Should the Permitted speed on Heritage Railways be raised ?

On the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway one can travel Wirksworth to Duffield, change onto EMT and arrive in Derby quicker than the through Trent bus (via Belper) so they're not far off!

 

Depends if they are any buses. On a sunday there are no buses between Kidderminster and Bewdley so if you don't have a car, what's cheaper: the train or a taxi? The former for certain. Also they are many people who I'd descibe as regulars who live locally and use the train to get places for say shopping.

As for a comment about the current speed and people finding it boring, I've experience both sides of this arguement from passengers: people complaining it's taking far too long and then others saying it wouldn't be the same if it was faster as you get less chance to see the scenery.

My person view is it would nice if say the limit was put up by say 5 or 10 mph, but generally railways not to time for running at the increased speed and just use it for recovering time when running late.

 

I'd suggest that, if a driver doesn't know what speed he is doing, he shouldn't be a driver. That's one of the many skills you have to master.

 

I'm with you there, Steve. I was GPSd several times last year and on one occasion the Inspector came on the footplate, I tossed in a few speeds at several locations, (I was firing to my fireman) and I was within 1 - 2mph every time.

jtx

 

I nearly made a comment referring to letting a fireman drive. Most NYMR locos have speedos but you might not be able to see them if you're in the fireman's seat. I generally know when the speed is creeping up over the 25 and I'll cross the cab to check the speedo and tell the fireman to check his speed as it's my 'ticket' he's driving on.

 

Speedos? Damn, you're advanced up there. We were on 2857, tender - first. The G. W. didn't do speedos, except on the big and beautiful stuff. I was just relying on my head, much as when driving anywhere in the car. People say, "Where's your satnav?" and I say, "In my ******* head, where it's been for fifty years."

I am pretty relaxed on the footplate, but my firemen occasionally hear, "Oy! Casey *******Jones! This is my ticket and we're a branch passenger, not an HST!" I like to let them know I'm not asleep.

 

Steve,
I dont disagree with you, just being lenient to drivers. Dont forget the guard can judge speed too and I know when its creeping up too. A 1/4 mile should take 36 seconds, you can time that on a fob watch

 

Nowadays, the only regular NYMR loco without a speedo is the Q6. Even Lambton 29 has one. But, as I said, I can still judge the speed sat in the fireman's seat.
And I prefer Sit-nav to Sat-nav, too. Mind you, using Sat-nav can take you to some interesting places. I used it to get from Keighley to home the other day (a journey I've made countless times by various routes) and it took me to parts of Yorkshire I never knew existed!

 

That's dangerous talk in your neck of the woods. 2857 not big and beautiful, then? Mind you, you're probably right.

 

If that's you poking out of the window of that A2, and you're regularly driving the big blue snowplough and similar, I understand you're used to better things. For Q6, read 28XX and that's what us GW types have been dragged up on. Mind you, we've got a couple of Bulleid Pacifics now. They've got speedos, which, of course, is just one more thing to go wrong!

Incidentally, if you were wondering about my "colourful" communication skills, I was trained by two ex - Stourbridge firemen, one of whom was your P. Way manager for the last few years. They rarely used words of longer than four letters, if four letters would suffice!

Regards,

jtx

 

The Pw manager still uses words of short length.
Still plays with the tamper here frequently.

 

The Guard also has a speedo gauge - but it never shows more than 21! (25 for strange Great Western things!)

I'll get my coat.....

Steven

 

1/4 mile times should be engraved in the heads of footplate crews. The old BR General Appendix used to carry a table of 1/4 mile times. 15 sec - 60 mph, 20 sec - 45 mph, 30 sec - 30 mph, 36 sec - 25 mph, 45 sec - 20 mph, 60 sec - 15 mph.

 

It can soon read 0 if you upset the guard by excessive speed. Onlydone it once on a diesel gala

 

How about this then

 

I don't think there's a blanket answer, some of the longer lines and the GCR could use say 35-40MPH to improve journey times and the mainline experience (say those exceeding 15 miles length), smaller lines however would find the journey time over too quickly, Lakeside & Haverthwaite already resort to walking pace speed mostly as it is, as mentioned though, cost is likely to kill any such idea, even if you did go to all the trouble of fitting AWS, door locking etc to everything, your back to square one for special events and visiting stock.

 

Hampton Loade - Bridgnorth is a pretty long section (5 miles ?), much more so than the other sections on the line between passing places meaning it can be a longer wait at Bridgnorth before anything happens, even if you could put a loop in at Eardington another stops woulden't help journey times, apart from the PSR at Sterns, the Pway woulden't be an obstacle to a higher speed on that stretch.

 

A pedant writes: Hampton Loade to Bridgnorth is just about the longest stretch between passing stations on the SVR; but Hampton Loade to Arley is only marginally shorter and has longer travelling times due to the station stops at Highley and potentially Country Park. Because of this the travel times between passing places are pretty well balanced when all signal boxes are open.

I understand one reason Eardington station was closed was the effect it had on section times when trains had to start against the gradient.

 

On the Isle of Wight the guard's "Speedo" usually reads 70!

 

Why is that Steve, for running on to NR?