hurricanemk1c

In October I visited Denmark, staying in Copenhagen and travelling around a little bit. Photos include various visits to the central station and Osterport, as well as a trip out to Odense (railway museum) and Middelfart. A highly impressive system. Album link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/hurricanemk1c/albums/72177720313364974/ Regards, Kieran

September 2023 saw me visit Downpatrick (before the floods severely impacted their ability to operate) and participate in the Irish Railway Record Society's "The Token Exchange" railtour from Heuston to Waterford and Limerick Album link - https://flickr.com/photos/hurricanemk1c/albums/72177720312746614/with/53336374563 Regards, Kieran

The current logo was introduced in 2013 so that would match up. I did ask about B2 vehicles at the show, and the answer wasn't a no......

Honestly all I do is look at the 1:1 figure and divide by 76.2, that gives you the scale measurement. It's as simple as that!

I missed Deltics in BR service by 14 years, and closer to 20 for memory purposes. I have 6 Accurascale ones, plus 3 N gauge ones. Just because you don't remember them doesn't mean there's no market. How many remember 4 and 6 wheel carriages in use, yet plenty of models of them?

August 2023 was very quiet for me, with only the second IRRS trip to Heuston Valeting Plant / NTCC and the rescue of 131 from Greystones getting camera attention, mainly from catching up from the Germany trip! Album link - https://flickr.com/photos/hurricanemk1c/albums/72177720312204561 Regards, Kieran

I'm seriously behind on updates at the moment! Germany continues with a look at some movements in Hamburg Hbf Album link - https://www.flickr.com/photos/hurricanemk1c/albums/72177720311264902 Next stop was Berlin, with a nice view from the top of the hotel, a trip to the Deutsche Tecknik Museum and later on Rammstein! Album link - https://www.flickr.com/photos/hurricanemk1c/albums/72177720311455741 And finally for this trip, a trek across Europe by train to get back to London. Berlin-Hannover-Koln-Bruxelles-London St Pancras. It is possible in a day but split my journey in Belgium to get a classic 373 through the tunnel Album link - https://www.flickr.com/photos/hurricanemk1c/albums/72177720311626788 Regards, Kieran

Photos from Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg, a must-see for anyone All photos - https://flickr.com/photos/hurricanemk1c/albums/72177720311143035

Batteries will struggle in rail operation, particularly for freight. If you think of the weight of batteries currently required to move a car at a sensible speed, what about a 780 tonne train up to 75mph? Operating over a busier and busier network where acceleration becomes more and more important, battery tech for large, heavy modes of transport I don't think will be mature enough. A US battery loco was over double the weight of a 201. Yes there's an area for them (shunting ops in yards for example) but I don't believe any real distance could be sensibly covered. And bi-mode locos/units while in theory a clever idea, just means you are always hauling equipment around that you don't need at that point in time.

Continuing my German adventure, Day saw me depart from Köln and head back to Düsseldorf, and then a quick spin to Monchengladbach was in order for family reasons. Day 5 was a trip to Wuppertal, and the famous Schwebebahn railway, and a return to Düsseldorf via Köln. Day 6 was a majority travel day by ICE from Düsseldorf to Hamburg, with various locos seen on the way. The evening saw me head out and back with a pair of 112s in use on Regiobahn services out of Hamburg. Click on the photos to view them full size Album link - https://flickr.com/photos/hurricanemk1c/albums/72177720310998616 Regards, Kieran

July 2023 saw me visit Germany for approximately 10 days, plenty of photos so splitting them up a bit. I arrived late afternoon in Düsseldorf before heading to Köln, which would be my hotel for the next couple of days. The following day I headed down to Speyer, and the Sunday saw me head for the Mohne Dam, catching Train Charter Service's latest purchase in use. Album link - Regards, Kieran Reg

The 8300 are the trailer cars for the 8100 Fleet is 8100, 8200 (withdrawn), 8500, 8521

There's a 3 C3K diagram booked Thursday - Saturday, 0933ish Belfast - Dublin and 1221 return. Frequently mistaken for covering a DD set

Nothing funny about it.Loco hauled trains only start to become more economical after 6/7 vehicles (it varies depending on the actual ones used). Under that it's considerably more efficient to use railcars with distributed traction, for performance, financial and environmental reasons. 7 ICR tests are purely for comissioning the new B2 centre cars Enthusiast wants are rather low on the pecking order for new fleets

They were posted either Thursday or Friday so depends on your mail system. I got mine along with several others on Monday

Apart from your posts from January 2014.........

There's been overnight training and trials too, just because nobody sees it doesn't mean nothing has happened.

I wonder who I took inspiration from!!

Quality books have high prices. If there's substantial new research and it's a topic you're interested in, knock yourself out and buy it. If not, move on. I've bought several books with "high" prices and all, in my opinion, have been worth it for the content.

Easter 2023 saw a long long weekend in The Netherlands, flying over on the Thursday and back the following Wednesday. Primarily for two concerts (Charlotte Wessels in Haarlem and Floor Jansen in Amsterdam), plenty of railway interest too with Traxx+ICRm formations between Amsterdam and Rotterdam/Brussels (although new Alstom ICNG sets are entering traffic), 1700s still on Berlin trains and a fantastic visit to the Spoorwegmuseum (which was having an "open train day" so many exhibits were open). Full album link - https://flickr.com/photos/hurricanemk1c/albums/72177720308734361/page1 Regards, Kieran

Planes can move left, right, up or down out of the way, trains can't. There's failures in comms there too and a set process around it which wouldn't work in a rail environment

Like ETCS Level 3 (in development) or CBTC (in use)? Both are better suited to consistent rolling stock characteristics than the relatively wide mixture of stock in use (a Tara Mines train has very different characteristics to a 85xx DART set). Such systems are not cheap by a long, long, long way, with many systems also having an absolute block system overlaid for when such systems fail. There's a lot that's happened in the last 30 years which has seen far greater service level on pretty much all routes (bar a couple), network expansion and generally reduced average run times. Cork for example has gone down from 2 hours 57 minutes in 1991 to 2 hours 37 minutes today, and increased service level from 16 to 29 services a weekday. That factor is never considered in random comparisons against the best performing trains decades ago and what we have today. Incidentally, while DART+ will have an impact, it will likely be less than people imagine. There's also due to be increased service levels for NIR which is equally never discussed. Always, always DART to blame.

Still not comparing like with like. 2 stops is not 4 stops. That is my point. Now they are 2 hours 12 minutes (generally) with 4 stops on a considerably busier network on both sides of the border, the NIR section in particular never being highlighted as an issue which is equally so due to signalling constraints.

1947 Enterprise was also non stop, compared to four stops, the dwell time alone being 6.5 minutes, and a stop on average costs an extra 2.5 minutes in acceleration and deceleration, so that's 16.5 minutes just for stops. I really hate when people just look at a time and go "oh it was better then" without actually properly comparing them. There has been trains sub two hours in the last year.

Batteries are useless for long distance operation, plus the environmental impact of creating the batteries and recycling them end of life. It's several tonnes extra per vehicle to carry around, and the heavier the vehicle the more energy required to move it. Electrification is the only way to go for proper reductions in emissions and to secure the long-term viability of the railway network. I will admit that some routes (for example the Nenagh branch) wouldn't, at the moment, justify electrification and alternative methods would be possible. That Wabtec loco is 177 tonnes. A 201 is 112 - so 65 tonnes (or approximately a Baby GM) heavier