ECML Azumas

One historical perspective on why British railway rail comps built a lot of their own stock... we were the first, railway expansion was rapid and when demand outstrips supply from private builders it costs money and time. So it made economic sense to go 'in house's for any large railway for any thing and everything from tickets to trucks.

 

There was one of the new Azumas in Leeds station yesterday, looking all shiny etc........."NOT IN SERVICE" it displayed. It left at 17:30 ish in the direction of London. They look better 'in the actual metal' than they do in photographs, now,I really do like that new LNER livery. But service depots are going to have a hell of a job trying to keep them clean

Oh, (off topic), if any other area has any more of those Class 170 DMU's............we'll take 'em at Neville Hill. When you've been fed an endless diet (for too long) of 142/144's etc those 170's are like riding in a limousine.

Azuma means EAST

 

Don't worry, that nice LNER livery will only last until the Government has found someone else to palm the East Coast franchise onto. At the current level of competence, I expect Interserve.

 

Looking at current RPS data, I gather that the maximum line speed permitted anywhere on the 130.5 route miles between Edinburgh and Aberdeen is 100 mph. Moreover, in round numbers and to give some flavour of the extent of lower speed restrictions, only 48 miles (37%) of that total is passed for speeds of between 90 and 100 mph - three-quarters of which is on the Dundee-Aberdeen section.

So it would appear that Vmax is not really an issue in any kind of Azuma/ HST comparison north of Edinburgh, but that the accelerative capabilities of the respective contenders will be critical at all points on the curve from rest to line speed maximum. Particularly so in view of the number and frequency of intermediate station calls and variations of line speed limit that prevail over this section. I'm afraid I'm not well versed in the respective power:weight ratios of the units concerned in the configuration operated by ScotRail and LNER on this route, so I'll leave further commentary on this topic to those who know and understand these things better.

 

Don't know what was happening at Leeds station yesterday, a flock of 'orange vested' Hitachi folk all over the place like a rash, I'm guessing they were waiting for their new train to arrive from London.

 

Well if they're anything like the Western Region ones, they were probably there to fix something

 

Actually it will last until the government decides it doesn't like the LNER, GWR,SWR etc brands being used. Under the current model the operator might change but the branding remains.So the LNER will be the LNER even when/if the operator changes.

 

Some years back he was saying that the hybrid version would have insufficient power on the electrical side so would need to run the diesel engines for much of the time even when under the wires. I don't know whether that remains the case in the final version.

 

Passed an Azuma going south between Darlington and York on Thursday 21st, so they are running for testing north of York.

 

Diesel or electric?


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The bi-mode version is capable as running as a pure electric unit just fine, as you can see every day when they run under the wires on the GWML. However, at least at one point, there were concerns about the ether or not there were be the power for all of LNERs new trains and TPEs on the ECML

 

10.15 Leeds - KX departing Donny yesterday. 90.019 'Multimodal.'

 

Time for me to spend some time by the ECML then - next month is quiet on the work front.

 

Enjoy!

https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/ecml-class-90-diagrams.171075/

 

Brilliant - thanks, John!

 

For those with WNXX access, there is also a thread there which is updated most days.


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This is not quite correct. When Stagecoach lost the South West Trains franchise all the trains, signs, website etc etc were rebranded by the new franchise holder 'South Western Railway'. And when, whoever it was who operated Connex, lost the franchise the new operator rebranded everything 'Southern Railway'.

I was a bit disappointed when SWT became SWR, I'd rather hoped the new franchise holder would have followed other operators and restored another old company name, and called themselves the 'London and South Western Railway'.

 

But if my understanding is correct, it will remain SWR even if/when the franchise holder changes.

Hence my original reply.

 

Which all makes a lot of sense. The new franchise holder must have spent a lot of money in replacing the "South West Trains" livery for the new "South Western Railway" one.