 3 .14 65 59.0 2.59 73 69.5 3.14 69 59.0 2.53 27 00 Hildenborough 3 .14 65 2.59 73 3.14 69/70 4.56 24 77 Weald 5 .04 67 66.7 4.39 78 73.4 5.00 69 69.2 7.42 22 09 Sevenoaks 8 .08 55.9 7.33 59.1 8.02 56.5 0.00 22 09 Sevenoaks 0 .00 0.00 0.00 1.58 20 43 Dunton Green 2 .07 70 44.6 1.53 /79 50.2 1.58 71 48.1 3.38 18 58 Polhill S 3 .37 73/70 72.2 3.18 78 76.5 3.26 79 73.9 5.57 16 43 Knockholt 5 .29 71 70.3 4.56 81 80.4 5.04 82 80.4 6.80 15 25 Chelsfield 6 .26 80 77.8 5.52 79 79.2 5.59 80 80.6 8.28 13 66 ORPINGTON 8 .16 58.5 7.27 64.7 7.48 48.9
We now turn to the logs. The presentation compares the previous traction with the current 375 rolling stock. Table 1 covers the northern section from Orpington to Tonbridge. Differential speed limits do not apply, so any benefits arise from faster acceleration and more efficient braking, rather than higher maximum speeds. This can be seen, when comparing
Milepost 27½ - 185 - October 2006
run 1 with 2 between Orpington and Sevenoaks, where most of the time saved is getting away from Orpington and into Sevenoaks. Run 3’s improvement over run 2 is due to its fully utilising the 90mph speed limit through Dunton Green.
The same situation continues south of Sevenoaks, although ironically the fastest speeds were recorded by the veps, which presumably reflects the defensive driving policy of today.
East of Tonbridge, the higher maximum speeds are apparent, and it can be seen that line speed can be achieved in about 5 miles, and savings of 3 mins can be achieved over the previous heritage stock, and even on semi-fast trains intermediate speeds of around 100mph are achievable.
It’s a similar situation in the up direction particularly west of Ashford. West of Tonbridge, savings, compared with veps, are still apparent, although the speeds on the climbs are not significantly better on the 375’s than the veps they replaced.
Listed below is a comparison of average start-stop times on the Tonbridge-Ashford stopping services: Section VEPS – mm.ss 375 - mm.ss Tonbridge-Paddock Wood 6.05 5.30 Paddock Wood-Marden 5.10 4.50 Marden – Staplehurst 3.25 3.10 Staplehurst-Headcorn 4.40 4.15 Headcorn-Pluckley 5.40 5.20 Pluckley-Ashford 3.25 3.15 Total 28.25 26.20 East of Ashford, speeds up to 100mph are still being achieved, but my visits tended to be at bank holiday weekends when most services are all-stations. For those not familiar with the route, the line is surprisingly interesting, with the Channel Tunnel infrastructure around Dollands Moor, and the coastal stretch beyond Folkestone and into Dover.
Whilst the savings resulting from the new stock are impressive, this does not appear to have produced an accelerated timetable, and in some cases, today’s timetable is slower than in 2002. However, the drivers tend to run up to line speed and accept lengthy station stops as a consequence. Somewhat unusually, some Sunday timings are faster than those on weekdays.
One wonders whether Kent Rover tickets will be available between Ebbsfleet and Ashford when the “bullet” trains are introduced in 2009 – I suspect not!
A new 375 unit in a classic pose at Charing Cross.
Could someone please explain the current numbering rationale. I understood that third rail emus were classified 4xx and OHL units 3xx.
If this is so, why weren’t these units numbered 475? Perhaps they expect to add OHL if Thameslink 2000 ever materialses
Milepost 27½ - 186 - October 2006
LAST OF THE SUMMER WINE: Loco-hauled in Hardy Country
Frank Collins
I should perhaps start with a geographical explanation for the benefit of our Yorkshire brethren and explain that this article has nothing whatsoever to do with performance on some long forgotten route to Holmfirth.
Castle Cary – Weymouth; in railway and performance terms, a forgotten backwater of Britain. The first railway into Weymouth; this route started life as a secondary main line branching off from the GWR’s main Paddington – Bristol route at Thingley junction just west of Chippenham. In routing terms, another ‘Great Way Round’, it soon lost significance as a way from London to Weymouth, whilst the section from Westbury to Castle Cary in due course became part of the shortened Paddington – West of England route in the early 1900s.
By the time I first visited the line in 1984 it had been singled throughout from Castle Cary to Dorchester Junction save for the cross loops at Yeovil and Maiden Newton, but it was still semaphore signalled throughout. The station at Weymouth was still the old, ramshackle affair with wooden buildings, and widely scattered platforms culminating in two Southern Railway built excursion platforms on the eastern side that were rarely used. However, many of the services were loco hauled, class 33s hauling 5 or 6 Mk1s being typical. West of England route modernisation in 1984 abolished the mechanical signalling on the main line as far as Castle Cary; and modernisation for the Weymouth electrification completed in 1988 did the same for the southern section. However, Yeovil Pen Mill retains its semaphores; and Maiden Newton still manages to retain something of the traditional air of a remote country junction despite having lost its branch (to Bridport – in 1975), its staffing and its signal box – the loop here being operated by the train crew.
In traffic terms, this route is a nightmare; and in all probability, a financial basket case. The service south of Frome is sparse – 3 hour gaps are not uncommon at certain times of day. The problem is that the traffic flows are rather unpredictable; heavy commuter traffic between Frome and points north to and from Bath and Bristol during the weekday rush hours; huge shopper traffic from Yeovil to and from Bath on Saturdays made even worse when Bath are playing at home; and yet south of Yeovil on a Saturday in the depths of winter, I suspect almost no traffic at all. On summer Saturdays however the peak flow is from Trowbridge southwards to Weymouth for the day out; a flow which is totally weather dependent. On a wet Saturday in June, a 2-car class 150 is more than sufficient; get a hot sunny day and a couple of HSTs would probably be inadequate for the flow on offer.
Since the Sprinter revolution of the late 1980s, the basic service has been operated by class 150 dmus. In passenger terms, these are hopelessly inadequate other than for the shortest of journeys, although they are better since refurbishment gave them 2 + 2 seating with some face-to-face tables instead of the original 3 + 2 layout. One can but hope that the freeing up of large numbers of 158s from Trans-Pennine Express in 2006 will lead to more suitable rolling stock becoming available for the Weymouth services.
For many years after the Sprinter revolution BR used to operate a loco-hauled set on certain diagrams in the summer to cope with these peak flows, and initially, this continued post- privatisation, a class 37 and Mk2 stock being the usual offering. Eventually operating costs led to this service – promoted locally as the ‘Sand & Cycle Explorer’ – being discontinued, amid much uproar locally as to the effects on the overcrowding of the service on peak summer days. Wessex Trains, to their credit, sought an alternative source of train provision, and in 2004 this was provided by Fragonset, with a rake of ex-Virgin Mk2 air conditioned
Milepost 27½ - 187 - October 2006
stock, top and tailed by a pair of 31s – the coaches and one of the 31s being painted in Wessex’s rather gaudy house pink colour! For a time there were 2 such sets in use and they were a regular sight in the area, one of them working two return trips to Weymouth daily.
Use of these sets on a daily basis was discontinued with the December 2004 timetable change, Wessex trains having received some additional class 158s in a rolling stock reshuffle. However one set was retained as a standby – it can normally be seen parked up in the sidings at Westbury station when not in use – and in the summer of 2005 its duties have included an additional service on peak Saturdays only from Westbury to Weymouth in the morning returning in the late afternoon. This may well have been the final fling for loco- haulage on this route, as there is no certainty at the time of writing that the set will be used for 2006.
I have chosen to concentrate on the Frome – Weymouth section as in performance terms this is by far the most interesting. Scenically, it manages to combine classic country railway atmosphere with quintessential English countryside. Starting under the Brunellian overall roof at the all-timber Frome station trains first pass through the major scholastic centre of Bruton. Castle Cary, despite being long denuded of semaphores, still has a sleepy country junction air to it (helped by the station being in open country some way from the town). Yeovil Pen Mill retains its peculiar platform layout; Maiden Newton’s, despite being unmanned, a glorious rural atmosphere, and the journey culminates in the precipitate descent to the seaside terminus. Scenically it is without equal; glorious rolling hills and pastures punctuated by streams rivers and woodlands, and three request halts, in Thornford, Yetminster and Chetnole – the first and last being diminutive to say the least – complete the picture.
In performance terms, this route is no stroll in the park. On rejoining the Main Line at Blatchbridge Junction trains face a broken but ever steepening 6 mile climb to Brewham summit, starting with a section of 1/90 start after the Junction. The next 7 miles to Castle Cary are all downhill, and the 12 miles then to Yeovil are gently undulating through largely flat countryside.
The line leaves Yeovil in a narrow valley that enforces curvature limited to 45 mph, which limit has in recent years been extended out to Yetminster. Passing under the Salisbury – Exeter line at Clifton Maybank (how much more useful it would be if there were a west-to- south curve here too so that these services could call at Yeovil Junction and interchange with the South-West Trains service!), the scenery opens out again as the line crosses a broad valley.
The hills looming on the southern edge of this valley have to be crossed to get to the coast, and this requires a climb which starts in earnest leaving Yetminster station, quickly steepening to 1/63 before Chetnole, and culminating in 2 ½ miles of 1/53 and mostly 1/51 from Chetnole to the summit at the south end of Evershot Tunnel – a rise from the valley floor therefore of well over 400 feet. Getting away from Chetnole halt southbound is hard work; and as the line falls steeply on the south side of Evershot summit too acceleration over the top can be very dramatic!
Frome here to Dorchester is pure Hardy Country; gloriously rural, jointed bullhead track and all. At Dorchester Junction the line from Waterloo joins, and a brief dip through Monkton is the prelude to 1 ½ miles of 1/91 up to Bincombe Tunnel, before the precipitous drop to the seaside.
Northbound trains have it just as bad. Weymouth station – these days using primarily the old excursion platforms, with the majority of the site of the old station being given over to a retail development – is only about 200 yards from the sea front, and is virtually at sea level.
Milepost 27½ - 188 - October 2006
TABLE 1 Run 1 2 3 Date 1996 1997 1998 15.33 Frome - Train 10.02 Frome - Weymouth Weymouth 10.02 Frome - Weymouth Loco 37411 37411 37412 Load 5 5 6 Recorder F G Collins F G Collins F G Collins Position 6/6 3/6 7/7 m c m s mph m s mph m s mph 115 44 Frome 0 00 RT/tsr 0 00 1 late 0 00 3 1/2 late/sigs 116 53 Blatchbridge Jn 3 24 1/2 35/ sigs 2 02 40 3 11 1/2 39* 118 60 Woodlands 6 21 1/2 58 4 25 65 5 55 58 120 63 Witham 8 17 1/2 69 6 12 1/2 73/75 7 52 1/2 67/69 122 52 Brewham Summit 9 51 71 7 43 73 9 29 68 124 00 MP 10 54 1/2 79 8 44 84 10 34 80 126 09 Bruton 13 16 10 56 12 47 13 35 11 25 13 35 127 40 MP 2 04 68 1 59 67/69 2 16 63/64 128 40 MP 2 54 73 2 52 67 3 16 1/2 br/sigs 129 44 Castle Cary 4 26 4 34 5 07 6 35 12 15 6 45 130 30 Somerton Road 1 38 1/2 52 1 39 1/2 51 1 55 50 131 21 Cockhill Bridge 2 32 67 2 33 1/2 69 2 50 1/2 66 132 58 Longmans crossing 3 44 74/69 3 45 76/74 4 05 74 134 32 Sparkford 5 09 1/2 74 5 08 75 5 28 75 135 67 Sutton Road 6 18 1/2 76/77 6 15 77 6 35 78 136 72 Marston Magna 7 08 76 7 05 75/73 7 25 76 138 56 Hummer 8 36 1/2 73/76 8 33 74 8 51 75 140 00 MP 9 39 1/2 74 9 38 62 9 54 73 141 27 Yeovil Pen Mill 11 47 12 02 12 09 13 35 13 10 15 30 141 60 Yeovil South Jn 1 10 1/2 1 13 1 30 1/2 142 66 Clifton Maybank 2 37 1/2 46 2 44 44/49 3 04 46 144 35 Thornford 4 47 1/2 43 5 12 5 30 5 30 5 45 145 46 Yetminster 6 18 1/2 51 2 26 2 48 3 20 3 10 146 52 Winterhayes bridge 7 29 1/2 59 1 59 1/2 49/51 2 14 47 147 50 Chetnole 8 30 55 3 31 3 46 4 05 4 20 148 16 Melbury Bubb 9 10 1/2 50 1 33 1/2 1 48 1/2 29 148 60 Woolcombe Bank 9 51 1/2 45 2 29 1/2 35 2 50 32 149 69 Evershot 11 28 1/2 40 4 21 37 4 51 1/2 34 151 16 Chantmarl 12 50 72 5 45 1/2 74/78 6 19 1/2 70 152 30 Sandhills 13 46 6 41 72 7 18 1/2 72 154 07 Maiden Newton 16 24 9 30 9 55 20 25 11 30 11 05 154 60 MP 2 02 37 1 45 43 1 58 1/2 43 155 58 Crockway crossing 3 02 1/2 2 51 1/2 57 3 07 1/2 68 156 70 Grimston Tunnel north 4 40 57 3 55 70/63* 4 13 67 157 60 Grimston 5 33 1/2 60 4 43 64 5 01 65 158 72 Bradford Peverell 6 40 1/2 64 5 42 1/2 75 6 00 77 160 20 MP 7 56 64 6 46 76 6 51 1/2 79 161 62 Dorchester West 10 47 9 08 9 24
Milepost 27½ - 189 - October 2006
Table 1 - cont'd m c m s mph m s mph m s mph 161 62 Dorchester West 17 20 9 35 11 15 162 14 Dorchester Junction 1 18 23* 1 11 25* 1 34 21* 163 12 Monkton 2 47 51 2 39 1/2 52 2 57 1/2 49 164 34 Bincombe Summit 4 14 1/2 53 4 05 55 4 29 1/2 50 165 20 Upwey Wishing Well 5 00 1/2 78 4 54 63/br 5 18 1/2 64 166 30 Upwey 5 54 1/2 75 6 52 7 06 7 15 7 30 167 56 Radipole 7 02 1/2 1 49 1/2 64 1 59 1/2 61 168 *57 Weymouth 9 14 plat 2 4 01 plat 2 4 10 plat 2
Climbing however starts shortly after rounding the curve out of the platform, and is vicious; 1½ miles of 1/74 from Radipole to Upwey is followed by the restart from Upwey station (at which everything these days calls) straight onto nearly 2 miles of 1/50 and 1/52 through to the north end of Bincombe Tunnel. Dorchester to Maiden Newton includes a stiff climb from Bradford Peverell to the north end of Grimston Tunnel; and while in this direction the 3 mile climb to Evershot summit is a little gentler, there are pitches of 1/69 and 1/79. Finally, Castle Cary to Brewham is uphill all the way, with short sections of level; a mile at 1/98 immediately west of Bruton is followed by more of the same afterwards and a final ¾ mile of 1/81 to the summit.
