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Recent content by ed1971

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    Westminster City Council demand immediate end to Class 68 operation into Marylebone due to pollution

    I believe from what I've read in the past, that EMUs cost around a third less to operate than DMUs once the overhead wiring is in place. Some infill electrification schemes would be welcomed, such as Wigan NW to Lostock Jct and Manchester Victoria to Stalybridge, to enable longer electric...
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    Most Unreliable Multiple Unit

    This was because the Class 141s (with the exception of 141113), soldiered on with their original Leyland TL11 engines and SCG gearboxes, whereas the later Pacer classes were upgraded to Cummins LTA10R engines and Voith transmission. Presumably, the cost to upgrade them was not justifiable, as...
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    How long left for Sprinters

    The Cummins NTA855 and Voith setup on the Class 15x series dates from the late 1960s and the high noise levels give the game away. Australian railways were amongst the first to use the driveline and one such example were the Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR) ADK/ADB Classes that...
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    Noisiest locos, DMU, EMU past and present

    Classes 150, 153, 155 and 156. Also Pacers when they had Voith gearboxes, but still retained Leyland TL11 engines as depicted here: I recall that Class 31s were noisy too.
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    Most Unreliable Multiple Unit

    That was certainly true when introduced. The SCG gearboxes were extremely flawed and around 50% of the Class 142 fleet was stored due to non availability of replacement gearboxes in the 1987-8 period. Reliability started to be vastly improved during the first few months of 1989, as lots of...
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    Pacer Withdrawals: The list (Reference)

    See this link for details:- http://preserved.railcar.co.uk/Class144.html
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    Trivia: Most annoying sound made by a train

    Hi, Yes the leading 142 in the video is a Voith conversion and the rear unit is still SCG. The TL11 never seemed to match the Voith gearbox and was sluggish and slow. Because of this, college mates and myself used to call them 'Voith-bugged'! The GMPTE orange livered units, 142001-14 were all...
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    Trivia: Most annoying sound made by a train

    Here it is: 1607374886 I found the original Pacer sound to be music to the ears. The gears sounded similar to Daimler Fleetline and Bristol VRT & RE buses. Others have also put comments on YT saying that they miss the original spec Pacer. I remember that the whine wasn't there in the leading...
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    Best EMUs

    Class 323s.
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    Trivia: Most annoying sound made by a train

    The noise from Cummins NTA855R engines.
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    Best sounding DMU's

    The first generation DMUs sounded rather like AEC Routemaster and Leyland Panther buses which also used SCG (Wilson) gearboxes. Interestingly, despite having an updated SCG gearbox, the original spec Pacer sounded nothing like a first generation DMU. It sounded similar to Daimler Fleetline and...
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    TFW Pacer withdrawals

    I recall reading that there was a delay to the Class 151s because the rail union requested some changes to the cab layout. This meant that the 151 was out of the running for production orders whereas the 150 was early. At the time, there was an urgent need to withdraw rolling stock containing...
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    Best sounding DMU's

    Here is a 127:
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    TFW Pacer withdrawals

    I got to admit that I am very disappointed that non of the two Class 151s was preserved. I have never set eyes on one ,let alone travelled on one. However, from photos, they were superior in a lot of ways to 150s, with ambiance almost as good as Pacers and very stylish. In comparison, the 150/2...
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    Best sounding DMU's

    The interior sound of a 150/1 and 150/2 is a bit different. In a 150/1 there is a howling from the engines. I don't know why.

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