Class 08

[91104]

Well I sign 08s and I also sign HSTs and I can honestly say doing 15mph in a 08 hanging out the window is more of a thrill than tearing up the mainline at 125mph in an HST!!

 

[HSTfan!!!]

Nothing compares to the thrill of driving an 08 and I'm mainline driver as well. Miss the 08's

 

[D7666]

Why spend hundreds of thousands... or millions of pounds on a new loco when an old one does the job!

If everyone took that view we'd have Puffing Billy with a man walking in front of it with a red flag.

--
Nick

 

[Beveridges]

08s are great. I'm MDD and wish I had one at NH. Better having an 08 than using a 142 to push or pull dead vehicles around the depot, or worse still, having to push by hand still happens here (moving a wheelset with 4 people pushing!)

 

[6Gman]

I'm not proposing anything, thats not my job. I'm just thinking surely in this day and age there must be a solution to increase vision/safety and driver comfort? Don't get me wrong they are fantastic work horses but as you say, they are 50 years old and surely modern engineering can come up with a better alternative?

When I was working in the Forward Planning Dept at Crewe c.1982 I found a file marked "Class 08 Replacement".

They wanted the following "refinements":

1. 60mph capability
2. Dual-braked
3. Dual-heat

and a host of other bells and whistles.

Oddly enough, it never went any further.

 

[RichmondCommu]

When I was working in the Forward Planning Dept at Crewe c.1982 I found a file marked "Class 08 Replacement".

They wanted the following "refinements":

1. 60mph capability
2. Dual-braked
3. Dual-heat

and a host of other bells and whistles.

Oddly enough, it never went any further.

The 60mph might have been for trip working but why dual heat?!

 

[D7666]

The 60mph might have been for trip working but why dual heat?!

Dunno why dual, thats sound daft, as no-one would be building new locos with steam heat in 1980s, but ETH certainly, for ECS moves from sidings into stations, saves train locos. The main reason 08s were not used in several locations where they could have been was exactly because of no heat ... the incoming ECS loco needs to be pre-heating that train before platforms.

An option - not fitted - was that 17s (Claytons) had provision of steam or ETH or both exactly for that purpose, but not really for hauling and heating passenger trains in service, although no doubt it would have occurred.

On ETH a 17 would have used one engine-tmain-generator across all 4 motors for traction and the other engine *main* generator to ETH. AIUI neither cabling nor control circuits were provided on anything that was built, but it was an option in the contract.

--
Nick

 

[Juniper Driver]

Well I sign 08s and I also sign HSTs and I can honestly say doing 15mph in a 08 hanging out the window is more of a thrill than tearing up the mainline at 125mph in an HST!!

Im sure it isn't.