Everything works hard therefore on this route, but class 150s, and small loco on moderate loads especially.
I have chosen a selection of runs to illustrate the summer specials over the last decade. Run 1 started on time; but illustrates the pathing issues that can sometimes affect even the most rural of places. At this time, the service was booked to cross an up train in the loop at Frome north; and the Weymouth train was in turn booked to be overtaken by a West of England HST during its time on the Frome station loop. Always something of a counsel of perfection, we got checked by the down HST as we rejoined the Main Line, hence the slow climb to Brewham. Castle Cary - Yeovil was about as good as it gets legally. In 1996, the loco- hauled services still then ran non stop to Maiden Newton, so Evershot Bank was able to be charged on full power after Thornford, speed still falling as the summit was passed at 40. A prolonged wait at Maiden Newton was followed by an unusual dawdle down to Dorchester; I suspect because the train was booked to cross another service at Dorchester so there was no point in hurrying. The loop at Dorchester West enables Yeovil line trains to be held clear of the Waterloo line if necessary; on this occasion there was a very long halt, which I can only assume arose from some delay to the northbound train after the route had already been set. Finally, in 1996 too Upwey stops were not standard either, enabling some final high speeds down the bank to Weymouth.
By 1997, the loco hauleds were required to cover the three request stops too – an interesting exercise with no direct cab-train communication, some platforms barely a coach long, a long train for the guard to cover to take requests, and no selective door opening. Some crews seem to just make all 3 stops anyway; but the whole operation is surprisingly slick, even when some of the stops are omitted. (the three halts can bring surprising amounts of traffic – groups of 20 ramblers or large groups of cyclists are far from unknown!). Run 2 made a very brisk start from Frome, and was close to being inside even time when he started braking for Bruton. There was no hurry here down to Castle Cary, as the train had a booked wait here for the single line. Note the difference the Chetnole stop makes to the ascent to Evershot; and also the dramatic acceleration over the top, with speed doubling in less than 1 ½ miles! This run was much more brisk down to Dorchester; but note even so the slow exit from the loop at Maiden Newton, enforced by the severe speed restriction through the automated points.
Milepost 27½ - 190 - October 2006
TABLE 2 Run 4 5 6 Date 1999 2005 2005 10.39 Frome - 09.03 Frome - Train 15.33 Frome - Weymouth Weymouth Weymouth 31601/31454 (top 'n' Loco 37424 150261 tail) Load 6 2 5 Recorder F G Collins F G Collins F G Collins Position 2/7 1/2 6/7 m c m s mph m s mph m s mph 115 44 Frome 0 00 11 late/ tsr 0 00 RT 0 00 2 late 116 53 Blatchbridge Jn 2 49 1/2 2 32 1/2 tsr 20 3 08 1/2 17 tsr 118 60 Woodlands 5 18 62 5 14 63 5 57 1/2 66 120 63 Witham 7 12 1/2 68/70 7 05 71 7 42 1/2 76/79 122 52 Brewham Summit 8 47 1/2 69 8 38 72 9 08 76 124 00 MP 9 50 1/2 86/87 9 43 76 10 10 82 126 09 Bruton 12 09 12 05 12 44 12 39 12 46 13 03 127 40 MP 2 01 65 1 59 1/2 68 2 15 70 128 40 MP 2 52 73 2 49 75 3 04 75 129 44 Castle Cary 4 23 4 22 4 44 4 51 4 57 6 19 130 30 Somerton Road 1 34 49 1 31 1/2 50 1 53 50 131 21 Cockhill Bridge 2 30 64 2 26 66 2 45 1/2 69 132 58 Longmans crossing 3 44 73 3 38 75/72 3 57 73 134 32 Sparkford 5 07 1/2 76 5 01 76/74 5 21 1/2 72 135 67 Sutton Road 6 13 1/2 82 6 09 1/2 76 6 34 71 136 72 Marston Magna 6 58 1/2 86/87 6 59 1/2 76/75 7 27 73 138 56 Hummer 8 14 1/2 86 8 26 76 8 58 71 140 00 MP 9 10 1/2 75 9 29 70 10 05 1/2 141 27 Yeovil Pen Mill 11 24 11 48 12 48 12 33 13 13 14 19 141 60 Yeovil South Jn 1 03 1 05 1/2 37 1 26 35 142 66 Clifton Maybank 2 33 1/2 51/58 2 38 44/45 3 02 1/2 41 144 35 Thornford 4 38 5 14 5 42 5 21 -/40 5 49 -/44 5 58 -/40 145 46 Yetminster 2 21 1/2 29 2 23 2 52 2 54 3 15 146 52 Winterhayes bridge 3 57 49 1 59 48 2 20 51 147 50 Chetnole 5 25 * 3 35 3 54 22* 4 10 148 16 Melbury Bubb 6 42 1/2 30 1 36 31 5 04 1/2 36 148 60 Woolcombe Bank 7 44 32 2 34 1/2 34 5 57 1/2 37 149 69 Evershot 9 50 1/2 33 4 31 35 7 43 38 151 16 Chantmarl 11 21 5 59 70/76 9 05 70/73 152 30 Sandhills 12 17 6 56 73 10 04 72 154 07 Maiden Newton 14 32 9 56 13 14 15 40 12 13 15 05 154 60 MP 1 58 1/2 42 2 32 38 155 58 Crockway crossing 2 28 1/2 57 3 07 57 3 41 58 156 70 Grimston Tunnel north 3 33 68/63* 4 13 69/64* 4 45 1/2 67 157 60 Grimston 4 21 1/2 64 5 01 65 5 36 1/2 61* 158 72 Bradford Peverell 5 24 73 6 02 1/2 74/76 6 41 72 160 20 MP 6 29 78 7 07 74 7 47 1/2 73 161 62 Dorchester West 8 47 9 49 10 35
Milepost 27½ - 191 - October 2006
Table 2 - cont'd m c m s mph m s mph m s mph 161 62 Dorchester West 9 42 10 37 11 20 162 14 Dorchester Junction 1 15 1/2 22 1 38 18 1 52 17 163 12 Monkton 2 45 49 3 07 1/2 48 3 27 1/2 51 164 34 Bincombe Summit 4 18 49 4 40 49 4 53 55/66 165 20 Upwey Wishing Well 5 08 1/2 67 5 29 69 5 41 1/2 65 166 30 Upwey 6 58 7 04 7 42 7 23 -/61 8 09 -/61 8 08 167 56 Radipole 1 58 1/2 56 1 51 1/2 52 2 07 59 168 *57 Weymouth 4 26 plat 2 4 28 plat 2 4 58
A year later, run 3: a different loco, and an extra coach. Again, checked at the start for the same reasons as run 1, but not so badly, and the effect uphill of the extra coach to Brewham summit was compensated by a better stop at Bruton. Although 37412 was certainly driven with enthusiasm, it seemed weaker that 37411, even allowing for the effect of the extra load.
Finally, for the 37s, the 1999 run; 6 coaches again, a strong loco, and a driver distinctly in a hurry, incentivised by the late start. The driver produced some of the fastest loco-hauled running and times I’ve ever experienced down here, and combined it with some very slick station work too – note even the 68 second stop at Maiden Newton which included driver operation of the token machine on the platform. This therefore was by far and away the best of this batch of class 37 runs – but what is scary is just how far outside the Fastest Times nearly all the sections actually are.
For runs 5 and 6 we come right up to date. I have included run 5 as a comparison to show what the staple diet is like. The similarity with the running of run 4 is quite remarkable; and although the Fastest Times are much quicker than this, this is probably about as good as it gets with strict observance of all speed limits and the modern approach to driving. Note especially the much slower start out of Maiden Newton - though this is comparable to runs 1-3. This was recorded on a hot Saturday morning – and the train was full and standing from Frome, thinned out very slightly at Bruton, and was packed to the Gunwales and beyond from Yeovil – a day when at least a 4 car set would have been useful.
Run 6 shows the 2005 summer offering; the comfort of ex-Virgin Mk2s, topped and tailed by a pair of 31s. I’ve never been a great fan of 31s; grossly overweight machines with remarkably little power to show for it; and in this instance the locos weighed substantially more than their train! The handling was very cautious; much slower starts every time than any of the 37s bar 37412, and slower than the 150. Yet once underway the additional power showed well in the accelerations, but to no overall effect since the running was not up to the limits, and again, the stopping was very cautious. To my mind this run has a novelty value but is otherwise all growl and not much action!
A selection of northbound runs is covered in the remaining two tables. Run 7 takes us back to 1996. 37411 seemed a little weak on the climb of Upwey Bank, though better later in the run. It seems to have been driven with less enthusiasm than in run 8 a year later. The latter was particularly good; a full 70mph south of Maiden Newton for example is quite unusual. Note also the brisk running between the request stops especially. High speeds across the plains north of Yeovil were quite common with these services too, as was also the case descending from Brewham summit. Just how good run 8 was, however, is clear by comparison with run 9 in 1998; 37421 here driven with enthusiasm, but overall significantly weaker, resulting in slower accelerations and much slower times all round.
