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Post by tom2506 on Oct 9, 2005 12:28:13 GMT
I was browsing the web and came across this www.rrbike.freeservers.com/PgRBLNK.htm. The second link on the page has a picture and says that London Underground bought 10 of these bikes. Has anyone ever sen them being used? |
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Post by q8 on Oct 9, 2005 12:35:22 GMT
Oh man does that bring back memories. They had those on LTE in the days of the 'Fluffers' The foreman of works would ride the section worked on at the cessation of work to make sure that all personnell and equipment had been removed from the tunnels. One thing about them though is that they would not put a track circuit down owing to an insulated axle.
The LTE version however did not have rubber tyres but small flanged rail wheels in a triangle configuration (there was also a four wheel variant made by Acton works) and I was told that a guy once raced down from St Johns Wood by just getting going and see how far it would roll. Apparently it went down the hill at a fair old rate of knots and and only stopped on the bend into Piccadilly Circus.
I saw one a couple of times when doing night spare at the Elephant in the 70's and even had a go along the length of the platform for the fun of it. They were quite heavy but not hard to push. Thanks for the memory Tom.
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Tom
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Signalfel?
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Post by Tom on Oct 9, 2005 13:17:55 GMT
Seen them being used? No. There were a few issues surrounding their use, not least that you had to be a Protection Master to ride it, could only go at a certain speed, etc etc...
However, during my time on the Bakerloo I did come across them (sitting in one of our store rooms) and found them to be rather heavy and immobile. The track manager that bought them had moved on to bigger and better things and the idea got shelved. However, some of the LU staff magazines did have a photo of the bike in use, with my old signal support manager riding it.
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Post by tom2506 on Oct 9, 2005 14:03:46 GMT
Were they only for use with traction current off?
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Tom
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Post by Tom on Oct 9, 2005 16:07:06 GMT
Yes, yu could only use them during Engineering Hours.
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