Inter City 125 / HST
Discussion
itcaptainslow said:
P5BNij said:
There’s a wall of pictures like this at my old depot one of the foreman has taken the time to collate and display. Sad quite a few of my colleagues who are new to the railway take no interest. 
Southerner said:
rockin said:
Strange but true - one of the oddities of these high speed marvels was that until very recently the toilets still discharged straight onto the track bed...
Urban anorak legend goes that somewhere was a tunnel, presumably with less clearance than most, in which it was discovered that two HSTs passing one another at full tilt would experience the bogs operating 'in reverse' shall we say......as in, you'd get a bit wet, due to the effects of the air pressure 
. So the speed through the tunnel had to be reduced accordingly!
matchmaker said:
miniman said:
rockin said:
Strange but true - one of the oddities of these high speed marvels was that until very recently the toilets still discharged straight onto the track bed...
I don’t think any of the Mk3 coaches were ever converted to tank s
tters were they?Super Josh said:
I remember going on one of the early ones as a ten year old boy, when we went on a school trip to west Wales. Getting excited as the teacher was timing it between the mile markers and calculating the speed for us at around ~120 MPH 
Josh
Remember similar going to London.Josh
On the way there it was towed by a loco.
Coming home only the rear engine worked…
Southerner said:
itcaptainslow said:
P5BNij said:
There’s a wall of pictures like this at my old depot one of the foreman has taken the time to collate and display. Sad quite a few of my colleagues who are new to the railway take no interest. Great video from the National Railway Museum giving a tour of their 125, for anyone that's not seen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeD_2-PVVKg&ab...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeD_2-PVVKg&ab...
Gareth1974 said:
Southerner said:
itcaptainslow said:
P5BNij said:
There’s a wall of pictures like this at my old depot one of the foreman has taken the time to collate and display. Sad quite a few of my colleagues who are new to the railway take no interest. P5BNij said:
Gareth1974 said:
Southerner said:
itcaptainslow said:
P5BNij said:
There’s a wall of pictures like this at my old depot one of the foreman has taken the time to collate and display. Sad quite a few of my colleagues who are new to the railway take no interest. t link one trope of ' boil in the bag drivers only in it for the money' whilst systematically being the last person to do any shunts so you can go home. Door swings both ways. 
Rich1973 said:
Another trip to Alfreton this morning for the last day of Midland Mainline HSTs.
Both sets out.
Red set was first followed by the 'celebrity' set.
Good turn out to mark the occasion.
Some great pics there. I took a run to Leicester and on to Notts for the last rites a few weeks back. Busy then too!Both sets out.
Red set was first followed by the 'celebrity' set.
Good turn out to mark the occasion.
Southerner said:
Flying Phil said:
I did some short HST rides in the last couple of weeks - and the seats are still much more comfortable than in the 222 units!
And the seats on the 222s are uber-luxury compared to the Hitachi 800 stuff that's swiftly replacing everything else! 
miniman said:
Southerner said:
Flying Phil said:
I did some short HST rides in the last couple of weeks - and the seats are still much more comfortable than in the 222 units!
And the seats on the 222s are uber-luxury compared to the Hitachi 800 stuff that's swiftly replacing everything else! ). The GWR stuff was refurbished back when capacity was everything, hence the rows and rows of airline seats. They weren't overly popular at first, but they're luxury compared some of the current stuff - including their replacements, sadly!
IJWS15 said:
I think it is hilarious that anyone would describe these as reliable . . .
The only reason they managed to keep any sort of timetable with them was that there had an engine at each end so could keep moving when one failed.
In the early 80s there were normally 5-10 power cars running around the country with dead engines in them waiting for an overhauled unit, they had to run them dead or take the whole set out of service.
It was a bit of a challenge and couldn't overcome the crap engine design but a massive programme of oil sampling (every power car every 48 hours IIRC) and phonecalls to the op. centre to get a message out to the driver to stop an engine if certain elements in the oil passed specific levels meant less of the failures were catastrophic. Most common failure resulted in all the coolant in the sump with the oil together with one of the pistons Frequently there was a hole in the crankcase and sometimes a dent in the locomotive sidewall. Terrible engine design not suited to this application.
I was involved with them several times while with BR and one of the privatised consultancies.
They did trial some Mirrlees Blackstones to replace the Valentas but one was badly damaged just outside Paddington in an accident and I believe rail privatisation resulted in it going no further.
At least the coaches didn't have MA sets but were 415V 3 phase from a secondary alternator on the engine. You just needed a 3ft tall fitter with 8ft long arms to maintain them.
It wasn’t really the engine design that was the problem; but the application as you also suggested.The only reason they managed to keep any sort of timetable with them was that there had an engine at each end so could keep moving when one failed.
In the early 80s there were normally 5-10 power cars running around the country with dead engines in them waiting for an overhauled unit, they had to run them dead or take the whole set out of service.
It was a bit of a challenge and couldn't overcome the crap engine design but a massive programme of oil sampling (every power car every 48 hours IIRC) and phonecalls to the op. centre to get a message out to the driver to stop an engine if certain elements in the oil passed specific levels meant less of the failures were catastrophic. Most common failure resulted in all the coolant in the sump with the oil together with one of the pistons Frequently there was a hole in the crankcase and sometimes a dent in the locomotive sidewall. Terrible engine design not suited to this application.
I was involved with them several times while with BR and one of the privatised consultancies.
They did trial some Mirrlees Blackstones to replace the Valentas but one was badly damaged just outside Paddington in an accident and I believe rail privatisation resulted in it going no further.
At least the coaches didn't have MA sets but were 415V 3 phase from a secondary alternator on the engine. You just needed a 3ft tall fitter with 8ft long arms to maintain them.
I’ve built, tested and rebuilt a few , quite a few returns from BR.
From memory the trains cooling systems weren’t up to the task.
We had some rebuilt and running on the testbeds at over 110 degrees on the water jackets, just to try and replicate the BR issues.
It’s true, we had a few unexpected crankcase ventilation mods.... but not that many.
Treated properly, and not left idling for hours on end in the sheds would also have helped, having witnessed the BR sheds and operations, I’m confident they as in BR simply didn’t know what they were expected to do with them.
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