37424 in run 10 seems to have struggled for power on the climb from Weymouth; it was by far the weakest of the 6 runs and the slowest over the summit. After that, the driver managed
Milepost 27½ - 192 - October 2006
TABLE 3 Run 7 8 9 Date 1996 1997 1998 Train 16.55 Weymouth - Frome 17.20 Weymouth - Frome 11.53 Weymouth - Frome Loco 37411 37411 37421 Load 5 5 6 Recorder F G Collins F G Collins F G Collins Position 3/6 2/6 3/7 m c m s mph m s mph m s mph 1 early/ plat 168 *57 Weymouth 0 00 RT/ plat 2 0 00 2 0 00 1 late sig stop 0-22 167 56 Radipole 2 06 45 2 03 45/48 3 45 38/42 166 30 Upwey 3 46 49 4 09 6 02 4 35 6 45 165 20 Upwey Wishing Well 5 08 1/2 41 2 35 35 2 42 32 164 34 Bincombe Summit 6 36 39 3 57 43 4 08 1/2 40 163 12 Monkton 7 51 1/2 72 5 15 74 5 31 65 162 14 Dorchester Junction 9 09 6 19 1/2 25* 6 54 1/2 161 62 Dorchester West 10 30 7 32 8 11 11 15 9 35 9 00 161 03 Poundbury Tunnel north 1 29 1/2 1 24 1/2 47 1 36 1/2 51 160 00 MP 2 32 1/2 65 2 26 1/2 66 2 40 64 158 72 Bradford Peverell 3 31 70 3 25 68 3 40 67 157 60 Grimston 4 38 55* 4 30 62* 4 45 60*/56 156 55 Frampton 5 45 1/2 57 5 32 63 5 52 1/2 57 155 58 Crockway crossing 6 43 1/2 65 6 26 1/2 70 6 52 60 154 07 Maiden Newton 9 48 9 01 9 41 11 55 13 20 12 25 153 21 Cattistock 1 54 48 1 49 1/2 1 45 1/2 152 30 Sandhills 2 51 1/2 59 2 47 57/62 2 44 57 151 16 Chantmarl 4 02 60 3 58 1/2 60 3 56 1/2 59 149 69 Evershot 5 25 58/-* 5 24 52 5 22 1/2 52 148 60 Woolcombe Bank 6 38 70/67 6 31 1/2 69 6 35 60 147 50 Chetnole 7 37 69 8 18 8 33 8 35 9 20 146 52 Winterhayes bridge 8 27 74 1 27 65 1 47 145 46 Yetminster 9 35 1/2 41* 3 08 3 24 3 20 -/46 3 50 -/42 144 35 Thornford 11 13 1/2 44/40 2 13 2 31 3 05 -/52 2 55 -/47 142 66 Clifton Maybank 13 31 42 2 26 49 2 40 42 141 60 Yeovil South Jn 15 10 1/2 4 15 4 33 1/2 141 27 Yeovil Pen Mill 16 53 5 43 6 12 18 40 8 15 7 45 140 00 MP 3 15 1/2 55 2 47 55 3 26 1/2 53 138 56 Hummer 4 32 1/2 66/71 4 03 66 4 44 1/2 65 136 72 Marston Magna 6 05 1/2 70 5 45 78 6 16 1/2 75 135 67 Sutton Road 7 02 66 6 21 1/2 74 7 06 1/2 75 134 32 Sparkford 8 19 1/2 68 7 28 79 8 15 1/2 76 132 58 Longmans crossing 9 46 1/2 71 8 43 83 9 32 1/2 82 131 21 Cockhill Bridge 11 03 67 9 48 78 10 36 1/2 80 130 30 Somerton Road 11 50 1/2 68 10 36 1/2 11 24 br 129 44 Castle Cary 13 18 12 30 13 05
Milepost 27½ - 193 - October 2006
Table 3 - cont'd m c m s mph m s mph m s mph 129 44 Castle Cary 13 55 14 15 14 35 129 00 MP 1 17 40 1 15 1/2 42 1 17 41 128 00 MP 2 31 57 2 26 1/2 59 2 31 57 127 00 MP 3 31 63 3 26 63 3 32 62 126 09 Bruton 5 01 4 44 4 56 5 30 5 25 5 20 125 00 MP 2 00 48 1 55 48 2 13 1/2 47 124 00 MP 3 08 57 3 03 57 3 24 1/2 55 122 52 Brewham Summit 4 32 1/2 59 4 27 1/2 59 4 52 1/2 56 120 63 Witham 6 07 74 6 00 1/2 80 6 27 1/2 80 118 60 Woodlands 7 47 75/28* 7 28 87 7 56 86 116 53 Blatchbridge Jn 10 17 36 9 56 1/2 41*/49 10 30 115 44 Frome 12 25 11 49 12 34
TABLE 4 Run 10 11 12 Date 1999 2005 2005 Train 17.20 Weymouth - Frome 17.16 WeymthFrome 16.30 Weymth - Frome Loco 37424 150244 + 153318 31454 + 31601(t 'n' tail) Load 6 3 5 Recorder F G Collins F G Collins F G Collins Position 2/7 1/3 2/7 m c m s mph m s mph m s mph 168 *57 Weymouth 0 00 RT/ plat 2 0 00 3 late 0 00 RT 167 56 Radipole 2 04 1/2 44 2 09 46/48 2 19 46/50 166 30 Upwey 4 19 4 13 4 37 4 50 4 47 5 13 165 20 Upwey Wishing Well 2 40 1/2 31 2 33 1/2 34 2 42 1/2 36 164 34 Bincombe Summit 4 12 1/2 38 3 57 4 03 1/2 41 163 12 Monkton 5 35 1/2 68 5 17 72 5 24 65 162 14 Dorchester Junction 6 51 6 40 21* 6 54 1/2 21* 161 62 Dorchester West 8 10 7 53 8 39 9 47 9 20 11 51 161 03 Poundbury Tunnel north 1 30 1/2 1 28 53 1 41 52 160 00 MP 2 36 1/2 63 2 30 66 2 42 1/2 66/67 158 72 Bradford Peverell 3 38 67 3 29 70 3 41 1/2 65/56* 157 60 Grimston 4 41 1/2 64 4 37 1/2 57/56* 4 52 1/2 57 156 55 Frampton 5 43 5 43 1/2 57 5 58 1/2 58 155 58 Crockway crossing 6 39 68 6 41 1/2 59 6 57 60 154 07 Maiden Newton 9 15 9 58 9 59 11 29 11 43 12 48 153 21 Cattistock 1 46 1/2 2 07 1/2 47 2 05 48 152 30 Sandhills 2 40 1/2 3 07 56 3 02 58 151 16 Chantmarl 3 55 1/2 57 4 20 1/2 60 4 13 63 149 69 Evershot 5 24 53/68 5 51 46 5 35 52 148 60 Woolcombe Bank 6 28 1/2 67 7 05 1/2 64/66 6 47 1/2 63 147 50 Chetnole 8 21 8 42 8 29 26* 8 43 8 56 146 52 Winterhayes bridge 1 31 64 1 29 1/2 63/66 9 47 61/62 145 46 Yetminster 3 13 3 01 11 25 3 51 -/45 3 32 -/44 11 44 -/42 144 35 Thornford 2 34 2 12 1/2 21*/53 2 32
Milepost 27½ - 194 - October 2006
Table 4 - cont'd m c m s mph m s mph m s mph 144 35 Thornford 2 51 2 45 142 66 Clifton Maybank 2 28 1/2 52/sigs 4 30 43*/sigs 6 2 50 1/2 42 141 60 Yeovil South Jn 4 17 6 53 1/2 9/11 5 04 1/2 17 141 27 Yeovil Pen Mill 5 46 8 51 6 46 18 57 13 13 8 10 140 00 MP 2 35 53 3 53 1/2 47 3 41 1/2 54 138 56 Hummer 3 52 1/2 64 5 01 64 4 56 1/2 66/74 136 72 Marston Magna 5 27 74 6 42 74/75 6 26 1/2 72 135 67 Sutton Road 6 07 1/2 76 7 34 73 7 17 73 134 32 Sparkford 7 25 1/2 77 8 43 1/2 75/76 8 29 1/2 72 132 58 Longmans crossing 8 42 85 10 04 74 9 58 1/2 74 131 21 Cockhill Bridge 9 42 1/2 85 11 14 1/2 74 11 04 1/2 70 130 30 Somerton Road 12 00 1/2 60 11 52 1/2 63 129 44 Castle Cary 11 52 13 34 13 26 12 48 14 24 22 17 RT 129 00 MP 1 14 40 1 15 42 1 27 40 128 00 MP 2 29 1/2 55 2 28 56 2 40 57 127 00 MP 3 32 1/2 60 3 29 61 3 39 63 126 09 Bruton 4 52 4 56 5 05 5 37 5 32 5 52 125 00 MP 1 58 1/2 44 2 08 1/2 48 124 00 MP 3 12 1/2 52 3 13 1/2 53/58 3 16 56/59 122 52 Brewham Summit 4 44 1/2 54 4 40 56/74 4 39 1/2 58 120 63 Witham 6 23 78 6 15 1/2 73 6 10 1/2 83/80 118 60 Woodlands 7 52 87 7 56 1/2 70/76/sigs 7 40 1/2 82 116 53 Blatchbridge Jn 10 20 1/2 29* 10 49 22 tsr/40 10 38 1/2 23*/20 tsr/37 115 44 Frome 12 18 13 27 13 31
some quite brisk running; note especially the rapid exit from Yeovil, which helped achieved a time to Castle Cary not far outside of even time. The lack of power however was evident on the climbs in the final two sections.
Run 11 demonstrates some of the modern difficulties. This being early in the season, the loco-hauled set was not running, and return services from Weymouth in late afternoon/early evening are sparse to say the least. Fortunately a 153 had been added at Bristol and the resulting 3 cars were just about adequate for the traffic – and fortunately too a significant number of people had opted to wait for the next service 3 hours later, which was reportedly made up to 8 cars! Run 11 however had a lady driver, who has to rank as one of the most punctilious drivers I have ever witnessed. The results are evident in the running times; note the scrupulously observed 10 mph crawl in from Yeovil South Junction to Pen Mill station; and the equally tortuous exit. We had had a slightly late start from Weymouth, and were held up for a couple of minutes at Yeovil awaiting a southbound service; but the result was a needless loss of 6 or 7 minutes to schedule. Finally, in run 12, the return of the 31s. The northbound story was much the same as the southbound, resulting in times generally even worse than run 11. The long stop at Castle Cary is scheduled, to allow an up West of England HST to precede.
This is a fascinating line in many respects, and I thoroughly recommend it, even if the traction and the running are less interesting than a decade ago. How Wessex Trains copes with the peak summer flows in 2006 remains to be seen!
Milepost 27½ - 195 - October 2006
This is a gradient profile of the route from Castle Cary to Weymouth
Reproduced from “BR Main Line Gradient Profiles: The Age of Steam” published by Ian Allan Publishing by permission of the Publisher. All rights reserved.
The publisher draws your attention to the fact that the profile covers the steam era, and that modern profiles may vary slightly, where modernisation has taken place.
50 YEARS AGO: FURTHER MEMORIES FROM THE C.K.DUNKLEY COLLECTION
Martin Barrett
When I prepared the previous article I mentioned that only major errors had been corrected. However it has been pointed out that some of the logs I published do not stand up to detailed scrutiny of the data, so this time I have given the logs more thorough examination. Whilst doing this I increasingly felt like Miss Marple with rather a lot of clues that needed unravelling in order to come to a resolution to the errors. In the 25 logs produced this time I have discovered at least 20, what the late Eric Rudkin would call, major errors varying from incorrect mileages (basically one mile out) and incorrect times (one minute out) to the more obscure such as time recorded at a milepost ¼ from where it should be and one where the time bore no relation to any timing point I could find! As well as this, the speeds quoted nearly always seemed on the high side. John Heaton suggests this could be that when calculating the speed from railjoints you need to add one to get an exact quarter mile – i.e. either start 0,1,2 or finish 21,22,23. Despite all these anomolies we still have a varied collection of journeys which would have gone undiscovered but for the Steam Railway Research Society having providing a copy of the collection to the RPS, for which we are truly grateful.
