Transport Tycoon Forums

My last train was on Sunday, from York. Not sure what happened, but it was a total mess up. All the XC trains were delayed, one by over 2 hours.
I was on the Edinburgh - Reading one, which has usually departed a while before i arrive at the station, was running around 25 minutes late. Got off at Wakefield Westgate though!

Spent a lot of time recently in Gordon Hill, so tonight I was again coming home. Managed to get the 1903 which was 15 late, but didn’t realise it had been cleared to run fast to Finsbury Park, so actually ended up only a few minutes down. Exhilarating... I guess.

And it wasn’t Geo driving it! Again!

Shame he doesn't know his rota enough in advance to let us know one he's driving a specific one, then have a little TT-F party in a train being driven by a TT-F member

I'd bring along a portable piano and play Sawyer's Tune EXTREMELY LOUD just behind the main cab.

Took a journey on one of SWR's (or so they say) class 707s. Overall very nice, but there was a lot of train crew on board...

Well... I've been travelling for a few days again,

Tuesday 17th October
1615 Manchester Piccadilly to London Euston on 390137.
2115 London Euston to Fort William, hauled by 92033 as far as Edinburgh, where 73970 took over. First time I've been in the sleeping car of a sleeper. Didn't get to sleep until after Edinburgh. The carriage I was in was right next to the Loco until Edinburgh, and Class 92s are rather loud things!

Wednesday 18th October
1212 Fort William to Mallaig on 156485 and 156499.
1605 Mallaig to Crianlarich on 156485 and 156499 again.
2014 Crianlarich to Oban on 156446. This service was about 10 minutes late due to the late departure of the Southbound train from Crianlarich, which itself was delayed as it had to wait for the train from Oban (with which it joins) to arrive.

Thursday 19th October
0857 Oban to Glasgow Queen Street on 156499
1215 Glasgow Queen Street to Edinburgh Waverley on 170432
1428 Edinburgh Waverley to Aberdeen, powered by 43299 and 43257
1726 Aberdeen to Inverness, on 170457, 158723 and 158719. 158719 was detached at Inverurie however.
2044 Inverness to London Euston, hauled by 67003 as far as Edinburgh, where 92018 took over. I did sleep rather well this time, I think the few beers and being further from the Locomotive helped!

Friday 20th October
0840 Euston Square to London Paddington on the Circle line.
1006 London Paddington to Penzance, powered by 43185 (in Intercity colours) and 43149.
2145 Penzance to London Paddington, hauled by 57604, in the Brunswick Green livery.

Saturday 21st October
0521 London Paddington to Euston Square on the Circle line.
0655 London Euston to Manchester Piccadilly on 390043.

As much as I enjoyed it, I'll be glad to be in my own bed again tonight, especially because it won't be rocking and rolling!

Enjoyed a return train trip from Fassifern (outer suburb of Newcastle heading towards Sydney), to Moree (in the North-West of State of NSW, not far from Queensland State border).

