• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Would a class 25 be capable of hauling an HST?

Status
Not open for further replies.

PaxmanValenta

Member
Joined
11 Apr 2015
Messages
156
Would a class 25 be able to pull an 8 car HST set if it were needed at a reasonable speed like 80mph (without gradients). I'm not sure if the class 25 only uses vacuum braking and steam heating so may not be compatible with the HST electrics and brakes etc. Can anyone advise?

Thanks
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

455driver

Veteran Member
Joined
10 May 2010
Messages
11,332
A dual braked (air and vacuum) 25 could haul a HST but not at 80mph.

Any ex BR loco fitted with air brakes can haul a HST, it gets more complicated where locos are fitted with swing head buckeyes because the bar wont fit on the coupling hook.

The steam heat bit wont come into it because of the HSTs 3 phase electric heat, if both power cars are switched off then no air con.
 
Last edited:

kermit

Member
Joined
2 May 2011
Messages
592
It might make it up to 80mph on a downhill gradient. But if it came to a halt on an uphill and had to restart, you wouldn't want to bet on its chances.

All in all, not the first choice for "Thunderbird" duties. Better than an 08.
 

Polarbear

Established Member
Joined
24 May 2008
Messages
1,705
Location
Birkenhead
Having been hauled by a few "rats" (25's) in my time, I think it's safe to say that one would struggle to maintain a decent speed hauling a 125 2+8 formation. They were fine on loads up to 6 or 7 mk1's & of course, had no ETH to sap power.

I seem to recall that some cl 25's were dual braked?
 

ac6000cw

Established Member
Joined
10 May 2014
Messages
3,119
Location
Cambridge, UK
I seem to recall that some cl 25's were dual braked?

Yes, they were.

Haul an HST set - yes, no problem (it's around 500 tonnes - a pretty lightweight freight train), but it might struggle to reach and maintain 80 mph on level track due to lack of power.

Actually the low speed tractive effort of a 25 is a bit higher than two HST power cars, so it should manage the hill climbing almost as well, just somewhat more slowly....
 

alexl92

Established Member
Joined
12 Oct 2014
Messages
2,268
I'm intrigued to know what prompted the question from the OP? :)
 

DownSouth

Established Member
Joined
10 Dec 2011
Messages
1,545
I'm thinking of writing a book. But need to get technical facts correct :)
Or you could take the 'any publicity is good publicity' route and make sure that the technical details are not quite correct, so that certain members of this forum will talk about your book at any given opportunity :D

I presume that you're considering a fiction book, given that you're consulting an internet forum. If so, take it easy on the tech details when they aren't absolutely essential, always remember that less is more if you don't want them to be a distraction.
 

The Snap

Established Member
Joined
10 Jun 2005
Messages
3,147
PaxmanValenta said:
alexl92 said:
I'm intrigued to know what prompted the question from the OP?

I'm thinking of writing a book. But need to get technical facts correct :)

I thought you were planning a railtour...now that would have been interesting! <D
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top