The first six logs show more runs on the Bournemouth line and Run 1 shows a fairly
Milepost 27½ - 196 - October 2006
standard run with 34089 on 10. Note the steady increase from 53mph at the bottom of the dip at Byfleet, after the tsr at Weybridge, to 58 mph at MP31. After that you get the feeling of the engine running itself with speed rising and falling according to the gradient with no changes of cut-off or regulator being made from MP31 to Worting Jn or maybe until approaching Eastleigh. The end result was an 86 minute run to Southampton. A similar type of run continued to Bournemouth with speed falling from 72mph at Woodfidley Gates to just 43mph before Sway but, even with a tsr at Christchurch this was enough to record an early arrival at Bournemouth. Run 2 was a much harder proposition and compares very well with Run 1 in the 1955 article – same train, same driver. The start from Brockenhurst was torturous to say the least – a heavy train departing up the grade on a curve always has problems but 3½ minutes to Lymington Jn was really pretty slow but a fast finish kept time. Run 3 is one of those Railtour curiosities where you hope for something great but are usually disappointed. This was no exception. With a light load you would hope for a bit better from the ‘Schools’. From what I can gather this class had not been regular performers on this route for 10 years so maybe the driving technique was a little lacking. The running was steady rather than spectacular, but 49½ minutes to Basingstoke was quite acceptable. Unfortunately checks ensued down the bank and the rot really set in after Southampton. Interestingly the ‘Schools’ returned to the SWD in 1957 and by 1959 numbered 16 engines but they didn’t stay long. In the up direction we have three runs on the Bournemouth Belle. Run 4 is with the light winter load and 34101 made a really competent performance up to Roundwood. The tsr approaching Hook restrained the romp and whilst the averages do not quite meet the claimed maxima, only the checks in the Surbiton area ruined an excellent run. Runs 5 and 6 are among the first recorded using a rebuilt MN. In Run 5 you felt Driver Letchford was trying out his new engine – not pushing it too hard but doing enough to show what it could do. On arrival at Waterloo Mr Dunkley ascertained that as far as Battledown flyover Driver Letchford had used 30% cut off with 180lbs steam chest pressure with 25% and 120lbs thereafter driving on the regulator. I presume there were tsr delays in the Wimbledon area but it may have been signals as Mr Dunkley notes ‘severe check’ Raynes Park and ‘very slow’ West Box to Durnsford Road. A very good performance even though the speeds claimed are 2 to 3 mph on the high side. Five weeks later another run on the same train, same loco but different driver AND an inspector and CME on board – a bit crowded at the front end! A bit more restrained overall and it made me wonder whether
Unrebuilt Merchant Navy approaching Vauxhall on the Devon Belle on 14th August 1954 Photo Bruce Nathan
Milepost 27½ - 197 - October 2006
Table 1 Run No 1 2 3 Date 04 Jan 1956 31 May 1956 08 July 1956 Train 1030 Waterloo 0830 Waterloo 0918 Spl Waterloo The Wessex Wyvern' Loco 34089 34065 30925 Load 10/330/360 13/418/450 7/222 Driver Chant Sartin Mayle (Fireman Whiffen) dist location sch m s mph sch m s mph sch m s mph 0.0 Waterloo 0 0 00 0 0 00 0 0 00 1L 1.3 Vauxhall 3 38 3 52 3 59 3.9 Clapham Jn 7 7 18 7 7 39 44 7 7 35 43 5.6 Earlsfield 9 50 50 10 05 45 7.3 Wimbledon 11 37 57 11 43 55 12 08 50 9.8 New Malden 14 10 62 14 23 62 15 03 54.5 12.0 Surbiton 16.5 17 13 0 0 00 13.3 Hampton Ct Jn 18 17 45 60/65 18 18 52 64 14.4 Esher 4 48 52 17.1 Walton 21 22 62 7 47 58 22 19 65 tsr 19.1 Weybridge 23 38 15 9 56 63/70 24 17 64 21.7 Byfleet 27 17 53 12 14 66 26 35 69 24.4 Woking 16 15 32 30 30 15 57 0 0 00 28 28 57 68 28.0 Brookwood 34 11 56 7 21 46 32 08 66.5 31.0 MP31 37 27 58 11 15 50 34 55 65.5 33.2 Farnborough 39 38 66 13 35 60 36 45 72 36.5 Fleet 42 30 70/72 16 43 64 39 37 70 39.7 Winchfield 45 26 69 19 34 73/78 42 27 68/65 42.2 Hook 47 37 65/69 21 32 73 44 32 69/72 47.8 Basingstoke 30 27 21 52 59 55 0 0 00 49 33 60 50.3 Worting Jn 57 55 58 45 6.5 6 08 55 52 31 43 52.6 Wootton 58 56 52 9 22 44 56 13 39 sigs sev 56.3 Roundwood 63 00 58 13 53 54 62 25 39 58.1 Micheldever 64 52 65 15 39 70 64 38 58 61.8 Wallers Ash 18 27 85/86 64.5 Winchester Jn 72.5 70 09 82 23 20 21 82 70.5 71 17 64 66.6 Winchester 26 23 02 71 40 80 0 0 00 73 13 64 69.7 Shawford 74 17 82/84 5 01 64/73 75 56 69 tsr 15 sigs sev 73.6 Eastleigh 81 77 31 64/69 9 8 37 81 81 30 54.5 77.3 St Denys 81 05 62 14 35 61 85 10 64 78.1 Northam Jn 86 82 15 17 16 04 86 87 36 79.2 Southampton 89 86 02 20 19 08 0.0 0 0 00 0 0 00 89 90 23 30 2.7 Redbridge 5 5 58 44 5 5 16 42 (pass) 6.2 Lyndhurst Road 10 36 52 9 42 51/61 severe checks 8.9 Beaulieu Road 13 27 56/72 12 30 56/70 13.6 Brockenhurst 19 17 34 108 123 15 17 55 56 0 0 00
Milepost 27½ - 198 - October 2006
dist location sch m s mph sch m s mph sch m s mph 16.3 Sway 21 38 49 6 29 50 19.3 New Milton 24 48 62 9 29 66 21.8 Hinton Admiral 27 18 64 11 37 80/82 tsr 15 25.3 Christchurch 32 45 14 15 61 27.0 Pokesdown 43 27.5 Boscombe 17 27 44 28.7 Bournemouth 41 38 56 21 19 43
‘economy’ was on the agenda as just enough was done to keep time – apart from one tsr after Woking a completely clear run throughout which was quite a luxury.
Table 2 Run No 4 5 6 Date 11 Jan 1956 09 May 1956 12 June 1956 Train 1727 Southampton 1645 Bournemouth 1645 Bournemouth Loco 34101 35018 (rebuilt) 35018 (rebuilt) Load 9 10pull+van/418/440 10pull+van/423/450 Driver Chant Letchford (fireman Randall) Mills (Fireman Walker) Insp Knight + RC Bond CME dist location sch m s mph sch m s mph m s mph 0.0 Bournemouth 0 0 00 0 00 3.6 Christchurch 6 30 62 6 48 58 6.9 Hinton Admiral 9 53 56 10 28 52/44 9.4 New Milton 12 53 52 13 36 50 12.4 Sway 15 58 62 16 45 64 14.2 Lymington Jn 17 17 42 68 18 28 65 15.1 Brockenhurst 18 30 72 19 23 67/65/69 19.8 Beaulieu Road 22 22 78 23 40 68 22.5 Lyndhurst Road 24 56 /sigs36 26 05 66/76 25.4 Totton 29 01 46 28 38 60 28.7 Southampton 34 1/2 34 50 32 52 0.0 0 0 00 5L 0 0 00 0 00 1.1 Northam Jn 3 1/2 3 32 3 1/2 3 15 3 27 3.3 Swaythling 7 14 48 6 55 47 7 18 45 5.6 Eastleigh 10 9 49 56 10 9 37 58/60 10 04 52/54 9.5 Shawford 13 59 58 13 45 58 14 27 52 12.6 Winchester 17 28 56 17 12 56 18 07 52/50 14.7 Winchester Jn 19 46 57 22 19 33 58 20 38 52 17.4 Wallers Ash 22 39 59 23 52 52 18.9 Weston 24 10 61 24 09 56 25 39 50 21.1 Micheldever 26 19 63 26 27 58 28 10 53 22.9 Roundwood 28 03 64 28 33 56 30 20 52 26.6 Wooton 31 39 69 32 15 66 34 12 62 28.9 Worting Jn 38 34 02 56 38 34 21 68 36 30 52 31.4 Basingstoke 36 23 72/86/tsr15 36 27 75/80 39 16 58/66/64 37.0 Hook 41 57 41 01 74 44 35 67 39.5 Winchfield 45 32 58 43 00 69 46 39 72/74 42.7 Fleet 48 42 75 45 43 75 49 25 73/76 46.0 Farnborough 51 20 80 48 21 76 52 08 72 48.2 MP31 79 74 54 03 68 51.2 Brookwood 55 19 86 52 37 78/81 56 30 82
Milepost 27½ - 199 - October 2006
dist location sch m s mph sch m s mph m s mph 54.8 Woking 61 57 48 90 61 55 30 79 59 20 73/tsr15 57.5 Byfleet 59 39 89 57 30 82 63 10 60.1 Weybridge 61 28 82 59 31 80 66 56 48 62.1 Walton 63 00 76/82/sig 61 10 78 69 15 61 65.9 Hampton Ct Jn 66 14 47 64 17 72 72 45 68 sigs sev 69.4 New Malden 72 08 58 67 37 62/tsr 75 02 69 71.9 Wimbledon 74 45 63 71 37 /tsr 77 22 70 73.6 Earlsfield 76 25 64 74 55 45 78 58 64 75.3 Clapham Jn 80 79 07 -/53 80 77 10 -/48 80 47 77.9 Vauxhall 82 52 81 53 84 22 79.2 Waterloo 87 86 13 87 84 57 87 34
Table 3 Run No 7 8 Date 08 Feb 1956 15 Sep 1956 Train 1100 Waterloo 1100 Waterloo Loco 35014 35018 (rebuilt) Load 11/377/400 13/431/465 Driver Cox Blandford (Fireman Cook) dist loc sch m s mph m s mph 0.0 Waterloo 0 0 00 0 00 1.3 Vauxhall 3 36 3 32 3.9 Clapham Jn 7 7 12 43 7 00 52/46 5.6 Earlsfield 9 38 48 9 08 50 7.2 Wimbledon 11 30 55 11 02 54 9.8 New Malden 13 59 64/66 13 33 65 13.3 Hampton Ct Jn 18 17 16 62/66 16 44 71 17.1 Walton 20 47 64 20 01 66 19.1 Weybridge 22 44 67/74 21 53 66/69 21.7 Byfleet 24 52 72 24 07 66 24.3 Woking 28 27 10 64/62 26 38 60/56 28.0 Brookwood 30 41 64/66 30 25 57 31.0 MP 31 33 32 64 33 41 55 33.2 Farnborough 35 27 73 35 54 65/71 36.5 Fleet 38 07 74 38 45 69 39.8 Winchfield 40 47 74/76 41 33 72 42.2 Hook 42 43 73/79 43 34 72/69/75 47.8 Basingstoke 47 10 74 48 10 72 50.3 Worting Jn 51 49 18 66 50 18 64 52.4 Oakley 51 15 67 52 19 63/72 55.6 Overton 54 05 69 55 10 69 59.2 Whitchurch 57 02 76 58 15 72 61.1 Hurstbourne 58 32 77/87 59 46 72 66.4 Andover 62 35 83 63 59 80 72.7 Grateley 68 20 62 69 33 64 73.5 MP73.5 60 70 20 60 75.6 Amesbury Jn 71 07 68 72 22 66 78.2 Porton 73 11 85/91 74 33 78 sigs 82.6 Tunnel Jn 80.5 77 12 78 02 58 83.7 Salisbury 83 79 28 80 38
Milepost 27½ - 200 - October 2006
We now move on to three runs on the Exeter line. Runs 7 and 8 show the differences between unrebuilt and Table 3 cont'd rebuilt MN. In all truth not much as dist loc sch m s mph m s mph 35014 had two coaches less than 0.00 Salisbury 0 0 00 35018. In run 7 35014 took longer to 1.5 MP 85 4 08 warm up being ¾ minute slower to 2.5 Wilton 6 08 43/66 Byfleet but was then kept going to 8.3 Dinton 12 30 64 breast MP31 at 64mph whilst 35018 12.6 Tisbury 16 39 60 fell to 55mph so by Basingstoke 35014 17.6 Semley 22 15 46 was one minute to the good of 35018 21.7 Gillingham 25 58 78 and this continued all the way to 24.0 MP 107.5 28 01 42 Salisbury with 35014 being worked just tsr 40/72 that little bit harder. Note the 28.5 Templecombe 32 40 60 customary 91mph dash down Porton 30.0 MP 113.5 34 18 49 bank which was absent with 35018. 34.6 Sherborne 37 52 90 Whilst these runs do not meet the 39.2 Yeovil Jn 39 41 08 83 heights attained in the early 60s, they 42.8 MP126.25 44 40 are at the top end of the performance tsr 15 scale. That said the extension of Run 48.0 Crewkerne 49 52 60 8 to Exeter was superb. With a load of 49.8 MP133.25 52 07 43 13 uphill stretches did take their toll 56.0 Chard Jn 57 21 82 with 46mph at Semley, 49mph at 61.1 Axminster 61 00 91 MP113½ and 43 mph at MP133¼ 64.4 Seaton Jn 63 21 75 being a little below par but the downhill 69.0 MP152.5 68 45 41 sprints made up for that. The climb to 70.0 MP153.5 70 19 38 Honiton summit, breasted at 38mph, 71.3 Honiton 71 41 60/90 was excellent with this load as was the 75.9 Sidmouth Jn 79 76 05 near even time run from Salisbury to 0.0 0 0 00 Sidmouth Jn. There is no note of the 3.8 Whimple 5 15 72 load being reduced at Sidmouth Jn but 7.4 Broad Clyst 7 54 88 on 1100 it usually was so the really 11.1 Exmouth Jn 10 53 58 sprightly run onwards to Exeter may 12.2 Exeter Central 14 12 55 have only been with 9 or so vehicles.
