Recent content by Neil Urquhart

Something obvious has just occurred to me.... The way for a preserved DC EMU to run in preservation is either via 3rd rail or by getting power from some form of electricity source that travels with the unit - e.g. batteries. How practical would it be for an EMU to draw DC current using a...

I suspect that the high cost of rail vehicles combined with relatively low production runs (compared to cars for instance) makes it very unattractive to crash a brand new train. There have of course been some crash tests with older life expired stock, such as 46 009 being slammed into a flask at...

Excellent, the NRM have got one buffer (bent) from 46 009 so that's a start. All we need is a Facebook group with lots of members and it will be soted. What colour will be paint it?

The NRM has a difficult job, everybody expects them to do what they personally want, but they're a public body, don't have unlimited funds and have to be accountable for what funds they do spend. There's nothing in the diesel collection that isn't represented elsewhere (with the exception of the...

Proper Valenta engined HST, class 26s and 47/7s, essentially anything that was around Edinburgh pre-electrification.

Marples +1

If HST powercars were kept in pairs then I always thought that Eric Morcambe and Ernie Wise would be great pair of names.

So what work has actually been undertaken on the hotel, does anyone have any details/photos of the latest developments?

It also seems to be run by some ex-army type, possibly a Captain Mainwaring?

Subscribing to Spotters Monthly and posting to lots of internet newsgroups means that your ideas about how to run the rail network are obviously brilliant and way better than anything that any industry professional has come up with.

That makes sense, I'm sure I've seen a photo of it on a test train with power cables being fed into it from another loco.

A slight change of topic ... but has Chris Green ever written a memoir?

What sort of testing was it used for, if it was adhesion testing (and I have a feeling that I might have read somewhere that it was) then it might have retained at least one traction motor? In terms of making it go, I guess that traction motors could be sourced (presumably they will be common...

No actual experience of Volvo Olympians, but I did get a chance to get underneath a preserved example and was somewhat taken aback by the amount of welding it was receiving to the chassis. Atlanteans never seem to need that level of work (at least not the 3 that I'm involved with).

I see all of your modern dross and raise you an 'x' reg'd Duple bodied Leyland Cub. Utter rubbish. I travelled on them as a passenger when they were new and subsequently had some involvement with a preserved example. Everything about them appears to be dire. Slow and noisy to travel on, an...