Yeah that didn't go so well did it. Perhaps the need to broaden the horizon and go direct to a customer, similar to what Varamis Rail are doing but one could imagine any profits will be razor thin.
Know it's off-thread, but what happened with Orion, and what's happened to the units (was it 326001, 768001, 768002?) - are they stored, withdrawn, gone for scrap etc. If you could point me to some info please, that'd be great - many thanks
There’s still huge questions over how they will make them pay. Currently they have 5 or 6 locos for use on traffic that will never justify brand new locos and have been conspicuously unsuccessful in adding new work (Orion has not succeeded). The cost of 10 new locos is not cheap…
It doesn’t. It looks very much like Stadler’s EuroDual/Euro 6000/Euro 9000, as you’d expect.
And that's a topic of conversation to theorise well into the night.
They'd be mad to not have spoken to customers and worked something out though, the costs here are many magnitudes greater than for a couple of 769s and nearly scrap value 319s.
Wouldn't surprise me if they were planning to hire them out to FOCs, GBRF would probably take a few to get drivers trained up and speed up introduction of 99s.They'd be mad to not have spoken to customers and worked something out though, the costs here are many magnitudes greater than for a couple of 769s and nearly scrap value 319s.
Maybe @Bletchleyite would hire them to bank the 66 hauled freights over Shap
Nonetheless, ROG's owners do seem to have pretty deep pockets...
Unlikely as whilst there maybe similarities between the UK Stadler locos they can also be vastly different as well.
Still waiting to see how they will find gainful employment for 30 x £4m locos!
Well, they are being built, so if ROG can't find work for them they will undoubtedly end up with other operators.
Are they actually building the projected thirty, or are 011-030 options ?
10, with the option of a further 20.
It's discussed in the thread here: https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...uld-cause-cascades-of-stock-elsewhere.227349/
The engines in the 93s aren't powerful enough for these services. Total power output off the wires is 1740hp vs 2800hp for the 57s (minus 601) and 3800hp for the 68s. That's less than a 185. They'll be perfect for ROG's bread & butter services of stock moves and can also allow them to potentially expand into freight services.
In operational terms, yes. In financial terms they’ll be catastrophic.
If, but, maybe. The Orion business has won nothing this far, so I wouldn’t hold my breath.
This is why the scepticism about ROG’s future pipeline continues, even with the locos now being revealed.
You don't need 3800hp for a five coach train. Heck, even a Class 31 could manage that!
The power-to-weight ratio of 93+5 Mk5s (away from the OHLE) is around half or less than a 185 or 802, so basically not much use in terms of matching existing timings, and the ETS load would knock that back even more.You don't need 3800hp for a five coach train. Heck, even a Class 31 could manage that!
A 93 with 1740hp would do just fine, even over the hills.
There are tractive effort versus speed curves for a 93 on OHLE and diesel+battery, plus a 37 and 66 for comparison, here - https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/class-93-tri-mode-loco.210779/post-5118414
I've not seen the battery capacity before. If my maths is correct, 80kWh is the kinetic energy of a 1000-tonne train moving at 55mph, so they've sized the battery to adsorb the energy of a moving train using regenerative braking only.
Previous reports have said that the 93 would only have two modes of operation: electric or combined diesel/battery.
That's my understanding too. But I do wonder how that will work out in practice. Would the batteries be limited in the rate at which they could be recharged? And would that be fast enough to absorb all the energy of a 1000T or 2000T trailing load when confronted with an unexpected yellow aspect at linespeed?
I believe so, I think all existing ROG locos will be withdrawn?