In D.W.Winkworth’s book ‘Bullied Pacifics’ only one run beats 12m 55s recorded here and only 2 were faster to Exmouth Jn. The return journey in Run 9 was again a truly amazing run. Normally non-stop to Yeovil Jn an additional call was made at Honiton. The run to passing Sidmouth Jn was one of the best ever recorded. The start from Honiton was pretty slow but thereafter it flew along although I suspect the speeds from the summit to Axminster were more in the 83-85mph range. The climbs to Hewish and Sutton Bingham were excellent with the momentum of the downhill running resulting in superb minima at the summits. In these cases the speeds appear to be substantiated. The overall running time Exeter to Yeovil Jn was only 52m43s (plus the station time at Honiton) as opposed to the 59- minute non-stop schedule. Running of the highest order. Good running continued to Salisbury but not quite at the same level. After Salisbury things were taken more easily with no mad dash down to Andover and I think a bit more effort could have been shown recovering from the tsr after Hurstbourne probably due to a different driver from Salisbury . Beyond Basingstoke another excellent performance followed – not one of the 1967 flog it to death runs, but a steadily paced journey building up speed gradually to around 80mph followed by a fast entry into Woking – it does appear braking was left perilously late with an average of 69.3 from Brookwood. Was this a minute short as the fastest in Mr Winkworth’s book is 3m31s. The run into Waterloo appears lacklustre, but it may have been checked in from Surbiton. Now on to the Great Western starting with two runs (10 and 11) on 0930 from Paddington with totally different traction but very similar results. Surprisingly a County was turned out on
Milepost 27½ - 201 - October 2006
Table 4 dist location sch m s mph Run No 9 0.0 Templecombe 0 0 00 Date 25 May 1956 2.0 MP110 3 01 62 Train 1630 Exeter 4.5 MP107.5 6 40 41 av Loco 35012 6.8 Gillingham 8 50 64 av Load 11/365/390 10.9 Semley 12 52 45 dist location sch m s mph 15.9 Tisbury 17 35 74 0.0 Exeter Central 0 0 00 20.2 Dinton 21 00 79/82 1.1 Exmouth Jn 4 3 37 25.9 Wilton 26 01 44 4.8 Broad Clyst 7 32 72 28.4 Salisbury 33 30 10 8.5 Whimple 11 05 56 0.0 0 0 00 10.3 MP161.25 13 07 52 1.1 Tunnel Jn 3 59 12.2 Sidmouth Jn 17 15 10 58 5.5 Porton 9 29 49 13.6 MP158 16 30 66 8.1 Amesbury Jn 12 42 52 16.8 Honiton 20 25 11.0 Grateley 15 39 64/74 0.0 0 00 17.4 Andover 24 22 17 1.3 MP153.5 3 57 0.0 0 0 00 2.3 MP152.5 5 10 -/90 3.8 MP62.5 50 7.0 Seaton Jn 9 04 88 5.3 Hurstbourne 11 03 8.8 MP146 88 tsr 15 10.2 Axminster (37) 11 27 86 7.2 Whitchurch 14 05 51/62 12.8 MP142 13 39 69 10.8 Overton 17 52 56 15.2 Chard Jn 16 01 65 14.0 Oakley 21 09 62 18.8 MP136 19 17 69 16.1 Worting Jn 21 23 10 66 21.5 MP.133.25 21 53 62 sigs mod 23.3 Crewkerne 23 32 78/89 18.6 Basingstoke 25 26 59 28.5 MP126.25 27 28 72 0.0 0 0 00 29.9 Sutton Bingham 28 40 60 5.6 Hook 7 22 69 tsr 15 8.0 Winchfield 9 21 78 32.1 Yeovil Jn (59) 32 18 11.3 Fleet 11 55 82/83 0.0 0 0 00 14.6 Farnborough 14 25 82/90 4.6 Sherborne 6 52 64 19.8 Brookwood 18 18 88 8.3 Milborne Port 11 05 52 av 23.5 Woking 26 21 30 10.7 Templecombe 19 14 09 0.0 0 0 00 2.7 Byfleet 4 48 62 5.2 Weybridge 7 05 72 7.2 Walton 8 48 72 11.0 Hampton Ct Jn 12 11 57 70 14.4 New Malden 15 08 52 17.0 Wimbledon 18 15 49 20.3 Clapham Jn 23 22 30 22.9 Vauxhall 26 20 24.2 Waterloo 30 31 50
03 May. I cannot find any records in my collection of these locomotives over the Berks and Hants, but on a light load it seemed to perform quite adequately. After a slow start from Paddington, the run to Reading seemed par for the course. The journey forward was very well paced with around about 60mph being maintained on the rising grades to Savernake and the opportunity of fast running taken on the downhill stretches. The speeds round the Frome cut-off seem a bit adrift. A nicely balanced run achieved a 60mph+ run to Taunton. The King four weeks later had a rather peculiar run – a faster start followed by a falling back to no higher than 58mph through Slough followed by a fast finish achieved virtually the same to Reading as the County in Run 10. From Reading the reverse happened – a slow start, then a spurt through Newbury followed by easy steaming beyond Savernake ended up again
Milepost 27½ - 202 - October 2006
Table 5 with the runs being Run No 10 11 virtually the same. In Date 03 May 1956 30 May 1956 Run 12 we have a Train 0930 Paddington 0930 Paddington Castle with a heavy Loco 1021 6004 load climbing to Load 7/232/255 8/286/300 Whiteball – not the Driver Symons Underhill greatest of climbs but dist location sch m s mph sch m s mph a little more downhill 0.0 Paddington 0 0 00 0 0 00 effort would have 1.3 Westbourne Park 4 3 43 3 3 18 probably kept time. In 5.7 Ealing Broadway 9 42 53 8 48 51 the up direction I 9.1 Southall 13 13 22 60 12 12 07 64 include a very good 13.2 West Drayton 17 32 64 15 52 66 run by King 6029 (Run 16.2 Langley 20 21 65 18 43 62 14). The tonnage of 18.5 Slough 22 22 18 69 21 20 59 58 436/490 seems rather 24.2 Maidenhead 28 27 35 65 27 26 06 72 heavy for eleven 31.0 Twyford 34 33 34 72 33 31 37 75 vehicles, but even 34.0 MP34 36 14 64 34 07 66 assuming the load 36.0 Reading 39 38 47 38 38 16 being some 70 tons 0.0 0 0 00 0 0 00 lighter it is still a very 1.9 Southcote Jn 5 4 04 48 5 4 22 38 good effort. The climb 5.3 Theale 7 58 57/60 8 35 52 to Whiteball compares 10.8 Midgham 13 43 58 14 07 57 well with some 17.1 Newbury 20 20 30 58 20 20 22 67 published runs and 22.5 Kintbury 25 52 62 25 19 69 although some of the 25.5 Hungerford 29 03 60 28 08 60/56 times and speeds 30.4 Bedwyn 34 07 58 33 10 58 don’t match up the 34.1 Savernake 39 38 40 44 37 37 28 43/66 time of 25m23s to 39.3 Pewsey 43 48 72 42 48 64/61 Whiteball is good and 45.1 Patney 48 35 74/80 48 16 66/69 the minimum of 50.9 Lavington 53 17 72 53 26 66/68 43mph seems to stand 55.4 Edington 57 03 70 57 28 66 up. Unfortunately the 58.6 Heywood Road Jn 61 59 49 68 59 60 22 68 15 mph tsr was in the 61.0 Fairwood Road Jn 61 55 69 62 28 69 tunnel so a flying 64.3 Clink Road Jn 65 11 55 65 37 62 descent to Taunton 66.3 Blatchbridge Jn 67 13 50 67 23 72 didn’t happen – but 70.4 Witham 71 23 56 70 55 66 why bother as 2 72.5 MP122.5 73 33 55 72 48 62 minutes were cut from 75.7 Bruton 76 36 66 75 47 66 the schedule. The run 79.3 Castle Cary 81 79 48 59 79 79 01 62 from Taunton was 84.2 Keinton Mandeville 84 15 69 83 23 69/75 quite amazing with 89.7 Somerton 89 08 70 88 10 72 over 140 miles of no 95.0 Curry Rivel Jn 93 30 82 92 28 84 tsrs or checks of any 98.9 Athelney 96 42 72 95 40 69 kind. There was no 101.9 Cogload Jn 99 20 69 98 25 71 note about any late 104.3 Creech Jn 101 05 65 100 27 64 running so it appears 106.7 Taunton 107 104 02 106 103 35 there was a 9 min early arrival into Paddington. The start from Taunton was pretty lively with speed being worked up to over 70 by Curry Rivel Jn from where the climb brought speed down to only the mid 60s before Somerton. The merry romp continued with speed having to be eased considerably for Castle Cary. The climb to Brewham summit only brought the speed down to 43 mph. Continued steady running kept knocking off the minutes so by the time Savernake summit was breasted at 50
Milepost 27½ - 203 - October 2006
Table 5a Run No 12 Date 03 May 1956 Train 1320 Taunton Loco 4098 Load 12/362/378 dist Location sch m s mph 0.0 Taunton 0 0 00 2.0 Norton Fitzwarren 4 21 45/50 7.2 Wellington 10 45 48 9.0 Beam Bridge 38 11.2 Whiteball 16 43 32/69 16.2 Tiverton Jn 21 58 64 18.5 Cullompton 24 08 62 22.7 Hele 28 17 66 27.6 Stoke Canon 33 02 62 29.5 Cowley Bridge Jn 35 35 49 30.8 Exeter St D 37 38 03
Table 6 dist location sch m s mph Run No 13 42.4 Clink Road Jn 47 42 53 64/73 Date 03 May 1956 45.7 Fairwood Jn 50 45 49 70 Train 1740 Exeter 48.1 Heywood Rd Jn 52 1/2 48 05 67 Loco 6029 51.3 Edington 51 00 72 Load 11/436/460 55.8 Lavington 54 58 64/53 Driver Kent (Fireman Giles) 61.6 Patney 69 61 03 58 dist Location sch m s mph 63.8 Woodborough 63 20 62 0.0 Exeter St D 0 0 00 67.4 Pewsey 66 49 64/66 1.3 Cowley Bridge Jn 3 4 30 72.6 Savernake 80 1/2 71 56 50/45 3.5 Stoke Canon 7 50 50 76.3 Bedwyn 84 76 18 64/65 7.2 Silverton 11 17 58 81.2 Hungerford 81 12 56 12.6 Cullompton 16 35 66 84.2 Kintbury 84 05 72 14.8 Tiverton Jn 18 48 64 89.6 Newbury 97 88 31 82 16.6 Sampford Courteney 21 30 65 93.1 Thatcham 91 30 69 19.9 Whiteball 25 23 43 96.0 Midgham 94 08 62 tsr 15 97.9 Aldermaston 96 00 64/73 23.7 Wellington 30 20 69 104.5 Southcote Jn 102 43 40 28.8 Norton Fitzwarren 35 00 70 106.7 Reading 113 1/2 106 15 36 30.8 Taunton 40 37 59 108.7 Milepost 34 108 44 49 0.0 0 0 00 111.7 Twyford 112 04 62 2.4 Creech Jn 4 4 20 54 118.5 Maidenhead 118 20 69 8.0 Athelney 10 02 70 124.2 Slough 132 123 29 72 11.9 Curry Rivel Jn 13 30 74 126.5 Langley 125 27 69 17.1 Somerton 18 18 66/72 129.5 West Drayton 128 08 72 20.8 Charlton Mackerell 21 15 69/72 133.6 Southall 143 131 53 66 25.5 Alford 25 40 68 137.0 Ealing Broadway 135 30 54 27.7 Castle Cary 30 27 45 60 139.4 Old Oak Common W 138 20 45 29.1 MP 128 29 17 62 141.4 Westbourne Park 151 141 38 31.0 Bruton 31 20 55/43 142.7 Paddington 155 145 50 36.3 Witham 37 37 64 40.4 Blatchbridge Jn 45 41 08 74
Milepost 27½ - 204 - October 2006
