Epic German steam race

[Dunluce Castle]

This is simply amazing, I would love to go next year

[video=youtube_share;1t5hraJTkn8]

Imagine the banter between the 2 trains if it happened here

[josefstadt]

Imagine the reaction of both Irish Rail and the Railway Safety Commission if it was even sugested !

[heirflick]

Merlin versus 461? id give good money to see that! mmmmmm.......after thinking about it, i think i would put my money on Merlin! what say you lads?

[minister_for_hardship]

Merlin versus 461? id give good money to see that! mmmmmm.......after thinking about it, i think i would put my money on Merlin! what say you lads?

 

Hardly a contest of equals there, express passenger loco vs. loco designed for goods work.

No 4 vs. Merlin would be more interesting, in a hypothetical Top Gear type challenge.

Edited August 21, 2014 by minister_for_hardship

[heirflick]

No 4 vs. Merlin would be more interesting, in a hypothetical Top Gear type challenge.

 

good point Minister - so who would take the prize?

[leslie10646]

Yeah, it's a "parallelfahrt" - I think that's the word - the Germans were much taken by the idea about 20 years ago.

 

I remember it ruining a high speed run from Bremen to Hamburg in 1988, when the electrically hauled express we were meant to be pacing was running late and stopped us (we were hauled by an oil-burning pacific) roaring along for kilometre after kilometre in the eighties!

 

NOT a race - the idea is that the participants in each train can photo / film the other - as you can see, it doesn't work too well on a simple double track - the one I was on was on four track main line - so you don't get photos of the elbows of fellow suffers! Still, everyone to his own .....

 

It has been done in the UK - once. Around 1989, the then area manager at Salisbury had a big rail weekend - three different locos running steam-hauled trains to Yeovil Junction and back. The crews didn't take a blind bit of notice of the then extant 60mph ceiling for steam, so the "running" was out of this world - ask me when you see me, not for printing!

 

Anyway, the Area Manager's saloon ran a parallelfahrt, for videoists (all in the rear saloon) who paid a lot for the privilege and the idea was that the saloon - hauled by a Class 33 Bo Bo ran on the Up line between Templecombe and Yeovil Jct - would pace a Bullied-Pacific hauled steam train on the down line. The Class 33 was doing a full 75mph when the pacific roared past - the steam crew had slightly different ideas, you see! The passing shot from the saloon was a sight to behold!

 

Happy days.

 

Leslie