HST passing Slough at 138mph

[chris parkinson]

In Colin Marsden's excellent 'HST Silver Jubilee' book, he references the seemingly unofficial 'Railway Performance Society' (RPS), in which a number of drivers sought membership of the '140 club'.

When HST's arrived in fleet service on the Western Region, there was a lack of speed governer. Marsden references an occasion where one run thundered through Slough at 138mph, and he discusses a number of occasions where temporary speed restrictions were flouted on RPS attempts.

It appears that 30 years ago, speed limits were merely advisory.

I'd like to know any similar tales, and indeed, whether any such practices occur today?
Or has Health and Safety nonsense, coupled with lackadaisical maintenance regimes and the thirst for TOC's to pedestrianise their timetables stymied the scope for skilled drivers to make up lost time?

 

[ainsworth74]

I'd like to know any similar tales, and indeed, whether any such practices occur today?

It's unlikely that it carries on to any great degree today, the risks to the driver are simply too high. Speed limits are rigorously enforced on the modern railway, I think I've heard that if a driver is recorded doing more than 5mph over the limit they can be suspended and over 10mph dismissed.

Speeds can be checked by NR lineside speed traps (same as those on the road) but I don't think those are particularly common. The more usual method of detecting speeding is a train turning up far earlier than it's booked to and also by looking at the OTMR which records a number of things including train speed. It is not really possible to get away with speeding on today's railway.

Or has Health and Safety nonsense, coupled with lackadaisical maintenance regimes

I'm not sure what you mean by lackadaisical maintenance seeing as most trains are more reliable than ever before (with a few notable exceptions). Also I don't see how ensuring that drivers are driving at the indicated speed restriction is 'elf and safety gone mad

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

It's unlikely that it carries on to any great degree today, the risks to the driver are simply too high. Speed limits are rigorously enforced on the modern railway, I think I've heard that if a driver is recorded doing more than 5mph over the limit they can be suspended and over 10mph dismissed.

When was the last recorded case for a dismissal of a train driver for a 10mph excess over speed limit?

In what part of the operating instructions does this wording occur?

 

[ainsworth74]

It's just something that I've heard mentioned on the forum by others, I can't point to specific operating instructions.

 

[sprinterguy]

The HSTs are fitted with speed limiters that kick in at 128mph, which has rather stopped any record breaking attempts by drivers. "HST Silver Jubilee" also makes mention of the fact that at a particular location on the GWML there were considerably fewer HSTs attaining 125mph in 2000 than did in 1980 due to the increase in journey time padding, as well as drivers being reluctant to run the risk of exceeding 125 with the limiters in place and OTMR recording their moves.

 

[The Barlow Boy]

It's certainly true that when I was a Guard at Paddington - late 70s very early 80s - there was the "twenty minute club". That being the time it took to reach Reading. in those days the HSTs were timetabled for 22 minutes. We used to ride in the little compartment at the rear of the power car. You've not lived until you've had the fibreglass plug/sliding door door on one whip open at 100+. Whoa!

 

[Rugd1022]

Everything we do in the cab is recorded now so it's just not worth overspeeding. I've learnt that it's best just to stick to the rules, but you can still make up a bit of time by using your route knowledge to good advantage. By that I mean thinking ahead, using the gradients and knowing exactly where to shut off so you can keep the momentum up when following another train.

 

[dk1]

Gone are the days when we could take pride in making up time. I remember when you would leave a 150/153 power controller 'open' & would sit at around 87-89mph, even on 60mph branch lines!!

 

[Flamingo]

When was the last recorded case for a dismissal of a train driver for a 10mph excess over speed limit?

In what part of the operating instructions does this wording occur?

I know of at least one who ended up shunting, and the general consensus was that they were lucky to keep a job in the company that didn't involve asking "Do you want milk and sugar with that".