Table 6a mph – followed by the Grafton Curve restriction Run No 14 over 8 minutes had been gained on the schedule. Date 24 May 1956 With the hard work done Driver Kent eased back Train 1610 Plymouth a little and kept going generally in the mid Loco 6004 60s/low 70s all the way to London. Of course we Load 7/248/265 forget that there were many fairly low (at today’s dist location sch m s mph standards) restrictions such as Hungerford and 0.0 Plymouth 0 0 00 Midgham that restricted high speeds on the B&H 1.5 Lipson Jn 4 35 – I think the 82mph claimed at Newbury was way tsr 15 over the top, 75/76 being more likely. In Run 14 4.0 Plympton 8 42 we have a bit of a struggle with 6004 tackling the 4.5 MP241.5 9 40 29 av South Devon banks. To have a tsr before 5.0 MP241 11 08 20 av Plympton allowing no run at the bank was a great 5.5 MP240.5 12 44 18 av hindrance but considering the average over the 6.0 MP240 14 24 17 av first half mile of the bank was only 29mph, to go 6.7 Hemerdon 13 1/2 17 00 15 over the top at 15mph was quite an achievement 10.8 Ivybridge 23 13 51 – I note that the speed in some other published 13.9 Wrangaton 27 13 53 runs with a similar load drops to below 20 mph. 16.3 Brent 29 55 53 After getting a run through Totnes, the ascent of 18.6 Rattery 32 38 60/64 Dainton was better but something doesn’t look 23.1 Totnes 31 37 27 55 quite right here. Whereas I can believe a 25.0 MP221 39 32 53 minimum of 26mph at Dainton some of the 26.0 MP220 40 47 49 intermediate times don’t add up – an average of 26.5 MP219.5 41 25 48 21.4mph from MP219½ to MP 219 for example 27.0 MP219 42 49 32 with speeds of 48 and 32 at either end. Any 28.0 Dainton 44 56 26/56 ideas would be welcome! 31.9 Newton Abbot 50 09
Now we turn our attention to the Bristol line. Mr Dunkley had frequent visits to Bristol, Swindon and Oxford so these feature quite regularly in his collection. In the down direction I have selected three runs, one to each of the destinations above. Run 15 shows a modified Hall 7902 with a fairly heavy load of 10 vehicles. It actually put up a very spirited performance with a quick start and a maximum of 75mph through Slough, the time to Reading being better than both 0930 runs (10 and 11). After Reading the gently rising gradient and the tsr immediately after departure slowed things down a bit. I think the 66 mph through Steventon is an error – I think 56 mph is more likely. Run 16 is yet another run on the Bristolian – much better than 1955 but still not quite able to keep the schedule. As mentioned in the previous article, the schedule is quite unrealistic with time dropped steadily followed by a dramatic recovery following [4] – almost like some of today’s schedules! The running compares well with 1955’s runs and with only one tsr the end result was better. The high speed down Dauntsey bank just about stands scrutiny but the speed at Box may be a little high. Lastly in this group a run on 1145 from Paddington with an absurdly easy schedule. Hardly reaching 70 mph enabled 7005 to gain time with ease and even with a 15 mph signal check at Didcot East, an early arrival into Oxford could not avoided. For the London bound journeys I have selected two runs on the Bristolian, two from Swindon and one from Oxford. The two Bristolian runs are far better than those in 1955 and also there were no tsrs. The difference in driving styles between the runs is very marked. 7034 in Run 18 came out of Bristol like a rocket but then took things relatively easily until Didcot after which it piled on the speed to achieve a 3 minute early arrival. A minimum of 39 mph past Horfield is fairly good but 61mph at Badminton is only average. I think the claim of 91 mph after Hullavington is high – 85 mph seems more likely. In fact most of the speeds between Swindon and Southall seem 2 to 3 mph high. In Run 19 5076 took a rather more relaxed approach to Horfield bank being a minute slower by Stoke Gifford, but then built up speed
Milepost 27½ - 205 - October 2006
Table 7 Run No 15 16 17 Date 01 May 1956 27 June 1956 12 Sep 1956 Train 0905 Paddington 0845 Paddington 1145 Paddington Loco 7902 5066 7005 Load 10/321/345 7/246/270 8/274/295 dist location sch m s mph sch m s mph sch m s mph 0.0 Paddington 0 0 00 0 0 00 0 0 00 1.3 Westbourne Park 3 3 23 4 2 59 3 3 26 5.7 Ealing Broadway 8 57 60 8 08 62 9 28 50 9.1 Southall 13 12 18 65 11 11 17 66 13 13 15 52 13.2 West Drayton 16 07 69 14 53 72 17 35 60 16.2 Langley 18 43 73 17 23 75 20 32 61 18.5 Slough 22 20 37 75 17 1/2 19 09 75 22 22 38 62 24.2 Maidenhead 28 25 38 72 21 1/2 24 00 52 29 28 13 62 tsr 15 31.0 Twyford 34 31 38 69 27 33 14 66 36 34 20 66 34.0 MP34 34 28 60 37 03 66 sigs mod 36.0 Reading 40 37 56 0.0 0 0 00 31 37 18 76 41 38 43 68 tsr 15 2.7 Tilehurst 6 45 39 27 75 41 01 70 5.5 Pangbourne 10 19 54 [4] 41 45 75 43 28 69 8.8 Goring 13 41 63 44 23 72 46 17 66/69 12.5 Cholsey 17 15 62 47 22 74 49 32 66 17.1 Didcot 20 21 53 60 48 51 06 72 20.5 Steventon 25 30 66 50 1/2 53 55 71 24.4 Wantage Road 29 37 57 57 05 70 27.9 Challow 33 12 64 59 54 73 30.5 Uffington 35 47 64 62 03 74 35.6 Shrivenham 40 43 60 66 03 74 41.3 Swindon 48 49 05 (77.3) 67 70 38 74 82.9 Wootton Bassett 75 03 80 87.7 Dauntsey 78 27 90 91.0 MP91 80 42 88 94.0 Chippenham 79 82 45 80 96.1 Thingley Jn 84 27 76 98.3 Corsham 86 12 74 101.9 Box 88 54 86 104.6 Bathampton 91 07 73 106.9 Bath 87 93 09 43 111.4 Saltford 97 43 70 113.8 Keynsham [4] 100 03 63 116.7 St Annes Park 102 48 118.3 Bristol T.M 105 105 28 sigs 52.8 Didcot East Jn 59 54 36 15 56.1 Culham 59 02 46 58.3 Radley 61 48 50/55 63.4 Oxford 72 69 07
Milepost 27½ - 206 - October 2006
Table 8 Run No 18 19 20 Date 18 April 1956 27 June 1956 15 April 1956 Train 1630 Bristol 1630 Bristol 1615 Gloucester Loco 7034 5076 7017 Load 7/234/255 7/246/270 9/305/310 dist location sch m s mph m s mph sch m s mph 0.0 Bristol TM 0 0 00 0 00 1 L 1.6 Stapleton Road 5 3 43 41 4 28 3.7 Horfield 6 42 39 7 43 35 4.8 Filton Jn 8 1/2 8 13 55 9 20 48 5.7 Stoke Gifford Jn 10 9 17 45 10 25 48 7.8 Winterbourne 59 58 9.1 Coalpit Heath 13 03 60 14 08 63 13.0 Chipping Sodbury 16 50 64 17 42 66/65 17.6 Badminton 21 1/2 21 23 61 21 50 66 23.4 Hullavington 26 17 82/91 26 13 90 27.9 Little Somerford 29 33 90 29 11 94 30.6 Brinkworth 31 33 82 31 00 89 34.7 Wooton Bassett 34 35 04 60 34 12 59 40.3 Swindon 39 40 04 76 39 14 70 0 0 00 46.0 Shrivenham 44 29 82 43 53 78 9 11 53 51.1 Uffington 48 18 82 47 37 82 14 32 60 53.7 Challow 50 23 82 49 32 84 17 08 63 57.2 Wantage Road 52 57 82 52 01 86 20 12 67 61.1 Steventon 57 1/2 55 53 82 54 46 84 23 28 71/77 64.5 Didcot 59 1/2 58 27 86 57 13 85 26 12 75 69.1 Cholsey(14.9) 61 51 88 60 27 86 29 43 83 72.9 Goring 64 33 88/82 63 04 86 32 32 77 76.1 Pangbourne 66 57 88 65 26 74 35 11 72 79.0 Tilehurst 69 05 82 67 45 74/76 37 42 69 sigs sev 81.6 Reading 48 42 55 71.5 71 08 84 69 55 74 0 0 00 86.6 Twyford 75 74 54 84/80 73 51 74 8 07 53 93.4 Maidenhead 80 80 08 82 79 06 78 14 32 69/70 99.1 Slough 84.5 84 38 80 83 47 75 19 43 67 101.4 Langley 21 42 67 104.4 West Drayton 88 47 80 88 03 74 24 28 66 108.5 Southall 91 92 12 74 91 27 72 28 24 66 111.9 Ealing Broadway 95 03 72 94 14 72 31 55 58 114.3 Old Oak Cmn W.Jn 97 08 64 96 19 67 34 34 50 116.3 Westbourne Park 101 99 26 98 26 39 37 46 sigs sev 117.6 Paddington 105 102 05 101 30 43 42 30 steadily to breast Badminton at 66 mph and reach in excess of 90 mph past Little Somerford. Once again after a slower recovery from Wootton Bassett it maintained the higher end of the 80s until the approaches to Reading. By then the hard work was done so the mid 70s sufficed to beat run 18 by ½ a minute. Runs 20 and 21 are very interesting – the former with Castle 7017 on 9 and the latter with Britannia 70020 on 8. Generally the Britannias did not have a very good reputation on the Western, but with the proper handling they can match almost anything. Note the start out of Swindon reaching 80 mph by Wantage Road whilst 7017 was only in the upper 60s. Needless to say all this effort was thwarted by a stop just
Milepost 27½ - 207 - October 2006
after Didcot, whilst 7017 just went on its merry way working up to 83mph by Cholsey. Not daunted 70020 set off in style from the stop reaching 76 mph after Pangbourne. It’s interesting to note that between the winter and summer timetables no less than 6 minutes had been chopped off the schedule between Swindon and Reading – in addition to the 5 minutes between Gloucester and Swindon and yet one more between Reading and Paddington. So whereas 7017 sat at Reading waiting time, 70020 had to contend with a late start. 7017 had a steady, unremarkable run into Paddington with speed in the upper 60s to achieve an on time arrival, whereas 70020 once again set off at a great pace once again – note nearly one minute up on 7017 by Twyford passed 9 mph higher. With speeds in the mid 70s followed by a fast run in Old Oak a sub even time run was achieved – 63 mph start to stop – a pretty good run and over a minute faster in from Maidenhead than the two Bristolian runs. Lastly we have 7004 toying with only 6 vehicles on the Oxford hourly schedule. After the small time loss at the start 7004 maintained the mid to upper 70s all the way to Old Oak where a signal check cost about a minute but still allowed an early arrival. In
Table 8a Run No 21 22 Date 18 Sep 1956 12 Sep 1956 Train 1620 Gloucester 1735 Oxford Loco 70020 7004 Load 8/273/290 6/186/200 dist location sch m s mph sch m s mph Swindon 0 0 00 5.7 Shrivenham 7 35 63 10.8 Uffington 11 47 74 13.4 Challow 13 55 78 16.9 Wantage Road 16 30 81 20.8 Steventon 19 24 80/82 24.2 Didcot 27 24 45 sig stop 1m12s Oxford (0.0) 0 0 00 Radley(5.1) 6 59 60 Culham(7.3) 9 03 64/69 Didcot E.Jn(10.3) 11 1/2 12 06 42 28.8 Cholsey(14.9) 31 37 62 16 40 69 32.6 Goring 34 51 72 19 50 72 35.8 Pangbourne 37 29 72/76 22 30 74 38.7 Tilehurst 39 48 72 24 52 73 sigs 41.3 Reading 42 44 25 0 0 00 26 1/2 27 02 74 5.00 Twyford 8 7 17 62 30 1/2 31 08 74 11.80 Maidenhead 13 13 03 72/75 37 1/5 36 18 74/76 17.50 Slough 20 17 37 72 41 40 52 74 19.80 Langley 19 20 76 42 38 74 22.80 West Drayton 21 42 74 45 00 74 26.90 Southall 30 25 04 74 48 1/2 48 15 74 30.30 Ealing Broadway 27 43 76 50 53 74 32.70 Old Oak Cmn W.Jn 29 33 74 52 43 76 34.70 Westbourne Park 39 31 33 53 55 1/2 54 38 sigs 36.00 Paddington 42 34 10 60 58 23 this case the constant 74 mph seems on the LOW side with the averages being generally 2
Milepost 27½ - 208 - October 2006
to 3 mph higher!
