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Post by piccadillypilot on Oct 20, 2005 10:35:36 GMT
Metronet are going to be using nine GB Railfreight Class 66 locos carrying a special livery during renewal of the Met and District lines. tinyurl.com/cfw33Quote: Metronet Rail has announced plans for a ten year, £80m investment to triple track renewal on a third of the London Underground. Of that figure £15m will be spent on new engineering trains and plant. Nine diesel engines and as many as 185 wagons will increase Metronet’s track replacement capacity on the Tube from 15 weekend work sites a year to over 50. The new vehicles will be longer and have greater carrying ability, allowing nine instead of 30 trains to be required. The most up to date track laying and sleeper deployment systems will enable rapid and accurate work. Work on the first track renewals is expected to start on the Metropolitan Line in autumn 2006, with 12 stretches of track set to be renewed in the first year. The new vehicles have been obtained through GB Railfreight, who will operate the trains. John Smith, GB Railfreight’s Managing Director, said: “Metronet’s desire to utilise new high capacity engineering trains will be a major step forward in the speed with which track renewal is progressed.”  (Image from Railstaff) Date: October 11th 2005 End Quote. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 20, 2005 12:34:25 GMT
Are they actually going to paint those 66s in that livery?
I also wonder as to how fast these 66s will be able to go when on the SSL.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 20, 2005 14:24:44 GMT
I also wonder as to how fast these 66s will be able to go when on the SSL. Liine speed, I'd have thought. In my opinion, it wouldn't be safe for a loco as heavy as a class 66 (127 tons) to be exceeding much more than the published line speed due (ironically) to the poor condition and the lie of the tracks! These loco's are very powerful (3300hp) and are capable of 75mph, but they'll bounce off the tracks at that sort of speed, especially at the east end of the District!! (Traction info from Freightliner's website.) |
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Post by piccadillypilot on Oct 20, 2005 15:16:12 GMT
Are they actually going to paint those 66s in that livery? I suspect the colur has suffered in the printing process and that they'll be closer to GBRf's blue. But there again, with the current design fads there are about .... |
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Post by citysig on Oct 20, 2005 19:11:41 GMT
Knowing Metronet, the locos will arrive in GBRf livery (easier to give them back at a later date) and will simply have a small sticker below the driver's window (1 per side). Don't expect too much more.
Several years into PPP and all of a sudden the £80million that was meant to be there from the start, has suddenly been found. Where could it have been sitting one wonders. High-interest off-shore account I wonder? Sorry if I sound too cynical...
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Post by q8 on Oct 20, 2005 19:28:54 GMT
Now we know the TRUE reason for the connection between NR and LUL at Upminster
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Post by Deleted on Oct 20, 2005 22:10:45 GMT
How long is a class 66 loco? The longest cars on SSL are the D stocks at about 60 feet, which I believe is fairly standard mainline size, except that the D stock cars are slightly narrower at the ends (and towards the top) to negotiate the tight curves on some parts of the line at a decent speed. Any bigger and they may have to go very slowly in places, especially if they have to pass through tunnel sections.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 20, 2005 23:41:29 GMT
I've done a quick google search and been able to answer my own question:
Length : 70ft 0 1/2in (21.4m)
Width: 8ft 81/4in (2.65m)
And for a D stock (from Tubeprune):
Length: 60ft 4in (18.4m)
Width: 9ft 4in (2.85m)
A stocks are wider at 9ft 8in (2.95m) so these locos are actually quite narrow, but is that extra 10' in length going to make it round the curves? Presumably someone has checked it!
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towerman
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Post by towerman on Oct 21, 2005 0:15:47 GMT
I've heard the stabling/maintenance facility is actually going to be at Wellingborough on some old railway land to the north of the station.I would think the trains would access LUL via Thameslink and NLL and possibly WLL.
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Post by russe on Oct 21, 2005 0:23:46 GMT
...so these locos are actually quite narrow, but is that extra 10' in length going to make it round the curves? Presumably someone has checked it! Between bogie centres on a Class 66 is 43'6", so I reckon centre throw could be more of a problem than end throw. Quite why Metronet thinks it needs the expense of hiring 6600 horsepower to top and tail each engineering train beats me, but that seems to be the common practice networkrail-wise these days. Half a dozen Panniers would do the job just as well! More seriously, why can't the battery locos deal with this work? Russ |
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Post by Colin on Oct 21, 2005 3:21:26 GMT
The thing that interests me about this fancy plan is the amount of possesions they'll suddenly want - huge swathes of line closed at the weekends for engineering work. That'll go down well with the punters!!  Mind you saying that - they have huge possesions now, and manage to replace a platforms length in a whole weekend.  |
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Post by q8 on Oct 21, 2005 3:32:45 GMT
Ah! Colin you should have been around in the 50's when sunday possesions were taken for track replacement. They were done with trains STILL RUNNING.. They would work on one track and trains would run both ways at reduced service using the other. ('Rule's for single line working' covered it.)
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Post by Colin on Oct 21, 2005 3:42:09 GMT
Can't help wondering why the District has to be suspended while they replace the Picc tracks at Barons Court/Hammersmith. Afterall, they can do it on Network Fail Rail. No doubt it's a HMRI/HSE thing |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 21, 2005 4:52:52 GMT
Can't help wondering why the District has to be suspended while they replace the Picc tracks at Barons Court/Hammersmith. Afterall, they can do it on Network Fail Rail. No doubt it's a HMRI/HSE thing Maybe it's to try and fool our District punters into believing that we're getting new track as well!! |
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Post by igelkotten on Oct 21, 2005 10:04:13 GMT
The Cl.66 in it's Swedish incarnation (two locos run by freight operator TGOJ) has received quite a lot of criticism for being a track-killer. I can't help but to wonder what those heavy three-axle bogies will do to the track on the Met & District, which I gather from several rants on this board passim has a track quality that at times leaves something to be desired. Perhaps it will at least straighten out all those pesky curves?   |
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Post by citysig on Oct 22, 2005 12:21:11 GMT
Can't help wondering why the District has to be suspended while they replace the Picc tracks at Barons Court/Hammersmith. Afterall, they can do it on Network Fail Rail. No doubt it's a HMRI/HSE thing It's an infraco thing. The contractors they hire can never guarantee that the adjacent (running) lines will not be obstructed. The installation of additional protection would be time consuming, and as you said, it already takes a weekend for them to replace short lengths. In actual fact it's now rare to have National Rail using one line whilst another is replaced close by. |
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Post by stanmorek on Oct 30, 2005 14:40:16 GMT
These new locos are heavier than any of the battery locos used between Acton Town and Barons Court and at least one bridge requires strengthening (Ravenscourt Pk) between there.
If you're talking about the recent weekend possessions between Earl's Court and Acton Town, contractor's were working on four roads at Chiswick Park carrying out bridge strengthening (the same where a battery loco derailed 2 years ago) and P-way were resleepering between Turnham Green and Gunnersbury. Single line bi-directional running would be possible but I can't see that being done as it would require a possession itself to install the junctionwork and resignalling.
I'd imagine the track replacement works at Barons Court would have road railers and ballast trains parked on the District line. Given the furor over last years overruns on the Picc line, Metronet and Balfour Beatty would be under considerable pressure to avoid a repeat. Back in the June possession I saw half of the engineer trains turned back early still fully laden with new ballast and track. Somewhere someone would've taken the decision not to commit to starting work that couldn't be finished in time. At one point Balfours got so paranoid that they were barring other contractors from working in their possession so as to keep the route clear for their trains.
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