best train.......

[Roadkill]

Three magnificently anoraky Class 47 sites:

http://www.class47.co.uk/c47_intro_v2.php

http://www.sulzerpower.com/

http://www.class47gallery.co.uk/index.html

It's sad that the 47 is becoming a rare sight these days, and more and more of them are heading for scrap. There are all too many looking like this...

... and not enough out looking like this:

The earlier examples, at least, worked alongside steam engines in their early years: it's a tribute to how good the design was that they've lasted so long.

 

[Cobbles]

I nearly always get the trans pennine as the smell in the Voyagers, let alone the lack of space. make me feel sick and ill for the rest of the day. Read somewhere it's because they store the toilet waste under the train rather than discharging on the track - can believe it from the smell

I can understand the rationale behind not spraying workers on the permanent way with bodily waste products but surely in the 21st Century it would be possible to design a one way valve that seals the effluvium into the tanks.

Jeez, the technology works fine on planes so why can't they get trains right.

 

[Roadkill]

I can understand the rationale behind not spraying workers on the permanent way with bodily waste products but surely in the 21st Century it would be possible to design a one way valve that seals the effluvium into the tanks.

Jeez, the technology works fine on planes so why can't they get trains right.

AFAIK pretty much all modern trains do carry the effluent in tanks. It's just that the Virgin design, for some reason, doesn't work very well and stinks out the inside of the carriages.

That said, the RMT have been grumbling persistently for a while about the tanks on GNER's 225s, which apparently have some fault with them, 'cos they have a habit of squirting trackside workers with shit as they go by!

 

[Calva dosser]

It's sad that the 47 is becoming a rare sight these days, and more and more of them are heading for scrap. There are all too many looking like this...

... and not enough out looking like this:

The earlier examples, at least, worked alongside steam engines in their early years: it's a tribute to how good the design was that they've lasted so long.[/QUOTE]

I've got a green one c1966 in Blighty. pssst-wanna buy it?

 

[Chz]

Have to admit, the TEE is really damned cool:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:DB_Museum_Nuernberg_Trans_Europe_Express.JPG

The Union Pacific M-10000 was pretty nice:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:UP_M-10000.jpg

As was its later incarnation, the M-10004:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:M-10004.jpg

A little electric love for the old GG-1:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:PRR_GG1_4890_at_NRM,_Green_Bay,_20040426.jpg

And my favorite of all of them, the S1:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:PRR_S1.jpg

 

[pembrokestephen]

Ugly as sin, but not without a certain je ne sais quoi.

Peaks are nice too.

 

[teuchter]

The Beyer-Garretts were pretty cool.

 

[guinnessdrinker]

Last time I went long-distance on a Voyager, one toilet was blocked and stinking out the entire coach, and on the next one along the door evidently didn't work properly. I went for a piss, pressed the button and then noticed the 'engaged' sign next to it. Never mind: it swung open anyway, to reveal a middle-aged bloke in a suit wiping his arse.

that sounds like an incitement to take up car driving!

 

[guinnessdrinker]

AFAIK pretty much all modern trains do carry the effluent in tanks. It's just that the Virgin design, for some reason, doesn't work very well and stinks out the inside of the carriages.

I'll remember that one next time I take a train!

 

[Cobbles]

The Beyer-Garretts were pretty cool.

As still used by Rovos Rail on occasion.

(NB the two tankers are used respectively for pinotage and Cape Brandy)

 

[teuchter]

(NB the two tankers are used respectively for pinotage and Cape Brandy)

Does that fuel the loco or the passengers then?

 

[Cobbles]

Does that fuel the loco or the passengers then?

depends on the time of day.......

 

[Roadkill]

British Railways 9F 2-10-0

Magnificent machines. These were reckoned to be the best of the standard steam engine designs that British Rail produced in the 1950s - easy to maintain, efficient, reliable and versatile.

They were designed for hauling the heaviest freight trains, at which they were very good indeed. They were quite capable of batting along at 50-60mph with a 1,200-ton train, which is respectable even by modern standards.

More surprisingly, the small wheels proved no bar to fast running, and some did find their way onto fast passenger trains. On one occasion, one had to be subsitituted at short notice for an express engine which had failed at Grantham, and it put up a very respectable performance between there and King's Cross, exceeding 90mph on two occasions. The driver was later hauled into the office and told, "you're only supposed to keep time, not break the bloody sound barrier!"

No 92220 was painted in passenger-engine livery and named, to mark the fact that it was the last steam locomotive built for British Railways, at Swindon in 1960.

 

[pembrokestephen]

Most, if not all, of the BR standard designs were very attractive. I liked Bulleid stuff for its brutish purposefulness, but those Britannias and 9Fs, not to mention quite a lot of the smaller stuff, really were very easy on the eye.

Steam definitely had the PR advantage there, even though quite a lot of the diesels had their own appeal!

 

[Roadkill]

Most, if not all, of the BR standard designs were very attractive. I liked Bulleid stuff for its brutish purposefulness, but those Britannias and 9Fs, not to mention quite a lot of the smaller stuff, really were very easy on the eye.

The Britannia pacific really is a fine-looking machine...

Apparently, this one should be back on the main line before too long.

 

[cybertect]

Three magnificently anoraky Class 47 sites:

http://www.class47.co.uk/c47_intro_v2.php

That's kept me highly entertained over lunch. Thanks

Always had a soft spot for 47s as I had a Hornby model of D1738 in green livery when I was a kid.

'O' Guage!

[ /Lust ]

 

[Dandred]

Tywyn Talyllyn Railway.

The second station on the line was about 100 meters from my house.