notadriver
Established Member
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- 1 Oct 2010
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Does anyone know anything about an alleged overshoot last night at St Austell?
It happens, especially with the composite brake blocks now fitted to Mk3 stock combined with poor rail head conditions that we have had in this wet weather.
Expect more of this sort of thing over the up and coming leaf fall season
It happens, especially with the composite brake blocks now fitted to Mk3 stock combined with poor rail head conditions that we have had in this wet weather.
Expect more of this sort of thing over the up and coming leaf fall season
Brake blocks are a lot better than disc brakes in leaf fall/low adhesion as they clean the wheels. The low adhesion recently has been minimal and to be fair an over run at this time of year is seldom diagnosed to be because of poor adhesion. You get a lot more brake fade with brake blocks than disc brakes and as a driver take this into account.
EDIT:
Few things to clear up for clarity.
MK3 trailers are disk braked with pads
Power cars used to use cast iron break blocks. They now have composite break blocks which no longer rough up the powered wheels.This is where the issue is, and not from the Mk3 stock.
Sorry for any confusion
Sorry to slightly change the topic, but might these new composite brakes be responsible for the slightly-strange odour not dissimilar to that of a burnt clutch plate I've noticed between Paddington and Didcot Parkway recently?
WTF? "The low adheison recently has been minimal" Try talking to people who actually drive HSTs in the south west before coming out with bland statements like that. Since early summer (and especially the past month) adhesion has been very poor with the near constant rain.
As Rich Mclean points out, new brake blocks have worsened the problem as the wheels are no longer getting "roughed up" , giving less grip.
I have never known a summer like it for slippage (especially when under power), and am absolutely dreading the Autumn season.
Thoughts to the driver concerned in this incident......
Mk3's are not fitted with brake blocks, they utilise brake discs and pads.
Brake fade is actually more a problem on disc braked trains especially at low speed than those fitted with blocks. The performance of disc braked trains varies greatly from train to train compared to those fitted with blocks.