• Our new ticketing site is now live! Using either this or the original site (both powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Why can't the British do this?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

Wyvern

Established Member
Joined
27 Oct 2009
Messages
1,573
That loco is a whole lot heavier, plus it doesnt have all its works mounted underneath. Also the level crossing is tarmacced and less likely to have been undercut by the water.
 

Dai.

Established Member
Joined
2 Aug 2008
Messages
1,210
Location
Wales
And Health and Safety.


The demons with Hi-Visibility Jackets and Clipboards probably would have frowned.
 

4SRKT

Established Member
Joined
9 Jan 2009
Messages
4,409
why carnt the the british do this

What? Spell? ;)
 

LE Greys

Established Member
Joined
6 Mar 2010
Messages
5,389
Location
Hitchin
I heard of one incident in 1953 where a loco on the Hunstanton branch tried to run through a flood, which put the fire out for a while until the rebuilt it by cannibalising parts of a coach. They nearly had a collision with a drifting chalet after that, imagine being derailed by a floating bungalow, very unusual.

Did you see the bloke in the hi-viz coat, who must have been soaked to the skin?

Oh yes, and the second one reminded me of an encounter with a flood in 2001 (which also happened to be a 158 ). Running at 1mph through axle-deep water that should have been in the River Frome is something I'll never forget.
 

Tom B

Established Member
Joined
27 Jul 2005
Messages
4,681
I heard of one incident in 1953 where a loco on the Hunstanton branch tried to run through a flood, which put the fire out for a while until the rebuilt it by cannibalising parts of a coach. They nearly had a collision with a drifting chalet after that, imagine being derailed by a floating bungalow, very unusual.

Can you imagine the announcement?

"We are sorry but the.... ten... fifty five... service to... Hunstanton will be delayed by approximately... thirty... minutes. This is due to a chalet on the line".
 
Joined
14 Feb 2009
Messages
172
In the book 'The Badminton Line' by Kevin Robinson and David Abbott (very good Btw) there is a picture of a steam locomotive on page 40 driving through a very waterlogged cutting at Chipping Sodbury. it has water almost up to the footplate and is going so fast there even appears to be a bow wave.:D

Bit too much to expect a HST to do the same though, but it would be interesting to see im sure.
 

Old Timer

Established Member
Joined
24 Aug 2009
Messages
3,702
Location
On a plane somewhere at 35,000
It is not done in the UK simply because the water would enter the traction motor windings through the air vents, and flood out the underfloor electrical equipment.

The sequence is taken in Argentina I believe,

North/South American locomotives tend to have all the elctrical equipment contained within the body rather than underneath so as to allow the large fuel tanks to be underslung.

It is also the case that the traction motors on some designs allow the traction unit to operate in adverse conditions such as snow/water as they units are sealed and force cooled from above.

There is also a restriction on running through moving water owing to the risk that the track formation may be damaged. In South America the track is built to take recognition that a flash rainstorm will cause may 2 or three feet of water in an hour, which will rapidly run-off without actually seeping into the formation.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top