Lastly three runs on the South Eastern. Run 23 was with Schools 30933, one of the Lemaitre exhaust fitted engines, on a hefty 11 vehicles. By the time the climb to Knockholt started just before Hither Green speed had been worked up to 57 mph but speed was held in the low 40s until the tsr through Knockholt. A rather poor 66 mph was the maximum before yet another tsr into the platform at Sevenoaks. Once again I hoped for a little better than 73 mph before the Tonbridge stop. By now 30933 was a few minutes late and this spurred the driver on to a brisk run over the switchback to Ashford with maxima of 72 mph after Paddock Wood and Staplehurst and minima of 67 mph at Marden, 64 mph after Headcorn and 63 mph at Chart to regain all the lost time. For the return journey on the same day from Folkestone something a little larger was provided in the shape of West Country 34098. After a good climb up to Westenhanger, 76 mph was reached on the down grades into Ashford. There followed, what seemed to be a rather daunting schedule into London. It wasn’t so much that the schedule was tight – more that getting an unchecked run in the London area Table 9 Run No 23 24 Date 15 June 1956 15June 1956 Train 0915 Charing Cross 1650 Folkestone Loco 30933 34098 Load 11/359/375 11/361/385
Driver dist location sch m s mph dist location sch m s mph 0.0 Waterloo 0 0 00 0.0 Folkestone 0 0 00 1.1 London Bridge 3 1/2 4 24 0.7 Shorncliffe 2 22 4.1 New Cross 10 1/2 8 26 54/57 4.3 Sandling Jn 8 21 46 6.4 Hither Green 13 11 00 53 5.7 Westenhanger 9 52 56 9.6 Elmstead Woods 15 11 42 9.5 Smeeth 13 27 72/76 10.5 Chislehurst 18 16 38 43 13.8 Ashford 19 18 05 13.0 Orpington 21 20 10 48 0.0 0 0 00 14.5 Chelsfield 22 09 43 2.1 Chart Box 5 00 42 15.8 Knockholt 24 32 5.7 Pluckley 8 52 66/76 tsr 15 10.9 Headcorn 13 27 63/71 18.4 Polhill 28 48 63 14.2 Staplehurst 16 26 69/71 19.8 Dunton Green 30 05 66 16.6 Marden 18 35 68 tsr 15 21.3 Paddock Wood 22 22 23 75/64 21.3 Sevenoaks 30 1/2 32 29 26.6 Tonbridge 27 27 12 50 0.0 0 0 00 29.1 Hildenborough 30 50 40 3.0 Weald 5 39 66 31.0 Weald 34 00 35 4.9 Hildenborough 7 26 69/73 tsr 25 7.4 Tonbridge 10 10 26 34.0 Sevenoaks 39 39 20 0.0 0 0 00 35.5 Dunton Green 41 50 50 5.3 Paddock Wood 8 8 01 69/72 36.9 Polhill 43 26 52 9.9 Marden 12 00 67 39.5 Knockholt 46 59 42 12.3 Staplehurst 14 11 72 42.3 Orpington 49 49 48 69 15.6 Headcorn 16 59 70/64 44.8 Chislehurst 51.5 52 15 62 20.9 Pluckley 21 45 67 45.7 Elmstead Woods 53 14 60 24.5 Chart 63 47.1 Grove Park 54 26 64 26.6 Ashford 31 27 45 48.9 Hither Green 55 56 27 53 51.2 New Cross 58 59 23 48 sigs 54.3 London Bridge 62 64 15 55.4 Waterloo 65 66 54
Milepost 27½ - 209 - October 2006
was very difficult. This ended up as a well balanced run with only one check approaching London Bridge and one tsr approaching Sevenoaks. The run from Ashford was steady rather than spectacular, with speeds going up and down from the low 70s to the mid 60s according to gradient once Chart had been breasted at 42 mph. Speed fell from 50 mph through Tonbridge to 35 mph at Weald up the I in 122. The 25mph tsr didn’t really cost much time as it was in the ‘right’ place. After a maximum of 52 mph at Polhill, the 1 in 143 brought the speed down to 42 mph at Knockholt. From here, barely a minute late, it was all downhill to London but over cautious running followed by a check resulted in another minute being dropped. Lastly a rare trip to North Kent with the legendary Sam Gingell. Standard Class 5s were becoming quite common by now and they could really go driven in the correct manner. This is one of those occasions. A little time had been dropped by Bromley South so an effort was made to peg back the minutes. The start out of Bromley is horrendous with a 1 in 95 upgrade to just beyond Bickley. Once passed there the switchback route can give impetus for the next upgrade so after a swift 67 mph after St Mary Cray followed by a 60
Table 9a
Run No 25 mph minimum at Swanley, Driver Date 13 March 1956 Gingell opened out to exceed 80 mph Train 0835 Victoria through Farningham Road. This Loco 73089 resulted in a minimum of 66 mph Load 9/297/325 to Chatham through Meopham and allowed another 5/165/180 from Chatham 80 mph plus maximum passed Cuxton Driver S.Gingell box. Unfortunately (or should it be dist location sch m s mph fortunately) a severe check brought 0.0 Bromley South 0 0 00 speed down before the sharp curve at 1.0 Bickley 3 42 35 Rochester Bridge Jn but by now all the 3.9 St Mary Cray 7 22 64/67 lost time and more had been regained. 6.8 Swanley Jn 9 49 60 At Chatham the load was reduced so 9.6 Farningham Rd 12 23 85 Driver Gingell just played with the Fawkham Jn 74 remaining 5 coaches on to Whitstable 12.5 Fawkham 14 39 72 with a maximum of 77 mph through 15.0 Meopham 16 57 66 Sittingbourne and 66 mph before 16.0 Sole Street 21 1/2 17 52 69 Graveney after the slowing through 20.0 Cuxton Box 26 1/2 21 01 84 Faversham. We might have been near sigs sev an even time run had it not been for the 22.1 Rochester Bdge Jn 24 43 tsr. 23.4 Chatham 32 28 05
0.0 0 00 1.6 Gillingham 3 54 7.1 Newington 9 30 74 10.3 Sittingbourne 12 18 77 13.6 Teynham 14 59 75 17.6 Faversham 18 48 41*/66 20.6 Graveney 22 01 tsr 15/55 24.7 Whitstable 27 56 So here ends another trawl through the Dunkley archives. Having looked forwards I can see three more articles which will take us up to 2009. Can you stand the pace or rather can I stand the pace? Will you die of boredom first that is the question? To come in future years:
1957(2007)
4-4-0 31545 non stop Victoria to Margate in under 90 minutes Waterloo to Southampton in less than 80 minutes.
Milepost 27½ - 210 - October 2006
Salisbury to Sidmouth Jn in just over 71 minutes Up Bristolian in less than 96 minutes An early run with D600
If you’re still with us in 2009 we have: -
Another sub 80 minute run Waterloo to Southampton Various runs on the Great Western to Birmingham A sub 100 minute run on the down Bristolian (also the use of Warships) Southampton to Waterloo in a few seconds over 75 minutes
To make sure you catch all these keep on renewing your subscription to Milepost.
MILEPOST: TECHNICAL
Journeyplan.co.uk
With the possible demise of the NRT, all eyes are looking for possible substitutes. One possibility is Journeyplan, a web-based service, the main advantage of which is the that the subscription (around £25 per annum) includes a monthly download (on the first Monday of everey month) of the timetable, which means that it reflects planned engineering work which is not shown in the NRT. The example shown is based on a day when the ECML was closed between Newcastle and Edinburgh. The first screen shows the input requirements, followed by the output results.
These outputs can be expanded to show (and print) the station stops on the section requested as well as the entire stopping pattern of the train. In addition function keys/screen dumps are available that show:
• The entire service on the selected route selected for the day • Train departures (but not terminating arrivals) at the departure station in chronological order • Train departures sorted by train reporting number, although I have difficulty in establishing what purpose this serves.
The timetables also include London underground services, although they do not include engineering work. These services also show platform numbers, which is rather odd, as London underground platforms do not always indicate their numbers.
Milepost 27½ - 211 - October 2006
Milepost 27½ - 212 - October 2006
Milepost 27½ - 213 - October 2006
Milepost 27½ - 214 - October 2006
Milepost 27½ - 215 - October 2006
Milepost 27½ - 216 - October 2006
Milepost 27½ - 217 - October 2006
Milepost 27½ - 218 - October 2006
Milepost 27½ - 219 - October 2006
Milepost 27½ - 220 - October 2006
Milepost 27½ - 221 - October 2006
An Apology
This table was omitted from the article “Switzerland’s NBS – Olten to Bern” in the July magazine. We apologise to the author, Ian Umpleby, and readers for this omission.
Run No. F G Date/day Tuesday June 2005(both) Train 0756 Interlaken-Basel 0901 Geneva A-Luzern Motive Power 460077 460084 Load (tons) 8/350/370 10/438/460 Weather Sunny Ints Sunny Rec/Pos/GPS? I.Umpleby;;5/9;N I Umpleby;7/11;N
KP KM Location m s kph m s kph
106.13 0.00 Bern 0 00 T 0 00 1L 105.50 0.63 KP 1 29 1/2 40sigs/99 103.03 3.10 Bern Wankdorf W fb 3 20 20sigs 3 28 90 101.28 4.85 5.57 5.57 Grauholz Tunnel WP 5 50 4 54 150 11.79 11.79 Grauholz Tunnel EP 8 16 161 7 23 155 18.44 18.44 Rutdligen Tunnel WP 10 44 1/2 161 9 54 159 20.92 20.92 Emmequerung Tunnel EP 11 40 161 10 50 159 30.11 30.11 Hersiwil Tunnel WP 15 06 160 14 17 1/2 158 33.10 33.10 Oenzburg Tunnel WP 16 13 161 15 26 158 36.60 36.60 Gishubel Tunnel WP 17 31 161 37.44 37.44 Gishubel Tunnel EP 17 50 161 17 04 159 40.27 40.27 Thunstetter Tunnel WP 18 53 1/2 161 18 08 1/2 159 42.88 42.88 Langenthal Tunnel WP 19 52 161 19 08 160 48.17 48.17 Aegerten Tunnel WP 21 50 161 21 07 1/2 159 49.23 49.23 Murgenthal Tunnel WP 22 13 1/2 161 21 31 1/2 159 53.98 53.98 Murgenthal Tunnel EP 23 59 1/2 161 23 19 159 56.30 56.30 Rothrist exit 25 00 1/2 24 24 1/2 80* 45.22 (Luzern) 43.34 58.18 Born Tunnel WP 25 47 140 42.54 58.98 Born Tunnel EP 26 07 1/2 39.29 62.23 Olten 28 28 T
Milepost 27½ - 222 - October 2006
LETTERS
Sir
I am an enthusiastic reader of “Milepost” and appreciate the high quality of the recordings of train performances detailed in each issue. However, not all of us are able to provide such detailed information. I am sure that more of the readership would like to be able to contribute, if less detailed logs were accepted, which could be used in more general articles, and might feature lines not normally visited. I include myself in this number, as I have accumulated a significant number of Guildford to Waterloo logs; though only timed off my wristwatch, nonetheless they give a good picture of the standards of running. Is there scope for such contributions? – appreciating that collection of journey logs and prepared articles do not necessarily go together.
John Cattermole
Guildford
Whilst the RPS “seeks to advance and promote the study and the recording of Railway Traction performance” it is not the intention to impose restrictions on what is acceptable in the magazine. Similarly, whilst the “Train Timing Guide” gave recommendations on good practice, it was not mandatory, and we recognise that detailed logs are not possible (or necessary) in all situations. The fact that a log may not be in the conventional format, will not exclude it from publication, and we actively encourage material from new contributors, which may give a different angle on timing methods. - Editor
Dear David
Longest International train Journey I would like to add a few points to the item on page 142/243 of the July issue of Milepost.
I believe that Networkrail, Eurotunnel, RFF as the infrastructure owners and Eurostar as the train operator, deserve rather more credit than implied in the item reporting this record non- stop run. To plan a non-stop run over 1421km (882.86 Miles) with only one minor change to a scheduled passenger service is in itself a major achievement but to execute the trip to perfection is surely worthy of celebration. It reflects great credit on the operating, engineering and train crews of both the UK and France all of whom deserve our congratulations.
You refer to the fact that the schedule at an average of 191kmh (118.6 mph) start to stop “doesn’t seem too demanding”. A breakdown of the schedule helps with a better understanding of the facts; Aver.speed % of Dist % of Time M.P.H Waterloo International – Southfleet Junc 49.63 3.07 7.4 Southfleet Junc to Calais Frethun 99.2 8.75 10.56 Calais Frethun - Saint Louis les Aygalades 156.30 74.65 56.85 Saint Louis les Aygalades – Cannes 63.98 13.65 25.16
It is interesting to note that whist the distance over conventional lines was only 16.72% of the distance to Cannes, it took no less than 32.56% of the journey time due to the lower permitted speeds in both in the UK and France. In both countries however, the train was
Milepost 27½ - 223 - October 2006
scheduled to run in the same timings as comparable trains on the network over these sections. This includes the section from Marseille to Cannes where the non-stop was given timings similar to the fastest TGV schedules despite the pathing issues mentioned in your report. Over Section 1 of the CTRL and through Euotunnel the non- stop was running in the path of the “Disneyland train” which was not running on this date. The latter is scheduled to stop at Ashford and to avoid retiming of other trains through the tunnel or on LGV Nord, six minutes pathing time was added over this section.
Finally it is worth drawing attention to the fact that the train was driven from Calais to Marseille a distance of 1,060.8 km in 4 hours 13 minutes at an average of no less than 156 mph with drivers keeping strictly to the intermediate timings in order to avoid stops and achieve a time and distance record that will last for many years Excellent performance is not always the fastest time between two points.
Yours Sincerely
Gordon Pettitt
Dear Sir
It was a great pleasure to read the talk by Dr John Gough presented to the RPS meeting at York on April 8th 2006, printed and circulated as a supplement to Milepost 27¼ , although there was one small error in this excellent presentation.
At the bottom of page 149, Dr Gough states in the British Railways section “just getting the main lines back to pre-war standards took an age – the Midland was not back to 90 until the very end of the 1950’s, nearly a decade and a half after the end of the war” - Not so
On Page 534 of the October 1957 “Trains Illustrated”, C J Allen writes “The London Midland Region has a general limit of 90mph on its principal main lines on both the Western and Midland divisions”
Certainly, the 90mph maximum speed was allowed by early 1957 in preparation for the general acceleration of the services from St. Pancras to Manchester, via Nottingham and Leicester in the June of that year, and while I do not have official confirmation it would not surprise me if the 90mph maximum speed was in operation by the summer of 1956, if not before, on the ex-Midland mainline.
Yours faithfully
K R Phillips
Dear David
I would like to take the opportunity of detailing a recent northbound Eurostar journey which was severely disrupted by a total S&T failure just south of Moussy PRCI. This was the catalyst for a very fast onward run to Lille Europe, the 135.22km from La Verberie Tunnel North portal to Oignes PRCI being run at 292.37kph. Oddly, the running onward to Ashford was lacklustre, with Frethun passed at 98m03s, French portal at 99m19s, two brake applications in the tunnel, British portal at 124m07s and Ashford stop at 132m57s. (schedule 110mins; 22m57s late). Maximum speed after Liile: 297kpm on two occasions.
