Recently I took my Nickel Plate Road Z gauge layout 'Cuyahoga' to the all american TVNAM model rail show. I was stopping in a local motel the night before and spent a few hours on Rugeley Trent Valley station watching as the high speed passenger trains and freights barreled past. it was a good demonstration of the amount of goods traffic hauled by different freight haulers that can pass in a short space of time. First past literally as I was coming down the bridge steps was one of our new class 68 locos 68 004 'Rapid' on a northbound ballast working. I can recall when engineering trains were still vacuum braked and ran at a maximum of 45MPH not now though! heading in the opposite direction was a Freightliner class 70 no. 70 015 on a southbound container working . Built by G.E at the Erie plant these are commonly nick-named 'Fuglies' The class achieved a certain notoriety when one of the locos, 70 012, was dropped by the cranes when being unloaded at the docks in 2011 and was returned to the states as a write off. Next up another southbound container train has GBRF class 66 no 66 705 'Golden Jubilee'. The 66 has become the industry standard loco in the U.K with over 400 delivered since 1998 from the GM/EMD plant at London Ontario Next, a surprise. The expected northbound GBRF intermodal turned out to be a light engine move with 66 745 'Modern railways' hauling 66 770 and an DB Shenke 'Shed' 66 019 more in a minute Kev
I had been using 'Realtime trains' on my mobile to keep an eye on what was due to pass and next up was 189E This turned out to be two of our class 37s 607 and 608 'topping and tailing' an OHLE test train Another DB Shenke 'Shed' 66 161 passed quite quickly on a solid train of car carriers fully loaded Not making much money by the looks of it was Freightliner intermodal heading north hauled by 66 538 With a healthier looking payload was sister engine 66 594 'Spirit of Kyoto' passing in the other direction More in a minute Kev
What goes down must come up! As anticpated the OHLE test train re-appeared shortly after heading back to , I believe , Doncaster Decoy yard Sadly the dirtiest engine to pass was one of ours. 66 430 was barely identifiable under the grime Just about to have a class 390 'Pendelino' blast past another 'Fugly' 70 009 passes northbound Now this and the video below only give an idea of the freight passing, interspersed in all of this is a constant parade of Class 390 and 350 EMUs and Class 221 voyager DEMUs whilst on the platform 1 local trains to and from Birmingham arrive and depart. usually Class 170 and 153 DMUs. just around the corner on the non electrified line to Walsall and Birmingham through Rugeley Town station you also find a steady traffic of unit coal trains in and out of Rugeley power station. So, all in all, a busy spot and worth a couple of hours. The report on TVNAM is in the 'Inspection pit' forum for anybody interested cheers Kev
It monitors the OHLE 'over head line equipment' which is basically the 25KV catenary. I must be honest the test coach is one piece of gear I don't know a lot about but you can see on the video that it has a pantograph raised which is illuminated by a couple of powerful lights presumably because it is being videoed. you also see that it runs at 'line speed' so can cover a lot of territory in a short pace of time. The area around here is a forest of catenary covering the four track main and the Rugeley and Colwich junctions just to the north. Kev
Then it must have some sort of modified pantograph atop the car? Over here railroads have used what we term as a "dynomometer" car, for testing train pulling characteristics. Then they used to, (now I believe are all contracted to private operators such as Sperry), have track test cars which checked alignment, rail spacing, rail integrity, etc.
We also have full test trains Ken, monitoring all sorts of things, cameras and radar check track, line side structure clearances, rail integrity, etc. and all at high speed! The various cars in the test train contain masses of computers and data collecting equipment.
I would imagine you do have such equipment. I was just trying to learn more about how that particular car Kevin photographed was employed.
The cars with pantograph raised can be used to check catenary integrity, probably this was the case in Kevins photos as he said it was illuminated and no doubt being videoed and recorded so any bad spots can be localised for attention. Some pantograph equipped cars are used to test new pantograph versions, particularly for high speed use, to assess performance at very high speeds. I have also seen restaurant cars in Switzerland equipped with pantographs, but these were only to provide power to kitchen equipment when standing in stations without power from a locomotive - they automatically lower at a few mph as the train departs.
Interesting. I assume that would require some hefty circuits to switch kitchen power source automatically when locomotive power is lost and regained. I wonder if the kitchen car pantograph is raised/lowered automatically or manually?
Yes. Interesting. We have nothing which operates with such precision. Our passenger stuff seems crude by comparison.
I don't know it the pantograph was manually raised but understand they lowered automatically when the train started and reach a few mph. But I would assume power was disconnected during the switch over.
Hi Alan. Some are in Scotland working the Fife Circle passenger trains and some are working on the Chiltern services out of Marylebone. The rest crop up as and when, Non have been used in revenue traffic on the Cumbrian Coast yet. Kev
It is hard to believe that there was not one electric freight in all that lot. Where do the 92s and pairs of 86s go!
Quite disgusting that so much mileage under the wires is by diesels! Probably blame Ed Burkhardt for that, as Americans only think diesels for freight.
Yes, and that passenger rail service is the occasional bone thrown to the groveling masses. Sorry, merely personal opinion neither shared nor condoned by our noble politicians.
There are several companies running both freight and passenger operations. Companies have to tender for passenger rail franchises, usually for a particular route.
