Is This A Surprising Omission?
With the sad passing of Sir Jimmy Savile, the UK has lost an iconic character, who gave more pleasure and did more charitable works than anyone else in recent years.
He was also well-known for his adverts for British Rail, where he promoted the iconic Inter City 125 or High Speed Diesel Train. There’s one of the adverts here.
So why has none of the nearly 200 power cars been given his name? Especially one on the London to Leeds service.
On the other hand, Sir Jimmy may have been asked and said no! Or do we not name trains, whilst people are still alive?
The Anonymous Widower 
The Inter City 125 . . . WOW 125 MPH . . . I was on the team that built the Cairns Tilt Train Hi Speed Diesel . . . along similar Design Lines and on narrow gauge {3′ 6”} but it’s Operating Speed is 160 Kph . . .
Inter City 125 is certainly another Great British Train Design.
Comment by Steam Lover | October 30, 2011 |
These don’t tilt. It’s not bad for a 1967 stop-gap design and because some of the lines they run on will probably never be electrified, like London to Plymouth and Penzance, they’ll probably still be running in the 2040s. Remember too, they are still the fastest passenger diesel trains in the world. The only thing the coaches need is a complete rewiring and the fitting of electrically-powered doors, but that will happen!
According to someone I met in First Great Western customer service, passengers request to travel on them, because the ride is so good.
Their main problem was the smoky Paxman diesels, but these have now been replaced by more modern, quieter, and fuel-efficient units. Sad that they are MTU, but the best rail diesel technology of that large amount of horse power, 2250 bhp, is.
Comment by AnonW | November 1, 2011 |
The Cairns Diesel Tilt Train has two MTU 1600 HP Diesels each end {The same as the cruising diesels as an ANZAC Class Frigate in HMAS} however to make the project more difficult, each of the four diesels have a Turbo Alternator for Electrical Services.
These Electrical services utilse Finnish Computer Software to balance out the Electrical waverforms etc.
When one of the Trains {Consists} did a hard shunt {above 3 kph} the Scharffenburg Coupler for Power / Computers / Communications would never allow correct Electrical Operation & a lot of trouble in Commissioning This Train.
Comment by Steam Lover | November 2, 2011
HSTs are kept as complete sets and geberally aren’t reconfigured except when major maintenance takes place. Most are two power cars with 9 or 11 carriages in between, but some are 2+5 and 2+7. It depends on the route.
Comment by AnonW | November 2, 2011 |