Recent content by VagueShot

As a resident of Dalston, I'll probably use the North London Line, as I'll be pushing up daisies before Crossrail 2 is built!

I think LNER will be splitting at Leeds to serve Bradford, Harrogate, Huddersfield etc. We shall find out pretty soon. I think that the most interesting thing about the EMR trains is that they will have a new nose. Will it be more aerodynamic, so that the train can cruise at a higher speed on...

Wikipedia says there's a lot of space in the body of Class 91 locomotives, so could this me used for instrumentation to check out the overhead wires?

I have experience of the leasing business. Not trains, but heavy equipment. I was mainly calculating cash flow and mathematically, it is an interesting business, that is constantly changing and coming up with better ideas for lending money. Four of the latest train leasing deals have involved...

They've sold some bi-modes to the Norwegians, which in the winter can make Switzerland seem temperate.

Over the weekend, I rode within a few hours in a Class 331, Class 378 and a Class 710. The CAF train is very chatty with lots of clunking, whereas the Class 710 is getting towards the quietness of a LEVC taxi, which is a joy to ride in. The 378 was in the middle. I suspect that power usage in...

If you take a five-car 125 mph battery-electric train it will hold around 430 passengers. The train could weigh around 200 tonnes empty. Add the passengers at 90 Kg each, with buggies, bikes and baggage gives a train weight of 218.7 tonnes. Running at 125 mph gives a kinetic energy of 94.9...

Have you ever stood on a platform, when an Aventra goes buy? There is little noise and turbulence, as I suspect Bombardier have used their aerodynamic expertise to cut down air resistance. I suspect, there's quite a bit of aerodynamic improvement in most trains.

If you charge from battery in station to battery on train or more probably battery in station to supercapacitor on train, you can get a high rate of charge if you use third rail electrification in stations. Vivarail is doing this and they get an impressive rate of charge, with automatic...

I have been doing some calculations about the performance of battery-electric trains, as applied to the Midland Main Line. Consider The line will be electrified from London to Market Harborough. It is likely that between Clay Cross and Sheffield will be electrified as part of High Speed Two...

I have noticed that Stadler's production schedule for Greater Anglia is something like. Four-car 755s Twelve-car 745s for London and Norwich Three-car 755s Twelve-car 745s for Stansted All to be in service by December 2020. This would appear to have a back-stop if Stadler are late with...

I know Newmarket well, as I used to live there. The racing industry won't like the extra noise of more trains going through the town.

I did a few calculations on the Reedham Chord and I seem to remember that, 1. if you ran a Norwich-Yarmouth-Lowestoft-Ipswich service by the new chord, it had a very convenient time for creating train diagrams. 2. One train could shuttle between Lowestoft and Yarmouth all day providing a...

I've seen 378 135 a couple of times and it looks like it has a yellow front. It's got a name of Daks Hamilton. Who was or is he?