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On his hobby horse, that is, as GNER come up with a characteristically off the wall idea
Tucked away in a Great North Eastern Railway press release were details of the traction and rolling stock plans in the company's franchise replacement bid. Buy 25 Pendolinos ho hum, refurbish the IC225s yawn, buy 10 diesel locomotives to replace the HSTs which will be life expired at 30 years old in 2007 now that's more like it!
So I asked GNER's ever helpful press office what these locos would do. Well, the intention is that they would haul IC225s from where the electrification stops up into Scotland and to Hull for example.
Hmm. The aim would be to couple the loco onto the Class 91 or Driving Van Trailer at Edinburgh say, and vroom, vroom, off we go.
Hmm again. Hauling an IC225 at a respectable pace while providing hotel power' for on board services would call for a lot of horses. Oh yes, GNER tell me it would be nice if the loco could run at 140mile/h too.
Meanwhile, Virgin Trains has issued a Notice in the Official Journal of the European Communities calling for bids for Thunderbird diesel locos to haul its Pendolini when the power is off or even rescue a dead Pendolino (sorry Alstom/Fiat I know you are committed to 60,000 miles per casualty but better safe than sorry)
Now I suppose you could have the usual Class 47 Thunderbirds, but if you have absorbed the above WCML items it will be clear that there could be a lot of Pendolino towing in the next five years.
According to Chris Green We shall be seeking Japanesestyle reliability which points us towards a modern fleet capable of high speed operation'.
So what have we got on the shelf for both duties? Well, an ETH fitted Class 66 wouldn't have the oomph or speed. An ETH fitted Class 67 would have the speed but not the oomph, nor the adhesion on four axles to haul a dead Pendolino at speed over Shap on a slippy day.
So, sorry about this, but what we need is a 4,500hp (minimum) high speed diesel loco. Yes I know I've been saying this since 1966, but if GNER is serious (which is always a wise caveat) and if Virgin know what they face on the WCML over the next five to seven years, then the time has come.
First, you can't buy such a loco off the shelf. Second it will be very expensive probably twice as much as a cheap but very cheerful class 66. Third, forget the idea of coupling and uncoupling at Edinburgh and Doncaster .
While you can do all sorts of clever things down the train line these days, the one thing that can really upset the electrons is a bit of dirt or a bent pin in a mechanical coupler. And the more you couple and uncouple the more risk of trouble.
No, what GNER should do is replace the Driving Van Trailer on its off the wires IC225 sub-fleet with a Class 69 Co-Co power car. What sort of power car? Well my chums at Loughborough were thinking of a Class 92 with an 18 cylinder Paxman VP185 in it. For power car duty we could give it an SFE at the uncoupled end.
Now 140mile/h is a bit OTT. And I could see quibbles about a Co-Co. To which I say, pish tush'. Britain 's greatest loco designer, the late great John Dowling reckoned that there was nothing difficult about a 125mile/h three axle bogie and Brush, who are crash hot on bogies, proved it with the Class 89. As John would have said, it's only the PhD and Bar merchants at Derby Research who can't cope only with Bo-Bos.
So there we are. If GNER means it (usual caveats again) they must start talking seriously about the means to their end. And an electro-diesel 225 makes a lot of sense. Apart from keeping running when the wires are down or when the Class 91 has a poorly thyristor, just think of the performance boost.
We all have happy memories of the Class 91 testing when they were used to replace one power car on an IC125. The rear power car was operational and you didn't half scoot up Holloway Bank with the diesel at the back firing and the electric at the front wiring.
So give a 225 another 4000hp for traction and making up time would be considerably easier.
Virgin, of course, need their Thunderbirds in 2002, which is too soon for the Class 69. But they could start with some class 57s as an interim measure and then switch to real muscle long term. And if they win the InterCity East Coast franchise they might pick up the GNER idea and get some economy of scale from two fleets.
Then there is the longer term. What are we going to do about traction for GWUG around 2010. What's GWUG? Why the Great Western Up-Grade.
Assuming electrification is off the agenda, you could re-engineer IC125s, with things like up graded or more modern bogies, new air conditioning, power doors and VP185s in the power cars.
But if you truly believe in passenger growth and the future of railways we ought to have the vision of the great traction engineers of the 1960s and 70s. So, how about a second generation High speed Diesel Train? How about 26 metre coaches with 10 car formations? With a 4500hp power car at each end such capacity is not a problem.
Now, I know my grown up engineering chums will see this as Ford fantasising again. But I don't see anyone, except Angel Trains with their re-engineered Future IC125 concept even thinking about requirements, such as Thunderbirding a Pendolino at commercially viable speeds over the Northern fells, let alone GWUG.
And yet the Virgin and GNER requirements are closer to us today than the start of privatisation. The writing is on the wall.