How many trains that can run faster than its current top speed?

[hexagon789]

Yes, that corresponds with my experience....although I'm not sure whether I ever drove the 400 bhp variant. Did Northern have any of them eleven years or more ago?

Not sure, they certainly have most of them now though.

(Units 863-872 are the batch in question)

 

[Bevan Price]

The speedometer has a wheel-wear compensator.

Much older classes of loco have them too, 47s for one.

Some Class 47 speedos developed faults as they got older. Sometimes this was spotted and the loco was failed. Sometimes it was not spotted and you could get erratic or spectacular performances.

105 mph through Flint when the overall limit was 75 mph (speed checked with GPS; average speed Chester to Prestatyn higher than the line limit.........)

 

[Class 170101]

The 357s were built for 100 mph, and could probably exceed that, but spend their life limited to 75. It's a shame no one's ever hired a pair for a railtour up the GEML to stretch their legs.

They have operated on the GEML on service trains some 15+ years ago so were able to do better than the 75mph of the LTS. They had a spell on loan with the GEML, operating between Liverpool Street and Southend Victoria.

 

[notadriver]

They are timed for 140mph, while they maybe don't always touch or hold the magic 225 (km/h) figure on every run, speeds into the 220s are very common.

Also, running at 140mph vs 125mph saves approx 3 secs per mile, so not going to significantly help regain time if that was a policy.

You need to run about 20 miles continuously at 140 to thus save just one minute over 125mph running. (Ignoring any acceleration and deceleration.)

You would need to be in the cab to see how often an indicated 225 kph is reached. It happens more often than you suggest.

 

[hexagon789]

Some Class 47 speedos developed faults as they got older. Sometimes this was spotted and the loco was failed. Sometimes it was not spotted and you could get erratic or spectacular performances.

105 mph through Flint when the overall limit was 75 mph (speed checked with GPS; average speed Chester to Prestatyn higher than the line limit.........)

ISTR reading the 47s speedometer set-up wasn't great.

You would need to be in the cab to see how often an indicated 225 kph is reached. It happens more often than you suggest.

I only meant that speeds up to 225 are reached in normal service, as opposed to adhering to a 200 ceiling unless running late.

 

[YourMum666]

Can 700s do 110mph?

 

[hexagon789]

Can 700s do 110mph?

They should have been overspeed tested to at least that figure.

 

[Threepea51]

How fast could the Coronations go streamlined? They accelerate very fast until about 115 mph when air comes into play

 

[hexagon789]

How fast could the Coronations go streamlined? They accelerate very fast until about 115 mph when air comes into play

As in the LMS Coronation Class Pacifics?

 

[AM9]

As in the LMS Coronation Class Pacifics?

Didn't the 'Coronation' (6220) jst about scrape 114mph with streamlining?

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They should have been overspeed tested to at least that figure.

Judging by the way that they get to 100mph, I imagine that given permission, 110 would be acheivable.

 

[hexagon789]

Didn't the 'Coronation' (6220) jst about scrape 114mph with streamlining?

Yes, exactly my point - though only the LMS claimed a peak of 114; the two recorders on board independently recorded a maxima of only 112.5mph. And it only just managed the speed about a mile and a half before Crewe where it went through the station crossovers at almost three times the then 20mph limit with the brakes hard on...

 

[AM9]

Yes, exactly my point - though only the LMS claimed a peak of 114; the two recorders on board independently recorded a maxima of only 112.5mph. And it only just managed the speed about a mile and a half before Crewe where it went through the station crossovers at almost three times the then 20mph limit with the brakes hard on...

Shades of Peterborough.

 

[ComUtoR]

Can 700s do 110mph?

You get in cab warnings at 102mph. I think the brakes kick in but I never pushed it and always pulled back when the warning flashed up.

 

[hexagon789]

Shades of Peterborough.

At least the braking trials on the LNER meant they managed 125.88 AND then bringing speed down for the 20 at Essendine, even if the 'Big end' did run hot.

 

[HOOVER29]

A pair of 158s used on an Glasgow/Edinburgh speed run in the 1990s touched 107mph and 108mph once each en route.

They have Cummins engines (the Scottish ones all did at least) but still 350hp engines and the transmission is the same as the 166s; tare weight is probably similar too.

When used on the Nottingham-Norwich trip you could feel the driver easing off after hitting a GPS recorded 90mph.
Drops to about 87 then would accelerate again.

Doing the trip on a turbostar wasn’t anywhere near as much fun as it maxed at about 77.
The return trip on the 170 was much of the same but it wouldn’t hit more than 70mph & the unit was taken out of service upon arrival