Milepost 27½ - 224 - October 2006
TABLE 1 Run 1 Date/day Mon 3-Apr-06 Train 1816 Paris-Ashford Motive Power 3217/32xx Load (tons) 2+18 Weather Fine Rec/Pos/GPS? J Daykin 4/20 N
Km Km location m s mph ave
0.00 0.20 PARIS Gare du Nord 0 00 Time 14.56 14.76 Villiers 8 47 99.5 18.82 3.33 CAI 3 10 31 147.5 29.49 14.00 km 14 14 25 Sigs 164.2 32.36 16.87 Mast 18 35 Sig stop 41.3 21 11 33.46 17.97 Moussy PRCI 22 50 sigs 15.5 42.25 26.76 CAI 26 30 12 sigs 71.6 45.49 30.00 km 30 34 44 42.9 62.81 47.32 Laverberie T N portal 39 08 294 236.2 80.49 65.00 km 65 42 43 300/259 296.0 90.68 75.19 Ressons PRCI 44 51 285/302 286.6 103.07 87.58 BeauvraignesPRCI 47 28 275 284.1 113.31 97.82 Hattencourt PRCI 49 36 294/302 145.2 126.28 110.79 Haute Picardie 52 13 295 297.4 129.67 114.18 Assevilliers T N 52 55 295 290.6 135.49 120.00 km 120 54 05 297/299 299.3 143.63 128.14 Combles PRCI 55 48 279 284.5 146.49 131.00 km 131 summit 56 25 278 278.3 164.70 149.21 Croisilles PRCI 60 09 304/293 292.7 179.69 164.20 L'etinchelle 63 11 288 296.5 190.49 175.00 km 175 65 23 298 294.5 198.03 182.54 Oignes PRCI 66 53 297/302 301.6 223.43 10.00 km 10 73 12 195 270.0 225.11 11.68 Lille Europe 73 44 189.0 401.00 ASHFORD Intl 132 57 23L 178.2
Kind Regards
John Daykin
Sir,
After several unsubstantiated claims, I can finally confirm that I have personally witnessed the 30 minute watershed broken on the Birmingham-Derby route.
It happened yesterday (6/9) on the 1338 Bournemouth-Edinburgh (1703 from New Street) with appropriately 221136 ‘Yuri Gagarin.’ Unfortunately, having said this I spent most of the journey asleep!, and probably can’t claim a new Fastest Time.
Milepost 27½ - 225 - October 2006
Sketchy details as follows:
221136, 1/5, 1338 Bomo-Edinburgh. Wed 6/9/06.
New Street 0-00 12 late
Water Orton 8-33
Burton on T 20-12 avge 116.1 mph
Peartree 26-33 avge 90.4 mph
Derby 29-13
Not a particularly encouraging start, and even more importantly only 6 mins behind the 1709 Nottingham stopping service. Half a minute down on what is possible at Water Orton and Nottingham service had not been held on the Up Slow at Water Orton West. Normally this would mean curtains for any decent run prospects and fully expected the checks from the Nottingham service to begin approaching Wilnecote. However, the Nottingham service had been sent via the Whitacre loop (officially the Slow Line) and we had inadvertently overtaken it. An unchecked run followed to Burton, travelling at the new line-speed for a flying point-to- point average of 116mph. A good approach to Derby saw the 30 minutes comfortably broken. Around another 60-90 seconds could be taken off the time with a better start and faster run in to Derby.
Nigel Smedley, Derby
NEWS ALERT
Just when you though it couldn’t get any worse …
Many readers will be familiar with the bland type of journey that is commonplace nowadays, caused by “defensive” driving and “fear of the data-recorder” driving. It sometimes seems as though some of our timing efforts result in little more than measuring the accuracy of the “cruise control”.
Now, according to a report in The Times on August 22nd, the Office of Rail Regulation has instructed TOCs to train drivers in how to reduce fuel consumption. Where data recorders show that trains have been driven inefficiently, drivers will be sent for “retraining”.
This measure is thought to be due to the increasing cost of fuel. Maybe the companies should have anticipated this before ordering new trains that were much heavier, demanded more power, and could have been specified with regenerative braking but weren’t.
Whilst trains have been driven in this way on the Continent for many years, it may be that this is the type of driving that we have to expect in the future. It remains to be seen whether a driver setting out punctually from Birmingham Moor Street for the ¾ mile journey to Snow Hill will be penalised for arriving in less than the timetabled 11mins, which corresponds to a journey at little more than walking pace.
Milepost 27½ - 226 - October 2006
Martin Robertson writes:
Sandy Smeaton has forwarded details of a northbound run from Lancaster to Glasgow with a Pendolino which took each section’s record Fastest Time other than the Motherwell-Glasgow section, although it still bettered the former Pendolino time. No over speeding, just hard accelerations, running to the line speeds and good braking. Carlisle-Motherwell time of 52m 43s and Oxenholme-Penrith time of 22m 04s. Oxenholme left 10 minutes late and Glasgow arrival 15 minutes early!!. Details in the next issue of Milepost.
Cotswold Changes.
Network Rail are currently carrying out some rare improvements to the infrastructure of the Cotswold line (Oxford-Worcester).
The improvement concerns the block token exchange at Moreton-in-Marsh and Evesham. Since the line was singled in 1972 it has been necessary for the train driver to manually collect or hand back the token at the respective signal boxes of Moreton and Evesham. With the signal box at Evesham being a quarter of a mile west of the station this, in particular, has necessitated an extra stop for all services. A half minute stop has existed in the Working Timetable for this very purpose. At Moreton the impact has been less due to the box being on the east end of the Up platform perfect positioning for token exchange. Signallers here have, however, been kept fit by the need to walk the length of the Down platform for each Down service to pass the token to the driver. Occasionally the token is passed as the train passes the box on the entry to the station meaning a walking pace approach.
This is all to change with the building of token instrument cabins on the Down platform at Moreton and both platforms at Evesham allowing the driver to take and retrieve tokens remotely from the signaller. A visit to Evesham on 16th September saw the new cabinets in position but not yet in use. The word on the ground was that it would be another couple of months before go live.
The impact of the change will be high with around 2 minutes saved on all runs between Evesham and Pershore/Worcester and vice versa by avoiding having to stop at Evesham signal box. The Kingham-Moreton Fastest Time may also be vulnerable due a faster run in to Moreton. David Sage beware!
Nigel Smedley
GLASGOW-EUSTON RECORD
Below is a summary log of the special run from Glasgow to London Euston on 22nd September, when the train took 235m27s, and averaged 102.3mph.
There were no dispensations in respect of speed limits, and in view of the fact that there were still a number of speed restrictions in existence, it was up to the driver, Russell Southworth from Preston, to maximise acceleration and braking to ensure the timetable was achieved – and this he surely did.
In his articles in Novermber and December’s Railway Magazine John Heaton will provide a complete log and explain details of the journey and driving techniques.
Milepost 27½ - 227 - October 2006
Train/date 1237 Glasgow-Euston (spl) – 22 September 06 Loco/load/Recorder 390047 Heaven's Angels, 9,460/490, J Heaton 2/9 Miles M C Location Sch m s Mph ave -0.04 102 21 GLASGOW Central 0 0 00 /78 3.83 98 28 Rutherglen East Jct. 6 4 55 76/75 47.2 6.45 95 60 Newton 8 6 52 88/92 80.6 12.79 89 35 Motherwell 12½ 11 03 80/97/tsr46 90.9 18.26 83 77 Law Jct 16½ 15 13 52 78.8 26.12 76 08 Lanark Jct 21½ 20 21 101 91.9 28.61 73 49 Carstairs 23 21 56 91/127 94.3 44.36 57 69 Abington 31½ 30 17 90/89/97 113.2 52.50 49 60 Beattock Summit 37 35 34 90/128 92.4 62.52 39 60 Beattock 42½ 41 25 Tsr99/128 102.8 76.45 25 67 Lockerbie 49½ 48 09 124/113/128 124.1 89.27 13 00 Kirkpatrick 56 54 28 127/tsr84 121.8 93.56 8 58 Gretna Jct [1] 59 56 48 100/126/20 110.3 102.28 69 08 Carlisle 65 62 59 23/125 84.6 120.13 51 20 Penrith 77 74 23 92/tsr73/114 93.9 139.17 32 17 Tebay 89 86 13 105 96.5 152.28 19 08 Oxenholme 97½ 94 38 92//117/tsr92 93.5 165.13 6 20 Carnforth 104½ 101 42 109/127/74 109.1 171.40 20 79 Lancaster 107½ 105 12 76/125/tsr56/tsr62/40 107.5 192.38 21 57 Preston 120½ 119 02 44/114 91.0 197.94 16 16 Euxton Jct [1] 124½ 122 40 tsr110 91.8 199.92 14 14 Balshaw Lane Jct 125½ 123 42 122/126/sigs37 115.0 207.51 6 50 Wigan North Western 130 128 50 81/113/80 88.7 215.83 185 45 Winwick Jct 135 133 56 81/93 97.9 219.24 182 12 Warrington Bank Quay 137½ 136 18 91 86.5 221.23 180 13 Acton Grange Jct. 138½ 137 30 102/122 99.4 226.86 174 40 Weaver Jct 141½ 140 34 110/112/tsr85 110.2 234.54 166 66 Winsford S. B. 145½ 144 40 127/128 112.3 243.31 158 05 Crewe [1] 151 149 11 80/126 116.6 251.87 149 40 Madeley Jct 155½ 153 49 125/128 110.9 262.52 138 68 Norton Bridge 161 159 06 90/112 120.9 267.84 133 43 Stafford 164 162 07 104/77 105.7 274.26 127 09 Colwich 168½ 166 31 85/tsr82 87.6 279.99 121 31 Armitage 171½ 169 45 118/123 106.2 285.12 116 20 Lichfield Trent Valley 174 172 21 109/125 118.6 291.37 110 00 Tamworth Low Level 177½ 175 37 105/126 114.8 304.32 97 04 Nuneaton 184 182 34 100/128 111.8 318.87 82 40 Rugby 193 190 28 75 110.5 321.07 80 24 Hillmorton Jct 194½ 192 06 95/128 80.8 331.58 69 63 Weedon 201 197 28 120/tsr110 117.5 344.64 56 58 Hanslope Jct. 207½ 203 50 127/tsr111 123.1 351.57 49 66 Milton Keynes C. 210½ 207 13 127 122.9 354.75 46 52 Bletchley 212½ 208 55 tsr96/94 112.1 364.13 37 21 Ledburn Jct. 217 213 53 125/128 113.4 369.70 31 56 Tring 219½ 216 30 125/128 127.5 375.08 26 25 Bourne End RR 222 219 03 128/110 126.8 383.97 17 34 Watford Jct 226½ 223 27 112/128 121.2 390.01 11 31 Harrow 229½ 226 29 125/126/109 119.4 393.40 8 00 Wembley C. 231½ 228 08 115/124 123.2 396.15 5 20 Willesden W. L. Jct. 233 229 39 91 108.8 401.30 0 00 EUSTON 239 235 27 53.3
Milepost 27½ - 228 - October 2006
AN APPEAL
It is over two years since the Committee sought comments from members on their views of the RPS.
We thank members for the significant response to this survey, and whilst we cannot please all of the members all of the time, in regard to the content of the magazine, the general belief was that the balance was “about right”.
Whilst it has been possible to maintain this balance over the last few years, there has recently been a shortfall in the volume of “modern” material. This may be due to the recent “lull” in the delivery of new rolling stock – with the exception of the 185’s. It is also possible that the driving techniques of today are not as interesting as those of yesteryear.
However, it maybe important that the RPS is seen as a forward-looking organisation, and because of this, we should continue to cover modern traction wherever possible.
Consequently, this is a request for articles covering modern traction. Whilst “fastest times” contributions are always appreciated, we should not overlook the importance of a route-by- route survey – even if the runs represent “everyday” rather than “exceptional” running. A comparison with previous rolling stock performance and infrastructure may be appropriate – don’t’ forget that the whole RPS archive is available for material.
If any member is able to undertake such a survey, could they please contact the Editor.
SPOT THE DIFFERENCE
Whilst the recent publicity about MML trains now leaving from the original trainshed at St. Pancras has grabbed the headlines, travellers may have problems in seeing what has really changed. The trek to the temporary ticket office is still necessary and thereafter a hike 200 metres westwards towards an escalator to Platforms 1-4. When you arrive, you find the temporary retail outlets have been transplanted from the old platforms 10-13 and the station name acquired an “International” suffix. The view northwards seems identical to that from the old platforms. True the view southwards does include the impressive train shed, but essentially it resembles a building site. No doubt, all will be revealed in a year’s time.
Looking north from Platform 1 at St Pancras International
Milepost 27½ - 229 - October 2006
SATURDAY 21ST OCTOBER 2006
CHRIS GREEN : INTER-CITY – ITS BIRTH, GROWTH AND DEATH
Did you miss it? Next time book early for our special speaker meetings
SATURDAY 13TH JANUARY 2007
ILLUSIONS OF ACCURACY
One of Nigel’s interesting and challenging video timing exercises. Improve your techniques without moving more than a few inches!
Milepost seat guaranteed!
This is a ‘must’ for all those who want to get the most out of timing and recording.
Come along to York Railway Institute – a perfect antidote to the Christmas and New Year festivities
BRISTOL MEETING
Don’t forget another of John Heaton’s interesting discussion sessions on
Thursday 15th February 2007
SATURDAY 3RD MARCH 2007
PENDOLINOS EXPLAINED
Stephen Griffin follows up his Milepost article in July with a visual presentation about current operation and performance of Pendolinos over the southern half of the WCML.
Put the date in your diary NOW! This is not to be missed.
MASS TIMING DAY 7th JULY 2007
Next year the day is to be based on Tonbridge. We hope to cover the routes to Ashford (4 trains an hour) and Hastings (2 trains an hour). As a diversion we may also cover the diesel worked route from Hastings to Ashford. We are checking out what are the best ticketing options in the area.
Come along and enjoy yourselves in rural Kent and Sussex.
Milepost 27½ - 230 - October 2006
Milepost 27½ - 231 - October 2006