Travel on a DMU Xplorer Train. Capable of speed of 160 km/ph track permitting. It consisted of 6 cars, front 4 destination was Armidale, and rear 2 destination Moree .. train divides at Werris Creek. Train Scheduled Timetable:
Fassifern 11:27 (departed on time)
Broadmeadow 11:45
Maitland 12:10 (Maitland to Singleton consis of 3 lines in many places and numerous loaded Coal trains passed us in this area)
Singleton 12:40
(South bound Xplorer passed us between Grass Tree Muswellbrook)
Muswellbrook 13:16
Aberdeen 13:27
(Coal train in loop at Togar)
Scone 13:37
(Coal train in loop at Parkville and another in loop at Murulla)
Murrurundi 14:03 .. (delayed 12 minutes next crossing loop called Pages River waiting for a Coal train to pass us, remained 12 minutes late all the way to Werris Creek)
(Coal train in loop at Chilcotts Creek)
Willow Tree 14:25 (Coal Train in loop here)
(Coal train in loop at Braefield)
Quirindi 14:37
Werris Creek arr 14:57 Depart 15:07 .. (Departed here 12 minutes late at 15:19) (Container train in loop here)
(more Coal Trains in loops at Breeza and Curlewis)
Gunnedah 15:45 .. (arrived here 32 minutes behind schedule due to track work)
Boggabri 16:10
(Container train was waiting in Narrabri Junction for us to pass)
Narrabri 16:52
Bellata 17:23 .. delayed a further 4 minutes between here and Moree speed restrictions)
Moree 18:00 .. (arrived here at 18:38) Return Journey:
Moree depart 8:05
Bellata 8:36 (was 4 minutes behind schedule by time we reached here due to speed restrictions)
Narrabri 9:10
(Loaded Coal train waiting in Narrabri Coal Junction to follow us)
Boggabri 9:47 (Empty coal train in loop)
Gunnedah 10:14 (several wheat trains waiting here)
(Empty Coal Train in loop at Curlewis)
Werris Creek 11:07 depart 11:17 (But due to track work we arrived and departed here 26 minutes late)
Quirindi 11:31
(Empty coal in loop at Braefield)
Willow Tree 11:41 .. (3 engines waiting here to do banking duties from here to Murrurundi)
(Empty coal at Chilcotts Creek)
Murrurundi 12:04
(Empty wheat at Murulla)
Scone 12:28
(Like the railway fences at Scone .. these panels go considerable distance with the horses on every 6th panels) Aberdeen 12:37
Muswellbrook 12:48,, we managed to pick up some time and was only 15 late arriving here)
(At Grass Tree we got delayed here due to a Coal train ahead of us having engine trouble .. lucky it double line .. after waiting their to pass the north bound Xplorer and a empty coal train, they crossed us other to the other line and ran wrong road almost all the way to singleton. Because it was wrong road working we had to stop at several level crossings to allow time for the boom gates to go down .. we was 70 minutes late into Singleton)
Singleton 13:24
Maitland 13:55
Broadmeadow 14:19 (where I got off .. train was 69 late here)

Cheers

Last train journey ? Wasn't that long.
It was from Mormant (far surburbs of Paris) to Paris. Took about 2 hours, because another train ahead hit a car on a level crossing. Normally it takes 45mn.

Interesting account Garry G!

My last train journey was a fairly uneventful one from Jakarta to Bandung, apart from the really terrible entertaintment system (well what do you expect from £5 ticket going for 90 miles for around 3 hr in a well-airconned carriage !), which consist of ads or purportedly-"useful"-videos pulled from youtube. Much more interesting was the previous journey from Bandung to Jakarta, where the train I boarded was only "available" 4hr before the timetable ! It was using a very, very old set like this :

They have added airconning though.

For comparison, the usual economy (non-reclining, one tiny TV set) or premium class (reclining, three tiny TV set) :


Price only differed (more expensive) by 30p or so. Of note was that there wasn't any TV set yet (which I actually welcome somehow !), but most notable was the emptyness of the train. I thought I could get away easily and open the door (which are a really simply slotted thing) whilst in move (which, considering single track and the generous trackside - the bridges don't have any structural elements above and signals are placed quite far off, unlike on the ones in a city or where it's already tightly double-tracked - is actually quite safe), but the staffs still too crowded for such (I had done so like 5 years ago where I was in a booked carriage at night so there wasn't much supervision or so I think, I'll admit it was quite dangerous as the train goes at high speed (>=50 mph) and trackside are confined, unlike the one I just been in). The emptyness allows me to get more seat than what I paid XD It was constantly late by 30 min even from departure (the set having just arrived a moment before our timetabled departure) so it's "on time" on arrival. Would try again if it's still available - I could only imagine more retrofits will be done to it before regular deployment.

This Wednesday just gone (24th Nov), Soton Parkway to visit the Oxford Bus Museum at Hanborough.

