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Post by Dirty Epic on May 13, 2016 10:50:33 GMT
Not a trainspotter by any means but saw this about the 40th anniversary of the Inter City 125 on the BBC website and thought some of our train driver/maintenance members would like it.  www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36188805Despite being in service for 40 years the 125's do still look very modern compared to other 1970's-90's stock and they're designed/laid out a hell of a lot better than a Pendolino/Voyager etc. In fact I'd sooner have a 125 on the West Coast Mainline than the latter any day and a shame the APT never made it too!  |
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The Saint
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Post by The Saint on May 13, 2016 19:13:27 GMT
Yes, they still look good despite being 40 years old  The Saint |
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Cartman
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Post by Cartman on May 16, 2016 7:45:16 GMT
They are good machines. Came back from Euston to Manchester on one in 2000, not long after Virgin took over the running of the West Coast route. Rail enthusiasts are not massively keen on them, probably because they replaced Deltics on the East Coast Main Line and Western diesel hydraulics on the route out of Paddington
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Del Boy
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Post by Del Boy on May 16, 2016 20:48:51 GMT
They are a definite 70's design icon. It proves that we can do great things in this country.
Now this kind of engineering is usually contracted out to another EU country which is a shame.
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Villain
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Post by Villain on May 17, 2016 10:54:57 GMT
When I was based at Old Oak Common in the '80s I got several chances to drive them, on one occasion I was on a Padd - Swansea job, booked back riding passenger on a HST with a fellow Old Oak crew on board (HSTs were booked two drivers in those days). One of whom was retiring so this was his last run, with four of us in the cab we took turns in the chair and I took it from Bristol Parkway to Didcot, the acceleration was effortless and before I knew it I was doing two miles a minute, with the needle in the speedo nudging 128mph, right on the 'stop'. A fantastic experience never to be forgotten. Quite often we'd have to turn the power cars on the turntable at Old Oak, this was a good excuse for us Secondmen to have a go in the chair, at slow shunting speeds. Villain  |
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Cartman
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Post by Cartman on May 17, 2016 15:26:40 GMT
When were you at Old Oak, Villain? Assume the Westerns, Warships and Hymeks were before your time?
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Villain
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Post by Villain on May 17, 2016 15:43:06 GMT
When were you at Old Oak, Villain? Assume the Westerns, Warships and Hymeks were before your time? 1983 to 1985 Cartman, six years after the Westerns finished on BR, but I spent a lot of my childhood chasing them round the Western Region and visited Old Oak many times before working there. I saw all 74 of them and had 56 for haulage. Only saw a handful of Warships in service (they were gone by the end of '72) but saw plenty of Hymeks and had a few for haulage. In my time at Old Oak I worked with old hand Drivers who'd driven all of the Hydraulics from 1958 to 1977, and to a man they loved them all with never a bad word to say about them, even the North British built Warships which had a reputation for catching fire or filling the cabs with exhaust fumes. When the 31s arrived to replace the Hymeks from '69 onwards they hated them, they were nowhere near as powerful or as sure footed, and actually older than the locos they were replacing! They would struggle with more than six or seven coaches whereas the Hymeks regularly worked fourteen coach trains from Paddington to South Wales in the early days before all 74 Westerns had been delivered. I could bore you rigid about the Hydraulics but it's time for a brew! Villain |
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Post by Sam Tyler on May 17, 2016 22:13:38 GMT
I could bore you rigid about the Hydraulics but it's time for a brew! No need to continue Villain, you've already cured my insomnia!
Sam.
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Cartman
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Post by Cartman on May 18, 2016 6:55:05 GMT
But not mine! The NBL ones, Villain, were the D600s the ones you mean? Suppose some of the old hands at Old Oak when you started would have been on Castles, Halls and Granges and so on. I think the Western got the class 50s later as a replacement for the last of the hydraulics after the LMR extended the wires to Carlisle and Glasgow
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Villain
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Post by Villain on May 18, 2016 11:19:30 GMT
I could bore you rigid about the Hydraulics but it's time for a brew! No need to continue Villain, you've already cured my insomnia!
Sam.
I cure mine by counting slot cars instead of sheep Sam..! Villain |
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