svr speed limits

I just wondered what the speed limit is on the severn valley railway is?

also are their any inclines on the railway?

 

I assume the speed limit is the standard 25mph that applies to most heritage railways, subject of course to additional infrastructure limits.

 

Have any Heritage Railways got a speed limit in excess of 25 mph for passenger trains? I know that some are allowed higher speeds for testing and TPO drops.

 

I thought the 25mph limit is more due to the nature of operating under a light railway order. Going above this would mean the infrastructure would need to be up to spec and would need to comply with modern rolling stock requirements.

Only runs on the mainline allow above this and with rolling stock modified to meet standards.

 

the Great Central Railway has a 60mph max on the 5 1/5 miles of double track axle loading is 25 tons on all it's structures.

 

Light Railways made under an LRO are generally subject to a 25 mph restriction but I don't think that it is a mandatory requirement under the Light Railways Act, merely something that has been imposed in the LRO's, almost by tradition. I don't know of any exceptions to this but I don't think there is any legal reason why a higher speed could not be approved, which is why I asked my question.

 

Am I right in thinking that this is only for testing purposes and that no passenger trains are allowed to be operated when this is taking place?

 

Generally 25mph, with other local restricions

 

Great Central has a 60 MPH only due to testing only..

The Tornado (with no passengers) which was at last years Steam Gala flew at (possibly more) than 60mph when it blasted through Quorn on a mail demonstration.

However all lines stick to limit of 25-40 miles an hour...

The Bicsester to Oxford line although not heritage is the same 25-40 miles an hour.

But some lines went far ahead of that & have a got smack on the hand..
Mid Hants was one a few years ago they had a diesel gala & some locos were going up to 50 even 60 miles an hour...
The Rail inspectorate was not impressed & therefore diesel gala were not held for a few years after this.. until this year actually..

 

The 25 mph limit is applied (IIRC) because Heritage lines have exemptions from directives that apply to the big railway - central door locking, on train recording and the like.

Patrick

 

Wrong. The 25mph speed limit was unfortunately exceeded by some of the more irresponsible drivers right under the noses of the inspectors, but nowhere near those speeds. I was a pilotman that day, probably the worst I've had in 20 years on the MHR, working with some of the most obnoxious idiots I've ever encountered.

 

I heard the Western nearly topped a ridiculous speed on a heritage line...

How was the diesel gala this year?

 

There was no speeding at this years diesel gala because we had our own drivers. Next years diesel gala will be a mixed traction gala with a 1960s theme to it?

 

I hear the GCR has now passed to 90mph - But only as a testing speed restriction.

 

The 25mph limit is a condition of the LRO itself and dates from the time LROs came into being a good many years ago. I can't be bothered to trawl the Net and find the exact date. It was because of the lightweight nature of the infrastructure of the railways themselves when they were built. Think the Colonel Stephens mould.

It never anticipated (how could it?) the advent of private heritage railways, forming and using infrastructure that had hitherto been mainline and engineered to far higher standards than Light Railways. The limit was never altered,presumably because it would have required Parliamentary time, money and primary legislation to do so.

A number of years back, some people were floating the idea of the SVR having its speed limit raised to 40mph. The line had been totally relaid with concrete sleepers, several sections with flat-bottom rail, bridges and structures repaired and upgraded to take higher axle-loadings, ash beds topped up with ballast, etc.

The idea was run past Major Olver, the then Railway Inspector on one of his visits to the line. His answer, as told to me by someone who was present, was along the lines of, "your current limit is 25, we know you occasionally run up to 40 and we can live with that, beacuse the structures, stock and signalling are sound. If we give you 40, people will run up to 60 occasionally and we can't live with that, so we'll let things be, shall we?"

I think that covers it.

 

yep I agree with that...
40 is the main point at which diesels 'thrash'... go up to 40 then slow down & then do it again further down along the line.. wherever that maybe...

 

A bit like Sharpthrone Tunnel only limited currently to 15 MPH, but next year going to the full 25mph speed limit!!!

 

The GCR's recently been upgraded to 75mph, rather than 90. But that's only for air braked diesels.

All other testing is 60mph max.

The TPO is allowed to do 35mph between the outer home and a point down the Quorn straight. There are also other restrictions (such as having to have a clear run through to Rothley before Loughborough box can send it out and not being allowed to pass a passenger train on the down line; hence there'll often be a simultaneous goods working in the opposite direction at galas).

All other traffic is 25mph max.

 

Which nicely demonstrates the irresposibility of some of those that inhabit our heritage lines just to "play" diesels whilst bringing the wider movement into disrepute!