Turned up at Parkway just after the morning rush, bought parking ticket from the machine farthest from my car as it was the only one working, bought ticket from the window as there were two open I think (otherwise I prefer using the machines), Southampton Airport Parkway is good for that. This also had the advantage that the journey + connections was printed out on the receipt. There were no paninis on offer at the kiosk, what was with that, had to make do one of those porridges you could get cheaper at the newsagents.

Boarded a Voyager to as planned (usually I would use the SWR service to Basingstoke and then the stopping train to Reading, I have a chip on my shoulder against 220s and their ilk), apart from not being balls-to-nutsack for once this had the advantage it was going via Oxford to Manchester, saving a wander round the vast new setup at Reading. Last time I detrained at the (then only half-built) place, I followed the first person who looked like they knew where they were going, straight into the ladies loo.

On arrival at Oxford, fell out of the Voyager (that's another thing against them, they may be higher than regular trains too) made up for the lack of panini and took a seat looking out onto the platform, those are good for people like me who think their train is going to creep in and out while their back is turned. I don't know what Frankie Boyle has against them, they're basically posh toasties and fill a hole. He should go write some more Rex Royd instead of taking the p*** out of the disabled / mentally daft in the head.

There were quite a few Network Rail orange jackets and you're not allowed to call them trainspotters any more in evidence, and comings and goings in vague order was a simultaneous arrival by two GWR Networker units northbound on both platforms (one was late), engineering trains behind 66s and 70s, a measurement train between two 37s, and instead of the Networker or Sprinter I was expecting to be on a stopping service to Great Malvern, an HST turns up. Except first of all the platform was occupied by a big yellow rail grinder thingy.

I like HSTs, they are probably the last actual trains in regular use and I think GWR should save some for the Portsmouth - Cardiff run when it gets packed out at weekends. Having sat down for the hop to the next station, the train assistant or whatever chooses to reveal only the last two cars will open their doors at Hanborough meaning I had to swear, spill tea over myself, and dash as far as possible along the train because I have no idea which car I boarded. Hanborough is basically just a platform on a single line with a bus shelter and some graffiti saying 'David Cameron was here'. What is an HST doing there, did someone 'important' pull some strings to get a main line link to London?

The museum itself is not bad, it goes into more mechanical depth than the other two places I have visited (Amberley Museum and Ryde Bus Museum), extending to denuded bus chassis and a cutaway of a, Bristol Lodekka or its' Dennis facsimile if I recall correct. Other exhibits were a Bristol VR and a pair of coaches that could be boarded and walked around, to a couple of charabancs and a horse drawn tram at the other end of the scale. Oxford went direct from 4' gauge horse drawn trams to the motor bus with no intervening mode of electric traction, railed or railless. This was a hell of a leap because in 1911 the buses available cannot have been anything near perfected, though Oxford seem to have preferred AEC. There is also a smaller collection of Morris cars and memorabelia. The cafeteria did cheese or ham sandwiches, if the menu mentioned pickle it might be an easier sell. Otherwise two rounds for £2 something.

Returned to the station to find a Worcester-bound HST in the platform and the next Oxford-bound train was in 50 minutes. Returned to the museum to wait (it is within sight and sound of the platform).

Went direct to Reading on the next 125, there is clearly some sort of siding or chord going in along the Oxford - Great Malvern line which accounted for the engineering trains. On arrival at Reading the Basingstoke platforms were pretty packed out so rather than travel on the local train (I like the automated announcers' voice...posting.php?f=49&mode=reply&t=46344&sid ... d21814947d#) and change to South Western Railway at Basingstoke (What's with that name, it sounds like you should be able to catch a train to Bangalore or somewhere) I decided to wait for the Cross Country service from Birmingham. Whether this was a good idea or not I dunno. The train had a more typical passenger load, and this was only added to at Basingstoke as things on SWR had gone tits up. So I would have had to have boarded that train at Basingstoke anyway, and ended up standing. But then I guess I could have hung by the door and not had to climb over people to fall out. And meanwhile they're cutting up those eurostar sets and the Irish have binned the majority of their mk3s.... genius.
Otherwise not a bad trip I guess.

