Is 5mph the slowest speed limit possible?

martin2345uk said:

Carriage wash speed at Temple Mills when washing is 3kmh for 373 and 5kmh for 374; boy does 3kmh feel slow

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I was with an official visit to Eurostar at North Pole via an ECS trip from Waterloo. The final section onto the depot was possibly the wash road and was undoubtedly my slowest train ride ever.

The Planner said:

How is that even controllable? Walking at that speed would be difficult enough.

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I assumed, rightly or wrongly, that locos fitted with SSC - Slow Speed Control - for MGR work could do that?

Deepgreen said:

Does that have a standard speed restriction sign, and if so does it read '0.5'?

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Pretty sure such signs exist in the Drax Power Station area at least, I think it was visible on one of Don Coffey's videos.

martin2345uk said:

Carriage wash speed at Temple Mills when washing is 3kmh for 373 and 5kmh for 374; boy does 3kmh feel slow

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80cm a second? Cripes!

Purple Train said:

There's one on the Maesteg branch, certainly. North Berwick as well, although I don't know if it's been changed as I haven't travelled on the North Berwick branch.

No idea of the reasons for either.

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North Berwick is still 5 mph - it was set after the long-ago (well 1975) buffer overrun - you could walk in quicker over the last 100m or so! Must require a fair use of the brakes as the last section is definitely downhill.

Starmill said:

80cm a second? Cripes!

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I think they could probably easily go through at 5kmh like the 374, but the 373 "wash mode" speed is set at 3kmh so that what we do!

With reference to locos fitted with Slow Speed control for discharging wagons, I believe they had a separate speedo that came to life when it was selected, with 0-5mph as the whole range.

IlkleyRunner said:

North Berwick is still 5 mph - it was set after the long-ago (well 1975) buffer overrun - you could walk in quicker over the last 100m or so! Must require a fair use of the brakes as the last section is definitely downhill.

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Pretty certain it's 5mph at the platform at Stourbridge Town too - and is also very certainly downhill!

josh-j said:

additional speed signs added at least down to 3mph

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It’s 4mph. That’s the lowest speed limit that can currently be set on Metrolink.

507 001 said:

It’s 4mph. That’s the lowest speed limit that can currently be set on Metrolink.

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Oh fair enough, I was sure I've seen lower but quite possible I was mistaken!

Not a track limit per se, however the speed for hump shunting, certainly at Tinsley, was 1.3mph to ensure that one cut cleared the points before gravity took hold on the next wagon, without the need to stop pushing.
The class 13s had separate low range speedometers for this purpose

The washes at Kirkdale and Birkenhead North depots are only 3mph. (Raised from 2mph). Fairly easy to do as the 777s have a wash mode button that restricts you to that speed.

Deepgreen said:

Does that have a standard speed restriction sign, and if so does it read '0.5'?

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Indeed it does in Drax as someone mentioned previously! I found this fascinating when I first saw this picture (not mine for absolute clarity)

[Link redirects to Flickr post of 37901 stood next to a 0.5mph speed restriction sign in Drax]

Belaugh Green Level Crossing on the Bure Valley Railway (about a mile west of Wroxham) is an open crossing over a public road.

It has a westbound PSR of 5 mph, but only 2 mph eastbound, due to poor visibility.

From my visit in May 2026 I gather there are plans to upgrade it with barriers, as was done for Spratts Green crossing at the other end of the line, just over a mile out of Aylsham.

jamesst said:

The washes at Kirkdale and Birkenhead North depots are only 3mph. (Raised from 2mph). Fairly easy to do as the 777s have a wash mode button that restricts you to that

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Does the washer at Birkenhead North actually operate and is used?
Evertime I pass it looks as though it has never been used. The brushes are always very white.

Bill57p9 said:

Not a track limit per se, however the speed for hump shunting, certainly at Tinsley, was 1.3mph to ensure that one cut cleared the points before gravity took hold on the next wagon, without the need to stop pushing.
The class 13s had separate low range speedometers for this purpose

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I never knew that and I am a class 13 fan! Makes sense though.

MR-507508 said:

Does the washer at Birkenhead North actually operate and is used?
Evertime I pass it looks as though it has never been used. The brushes are always very white.

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Yep, every Merseyrail and tfw stock that goes on there early evening and at end of service uses it, been through it many times

The NCL is weird - ETCS displays speed limits in mph but distances in metres and kilometres...

Stadler 755s have a 1mph setting for coupling. Lowest actual linespeed I’ve known is obviously 3mph for wash plants and within the shed.

steamybrian said:

Many, many years ago I travelled over the Weymouth Quay line where the railman walked in front of the train on the section through the town. The speed restriction must have been walking pace!

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I've imposed a walking pace speed limit before. There was a DMU (with passengers) trapped on a branch and the points ahead of it (it was the return journey) were damaged. These points were now being used in the facing direction for the movement that the train was supposed to be making.

Unknown to the signaller, the points had been damaged during an overnight T3 engineering occupation. They had been run through, but showed detection when the T3 was handed back, hence the signaller not noticing a problem. So the first train of the day was signalled normally along the branch.

When the signaller set the route for the return journey, the points failed to gain detection for the opposite position. So the signaller reported this as a fault. My team and I responded and discovered that the points had been badly damaged.

I advised the signaller that repairs would take a number of hours and that the points could not be used until the repairs had been completed. But I was asked if we could do anything to allow the trapped train to pass over them.

After careful consideration, we made a number of adjustments and fitted two point clips to hold the bent switch rail as tightly as possible up against the stock rail.

Although derailment was unlikely, just in case, the driver was instructed to proceed at walking pace while the train passed over the points and to watch me as I walked along the cess just ahead of the train, with instructions to stop immediately if I indicated for them to do so. Meanwhile my team member closely watched each wheel of the train as it passed over the switch rails of the points.

The driver followed the instructions and the train successfully passed over the points without incident. The branch was closed to traffic after this. Once we had the replacement parts, repair work started.