Reliability of hardworked Scotrail 47s

[Cowley]

Up until about 1988 they were about as reliable as a normal 47/4, after that while they were maintained as well as possible I think it became known they were getting replaced and so there perhaps wasn't the same level of impetus as before.



Certainly in the late 1980s there was a booked Sunday Inverness-Aberdeen-Glasgow formed of a Mk2 air-con push-pull rake but booked for a 47/4. The Mk3 stock was all in ScotRail by 1985.

100mph was only authorised from May 1985 and only at that point on Edinburgh-Glasgow. From May 1986 it applied on Glasgow-Aberdeen as well. Until those dates the 47/7s were still 95mph machines, indeed if a 47/7 missed it 'special maintenance' as it were, it reverted to 95mph.

The 100mph sections in the 1980s are broadly as now, Dundee-Arbroath is mostly HST 100 and 47/7 push-pull sets were allowed to use these differentials at the time.



They only managed as they did in Scotland because of the care and attention they were given.



Braking. They are part of the compressor cooling system for the air brakes. Normal 47s' compressors only ran when a key was in the desk, the 47/7s were modified so they would run without a key in, when in propelling mode. The compressors were running for longer and note frequently and thus getting hotter.

They were effectively part of an aftercooler to deal with excessive moisture build up which was causing failures, these were an addition, the first batch of locos didn't have them from conversion, the later batch did.

Nevertheless, it didn't succeed in increasing reliability as I understand it.

Some of your posts have been a real asset over this last few years Hexagon. Thanks for taking the trouble to research/explain this.

Right, that's enough of that.

 

[306024]

.......A standard 47/4 was reckoned do 600 miles on a full tank, reduced to 500 on warm days with an ETS load of 12 coaches. A 47/7 could manage about 1100 miles.

Thanks, ties in with what I remember diagramming Stratford 47/4s. Would have made my job easier having a greater fuel range. Two return trips from London to Norwich was about it for us.

Some of your posts have been a real asset over this last few years Hexagon. Thanks for taking the trouble to research/explain this.

Right, that's enough of that.

Agree, interesting thread this one.

 

[Cowley]

I think it was Randyrippley on another thread that said the 47/7s were returned to their 95mph status when on the WofE expresses (the above posts possibly explaining why - with the standard maintenance returning etc). Yet I remember the first three 47s which were allocated to the route (from memory 47s 473/547 and 587) slightly struggling to keep up with the timings and having to be worked hard.
However when the 47/7s started to appear they just seemed to just slot in with the 50s without any problem.
I think that age has started to alter my memories recently...

Re the Scottish 47s though - When Laira was struggling with class 50 availability in the late 80s, all of a sudden ex Inverness and Eastfield based 47s (released from their previous duties due to Sprinterisation), which until then had been incredibly rare in Devon, suddenly started appearing on Network Southeast stock at St David's. In my mind (and I know that this is rubbish of course) they always seemed louder than the local Bristol Bath Road based 47s.
47637 'Springburn' in original Intercity exec livery with 'Scotrail' lettering was a particular favourite of mine...
It went to Looe on a BLS railtour on Sunday. Who'd have thought that I'd see the same machine in Exeter 32 years after I first saw it here.

I'm sorry, I seem to have gone off on one...

 

[hexagon789]

Some of your posts have been a real asset over this last few years Hexagon. Thanks for taking the trouble to research/explain this.

Thank you, but thanks should really go to the knowledgable guys on another forum who very patientally answered all my questions on the subject a few years ago.

Thanks, ties in with what I remember diagramming Stratford 47/4s. Would have made my job easier having a greater fuel range. Two return trips from London to Norwich was about it for us.

I must admit 500 miles doesn't sound a lot somehow.

I think it was Randyrippley on another thread that said the 47/7s were returned to their 95mph status when on the WofE expresses (the above posts possibly explaining why - with the standard maintenance returning etc). Yet I remember the first three 47s which were allocated to the route (from memory 47s 473/547 and 587) slightly struggling to keep up with the timings and having to be worked hard.
However when the 47/7s started to appear they just seemed to just slot in with the 50s without any problem.
I think that age has started to alter my memories recently...

To make them into 100mph machines the 47/7s had the field diverts modified, presumably to improve performance at speed, perhaps that's why they could keep pace with a 100mph 50, whereas unmodified 47/4s struggled a bit?

I'm not sure when the 47/7s had the diverts changed back but I do know some of them had them wired wrongly on maintenance which adversely affected their performance.