Arch9enius wrote:GWR should save some for the Portsmouth - Cardiff run when it gets packed out at weekends.

GWR will be retaining a number of HSTs, and I believe the current plan is to run them as 4 or 5-car sets on services between Cardiff and Penzance.

Arch9enius wrote:Hanborough is basically just a platform on a single line with a bus shelter and some graffiti saying 'David Cameron was here'. What is an HST doing there, did someone 'important' pull some strings to get a main line link to London?

My guess is that, due to the limited paths available on the Cotswold Line (due to various single track sections), you can't run an express and a stopping service in quick succession. The solution to this, is to get the HST services to Hereford to run as a stopping service as well on this section. If you look at a Wednesday service on the route, the majority of the trains stop at Hanborough, providing it with a roughly hourly service in each direction (with occasional exceptions). This has been somewhat eased recently by the re-building of various sections to double track further up the line, however, there is still around a 10 mile single track section from Charlbury to Wolvercote Jn (where the Cotswold line leaves the Oxford-Banbury line), which reduces capacity and Hanborough is on this very section.

Arch9enius wrote:And meanwhile they're cutting up those eurostar sets and the Irish have binned the majority of their mk3s.... genius.

The North of London Eurostar sets are extremely power hungry (when used on the ECML, they couldn't operate to Bradford Forster Square, only one could be on the Hertford Loop at a time, and they were on sections restricted to 110mph all because of power issues), have gauging issues (they couldn't operate to Newcastle as they couldn't get across the bridges) and too long for the majority of platforms that Cross Country stop at (when they operated on the ECML, doors would have to be manually locked out of use, hardly convenient), and require overhead wires to work anyway (the 3rd Rail Capability was removed not long after HS1 and Temple Mills depot were opened), so they're hardly going to solve XCs capacity issues. Especially as some of the Eurostar sets being scrapped are the longer sets as well!

As for the Irish Marks 3s, they would be costly to convert to British Gauge (from 5ft 3in down to 4ft 8.5in), we're better just buying new trains, or waiting for the large number of HSTs that are about to come off lease and using them - but even they will require a conversion as well.

Don't expect anything new from XC until they Franchise has been renewed I reckon!

Pilot wrote: As for the Irish Marks 3s, they would be costly to convert to British Gauge (from 5ft 3in down to 4ft 8.5in), we're better just buying new trains, or waiting for the large number of HSTs that are about to come off lease and using them - but even they will require a conversion as well.

Do they have the same loading gauge, or is it just fitted with different axles ? I can't imagine if they need to be reworked entirely if it's just the axles.

YNM wrote:

Pilot wrote: As for the Irish Marks 3s, they would be costly to convert to British Gauge (from 5ft 3in down to 4ft 8.5in), we're better just buying new trains, or waiting for the large number of HSTs that are about to come off lease and using them - but even they will require a conversion as well.

Do they have the same loading gauge, or is it just fitted with different axles ? I can't imagine if they need to be reworked entirely if it's just the axles.

They do have the same loading gauge, however, there are a couple of other differences that mean it's not just Plug and Play with new bogies, for example, they have different electrical systems to ours.

To be fair, it's impossible to do now, there are only about 10 of the Irish Mark 3s left in existence, and these are used as either a luxury train, or as Generator cars.

Pilot wrote:

Arch9enius wrote:And meanwhile they're cutting up those eurostar sets and the Irish have binned the majority of their mk3s.... genius.

The North of London Eurostar sets are extremely power hungry (when used on the ECML, they couldn't operate to Bradford Forster Square, only one could be on the Hertford Loop at a time, and they were on sections restricted to 110mph all because of power issues), have gauging issues (they couldn't operate to Newcastle as they couldn't get across the bridges) and too long for the majority of platforms that Cross Country stop at (when they operated on the ECML, doors would have to be manually locked out of use, hardly convenient), and require overhead wires to work anyway (the 3rd Rail Capability was removed not long after HS1 and Temple Mills depot were opened), so they're hardly going to solve XCs capacity issues. Especially as some of the Eurostar sets being scrapped are the longer sets as well!

