It's the Voyager family of DEMUs again, and a shocking discovery

So, Saturday, my first ever trip to the Sunderland International Airshow, a great day out had by me, part of my journey was by road (my motor scooter), part by conventional rail (On British Rail Class 220), and part by light rail (Tyne and Wear Metro, British Rail Class 994), my journey to Newcastle was on Voyager 220012, and for years I've used the CrossCountry service and these trains without thinking about it, although I've always noted that the brake system inefficiently wastes it's energy by routing it to a resistor bank on the roof of each carriage, this is known as rheostatic braking which uses the motors, and in theory could be converted to regenerative braking and thus put the power back into the traction system and save diesel fuel (the trains use the Cummins QSK19 diesel engine, the same basic unit as the horrifically awful and hateful Class 185 except it's connected to an electric generator rather than a gearbox and the wheels).

This braking system has one major safety flaw with it, it can be and has been the cause of fires, 220012 was a victim of this flaw in 2008 with a fire started in the resistor bank, the train was not badly damaged, repaired, then returned to service, or I'd not have travelled on it, finding that information out, especially while I was on said train, was very disturbing, but knowing these incidents are isolated it didn't worry me too much, my return journey was on another, unidentified, member of the Voyager family (no idea if it was a 220 or 221 as I didn't check), my next journey on one of these trains is set to be October, it might be 220012 again, it might not, who knows.

Happy, and fire-free, journeys

41001 lives.... an update

I am updating on yesterday's post where I published that 41001, the sole remaining prototype HST power car, moved under it's own power for the first time in over 30 years, this momentous occasion was filmed on behalf of Project Miller and the 125 Group by a team of professionals, complete with the iconic soundtrack of the Paxman 12RP200L Valenta engine, you will find the video on the Project Miller blog.

41001 lives!

I have just found out via the RSS feed of the blog for Project Miller, the 125 Group's banner under which they are restoring to full working order the sole remaining prototype HST power car 41001, that 41001 has moved under it's own power today on the Great Central Railway (Nottingham) to just outside Brush Traction in  Loughborough, marking the first time in over 30 years it has moved under it's own power, and the first time since 2010 that an operational Paxman 12RP200L Valenta engine has been used in a locomotive since the aforementioned Brush Traction re-engined all operational class 43 power cars, a great day for railways.

it is coming up to two years now since I stood in the cab of 41001 at Railfest and wished the 125 Group all the best in getting 41001 working again, and I am very pleased at how much they have achieved in only two years at both Neville Hill and Ruddington, where the locomotive is now based, I had every faith they'd do it, if and when 41001 returns to York, I will be there to greet it.

Again, a great job to the Project Miller guys and the 125 Group, keep up the good work at getting this icon of railway history in a fully operational state.

And for regular readers, my apologies for not posting anything in over a year, there's been a lot going on for me personally and the railways had taken a back seat sadly, normal service should be resumed