It strikes me (after several drinks, I might add, as it’s Friday night here in Blighty) that I ought to expand somewhat on the above.
UK and US Rail Preservation are very different. Here the primary force is volunteer labour and funding. The objective tends to be returning your “subject” to traffic as soon as you can.
Possibly a very informative site for Murphy Siding and others would be www.preserved-diesels.co.uk . Follow the thread to “Engines” and you’ll have some idea of what we eccentric Limeys do in our spare time!
Simon Reed: What is the intended use for the S-1 after restoration?
Nuclear Flask traffic has priority over passenger trains in various scenarios - did at Traws; does to Dungeness etc. etc. etc.
The S1 - 804 - is being restored in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire adjacent to the Nene Valley Railway which is an enthusiast run operation - what you’d call a Tourist Railroad.
The initial intention would be that 804 join their roster of preserved steam and diesel locomotives and operate on the line as and when required.
As you might have gathered from the link to Preserved Diesels that I posted on this thread yesterday there’s a very healthy market in the UK to travel behind and savour the sounds of older diesels. We’d like a share of that.
This gives rise to a question for you. Recent articles that I’ve read give me the impression that US Tourist Lines rely on paid staff to operate them. If that is the case - and perhaps someone could comment - it’s a VERY far cry from our many enthusiast lines which are generally operated and maintained on an entirely voluntary and non profit making basis.
804 will be a labour of love forever.
I’ve ridden on 4 different tourist lines. One was a for profit line in a tourist area. The others were mostly run by volunteers.
sic transit gloria mundi.
Virgin Rail changed its passenger operations recently. Now, they run only with DMU’s oder EMU’S. I don’t know, what happened to the electric locomotives.
GB Rrailfreight is now running mail-trains with EMU’s that have been built 50 years ago for this purpose. I guess, they have no passenger-places. The Dutch had mail-motor-cars, too, but I don’t know, whether they are still in service.
Virgin have disposed of the old electric locos, though some have been bought by charter train operators along with the redundant passenger cars that they hauled.
The EMU’s that are used for mail are not 50 years old. They were built in the early 1990’s and are basically the same design as the dual voltage class 319 units used on the cross London “Thameslink” line, but they have conventional buffers so that they can be hauled on unelectrified lines by a diesel loco.
Virgin are hiring back some HST’s for summer Saturday extra trains. GW bought up all Virgin’s surplus HST and keep them as a strategic reserve. They are also hiring them out to charter train operators.
FGW didn’t buy any HST’s, In the UK the train operators do not own the trains they run, they come from one of the 3 leasing companies, which are owned by banks.
When Virgin introduced the Voyagers and Pendelinos the trains they displaced were returned to their respective owners. The HST’s were leased to by the owner to FGW, who got the bulk of them, and GNER & Midland Mainlilne also had some.
The electric stock is mostly in storage although some of it went to one, who run services into East Anglia.
Cotswold Rail (a ROSCO turned open access operator) have acquired some Class 87 and 86 electric locos and some passengers cars. They’ve also signed a deal to lease some of the “spare” HSTs.
Are the electric locos used solely for passenger service, or are some used for freight also?
Thanks
Electric locos are used on some freights. The Channel Tunnel class 92’s can now run through from northern France to Glasgow in Scotland. EWS, Freightline and GB Railfreight use various classes of electric locos on freight.
It sounds like a lot of the system is set up for electric . Is it common to have diesel locos running the same line?
Thanks
Atlases Out (Roughly)
I would say (and please somebody correct me) that 2k out of a 10K systme might be wired up in some form or another.
25KV Overheads on the East and West Coast Main Line; 15m of the Great Western, the Great Eastern Main Lines (Kings Lynn,. Norwich and some branches in East Anglia); the Midland Main Line as far as Bedford and the CTRL; 660V DC 3rd in the South East and South Central Bits of England - i.e. London - Dover; Brighton, Portsmouth, Southampton and Weymouth.
So for those bits where freight traffic runs off the juice then diesels are used. Plus there is a charge for the current in the Track Access (operators maybe able to buy juice direct from wholesalers shortly - what fun!).
In a (reletively) long distance, a freight train may have several different engines?
Somtimes, yes. These days there’s more of a tendency to run thru with diesels all the way on electrified lines, but that’s always happened to a certain extent.
In the Midlands they’ve opened a container terminal at Hams Hall (on the site of an old electric generating station) to handle continental traffic. But since it’s on the unelectrified Nuneaton - Birmingham line, a class 92 would have to be replaced at Nuneaton for the last few miles. I;m surprised EWS and Virgin haven’t thought about getting together to get this line electrified as it is often used for diversions which result in both TOC’s having to use diesels to drag electrics when this happens.
What is considered a long haul for freight in Britain? Here, the railroads frown on short hauls of under 500 miles.
In the UK, 500 miles would be a long haul - it’s less distance than that from the port at Southampton or the Channel Tunnel to Glasgow, and they’re about the longest reasonably busy freight routes I can think of.
The longest reasonably direct journey you could make by rail in the UK (e.g. Penzance to Wick) is probably about 800 miles - and west of Taunton/north of Glagow there isn’t a lot of railfreight.
Tony
(and I agree with Tulyar15 about the Nuneaton - Birmingham electrification - or rather the lack of it - the main Freightliner terminal in Birmingham is on the same line…if this was combined with electrication of the Water Orton → Walsall line it would also create a sensible diversionary route for Nuneaton → Stafford which didn’t involve using the busy Coventry - Birmingham line)
I guess that explains why I read that a lot of freight (the majority?) in Britain moves by truck?
Thanks