I'm pretty sure that the 110mph restriction on the ECML was that they run with both pantographs up and the OHLE is so flimsy that the turbulence in the contact would not have calmed down enough from the lead pantograph before the second one ran through and would therefore be at a high risk of the whole lot being brought down.

it's not just Plug and Play with new bogies, for example, they have different electrical systems to ours.

I gather they had a power bus down each side of the train.
Well yeah, in either case I was talking keep the least corroded / sagging bodyshells, (thereby reducing the length of the Eurostar sets) strip the things right back to the shells, refit and haul behind a 67 or 68. All of which is academic as they are all razor blades by now.

I figured a few years back there may have been a case for the leasing companies to get their heads together and order a 'mk 5' standardised coach, with through cabling that could be spliced into any setup, and hauled by flying pigs if neccesary.

GWR will be retaining a number of HSTs, and I believe the current plan is to run them as 4 or 5-car sets on services between Cardiff and Penzance.

Well at least they could keep the leftover mk 3s and splice them into the 158 sets. Even if GWR have modified them into sardine cans, they're a better ride than anything with a motor under the floor.

Arch9enius wrote:Well yeah, in either case I was talking keep the least corroded / sagging bodyshells, (thereby reducing the length of the Eurostar sets) strip the things right back to the shells, refit and haul behind a 67 or 68.

By which point, you've effectively built a new train, except for a body shell - may as well have ordered Mark 5s instead!

As for the fact that you think Eurostar sets are a seriously viable idea, I very much doubt they are. These things have a 3-5 minute dwell time for pick-up/set-down only at Ebbsfleet, so if you assume a load both ways, but on a shorter set, that is likely the dwell time you're looking at. By comparison, a HST with it's slam doors at Totnes (a relatively minor station (just like Ebbsfleet for the Eurostars) only requires 1.5 minutes of Dwell time, and a 15x unit, just 1 minute. You're potentially doubling, or even tripling the amount of time you're sat in a station. Not sure how they'd take to having carriages removed either, due to their Articulated nature.

Class 67s are basically pointless as well, there's a reason that only Arriva Trains Wales only use them on passenger trains now - they can't haul heavy loads like a Class 68 can. I remember speaking to the driver of a 68 not long after they were introduced on the Chiltern, and according to him, the 68s were the far superior locomotive. As for 68s, at this rate, DRS aren't going to have any for themselves!

Arch9enius wrote:Well at least they could keep the leftover mk 3s and splice them into the 158 sets. Even if GWR have modified them into sardine cans, they're a better ride than anything with a motor under the floor.

Or, you know, seeing as you've been advocating Loco-hauled, just hire in a few Locomotives and use them instead of modifying them to work with 158s - far simpler. The Franchise is due up for renewal in March 2020 as it stands, I have serious doubts as to whether GWR will do any major investment before that date, as I don't even think it will be in their contract to do such.

Ameecher wrote:I'm pretty sure that the 110mph restriction on the ECML was that they run with both pantographs up and the OHLE is so flimsy that the turbulence in the contact would not have calmed down enough from the lead pantograph before the second one ran through and would therefore be at a high risk of the whole lot being brought down.

Ah, that doesn't sound too unlikely either knowing the ECML wiring. Didn't realise the 373s ran with both pantographs up however.

By which point, you've effectively built a new train, except for a body shell - may as well have ordered Mark 5s instead!

Well FGW did that with a bunch of mk 3 buffet cars, to lengthen the 125 sets.

Class 66 locomotives also can haul heavy loads, but they're not meant for passenger service
I saw some Class 66 belonging to Euro Cargo Rail at Amiens recently.

Travelled behind a 66 between Chinnor and fairly close to Princes Risborough. Needless to say, it made light work of what they gave it to pull. Was expecting one of those GWR 2-8-0Ts though.