Search results

So after the recent timetable change in my hometown (Grantham) we now have two routes numbered 24 and two routes numbered 1. This is annoying for obvious reasons, and I can't imagine what it is like for someone coming from outside the area for whatever reason - leaving aside the question of...

I was wondering, where to the Felixstowe container trains actually go? I have been able to find out there are a lot but not what the destinations are or how many go to each. Anyone have said information?

Well, I decided this morning that I was going to go completely nuts and indulge in some insane blue-sky thinking along the lines of "what could we do with lots of money to spend". The concept was the following: A Nottingham Loop line (simillar to the Merseyrail Loop) under the Market Square...

Well, it occurs to me that in most cases, if there is an electrified route (I mean in terms of a direct service) between two cities/large towns that it will tend to be the primary route between them. For instance the WCML is the primary route between London and Birmingham rather than the...

Well I was wondering, after reading up on the air brakes used on American freight trains (after that accident in Canada recently), whether freight trains in Britain tend to use a two-pipe or one-pipe system for braking? The latter seems to predominate in the US but I am not sure about the UK...

Well we occasionally have threads about bus routes in London which are over a set number of busses per day... which rapidly breaks down thanks to the insane number of routes you could list.. So I will try a different tack? Which is the busiest bus route in London and how many buses does it have...

Well I have repeatedly read reports that are nearly seven hundred million tonnes of slate waste rock scattered around various quarries in the vicinity of Blaenau Festiniog. I have also repeatedly read that this rock would be useful in the Severn Estuary for barrage/dyke construction in...

Concept and Capital costs It occurred to me recently that, based rather simplistically on the costs of the Manchester-NW electrification, the electrification of the entire unelectrified mainland UK network (some 12000 track miles) would total roughly £18bn. Although there are parts of the...

We all know that units like the Class 395 are insanely quick off the mark, but I have been thinking more about "express" units lately, like the Class 444. I was wondering if anyone had any information as to the relative performance of the Class 444 compared the Class 158, which is perhaps the...

Well we have been talking a lot of late about the efficiency of 26m carriages versus 23m ones, largely as a result of having fewer vestibules since a train formed of 10 23m carriages would only need 9 26m vehicles, thus saving you two vestibules which translates to several metres. However, I...

Well, I've seen a handful of pictures of overhead wire powered electric locomotives on Tyneside which were painted in what appear to be NCB colours. This was before the Metro was constructed during the era of the original Tyneside Electrics/Diesels. Does anything know anything about this...

Well I decided to do a rather basic analysis on the economics of trolleybuses in the UK, and excluding benefits to the state from current diesel operations being lost in the conversion (In this case I refer chiefly to the fact that diesel bus operators pay full price for diesel, including the...

Well I have recently travelled on the down Night Riviera in the seated area, which means I have now travelled in both directions on the service in seating. It was almost entirely full in seating and judging by the number of people around it is highly likely that the berths were similar. So why...

A class 90 is ordinarily rated for 110mph, but since now have access to far superior speedometers and the like for measuring train speed, would it be possible to make use of some of the overspeed factor that is required for all trains in testing to improve the speed of the train operationally...

Well, unlike many people on this forum I believe that the basic bodyshell design used on the Class 22x multiple units to be sound, and merely hamstrung by the poor interior design (with lots and lots of disabled toilets). Unfortunately, despite recent plans to reopen the Voyager bodyshell...

Well I've been working on my secret low cost plan to ensure Sprinter Domination forever more..... But I've been trying to get as much electrification as possible with as few a new EMU orders as possible, and when it comes to this EGIP is an enormous project, requiring at-least 55 sets (does...

I know there is large amounts of 100mph and 125mph speed limits on British railways, but is there actually a large amount of track with 110mph speed limits? It seems the only significant sections where that is the absolute linespeed (and not a non EPS limit as on parts of the WCML) is sections...

I have a rather technical question about the V150, so its a toss up between here and the Traction forum, but I guess people who know more about TGVs are likely to hang around here so I will ask it here. The V150 seems to have had powered bogies that contributed more to the traction power of the...

With Great Western electrification works to Bristol and Cardiff underway, apparent extension of electrification to Hull on the cards (if it has not been already commited, or atleast linking Selby to the southbound ECML with electrics anyway) and the impending order of huge numbers of Bi-mode...

Well I've looked around the internet, and I can't seem to find any official looking acceleration figures for the Cl395. There are videos on Youtube but the only ones with GPS displays I can actually read are from Ebbsfleet heading towards London which has obvious problems with the low speed...