The Anonymous Widower

The Class 88s are Coming

according to this article in the International Railway Journal, the first Class 88 locomotive has been moved to a test track in the Czech Republic.

The article also says this.

The four-axle class 88 has a maximum output of 4MW under 25kV 50Hz ac electric traction and 700kW under diesel power, delivering tractive effort of 317kN in both modes. The 160km/h units are equipped with regenerative braking and will have a 500kW electric train heating rating.

So it looks like, the locomotive like its cousin, the Class 68 locomotive, which is used by Chiltern Railways, can also be used on passenger trains.

As Chiltern have shown hitching a rake of refurbished Mark 3 coaches and a driving van trailer to a diesel locomotive makes for a very acceptable train for passengers and operator alike.

Creating such a train using a Class 88 locomotive would be at least as good and it could work efficiently on electrified lines.

It would be doing a similar job to to the bi-mode Class 800 trains destined for the East Coast Main Line and Great Western Main Line.

The specification would be different and this might suit some mainstream or niche operators better.

• It would only be a 100 mph, rather than a 125 mph train.
• The length of the train and its configuration could be geared to the operator’s needs.

So which of the train operating companies, could use a new electro-diesel passenger locomotive with bags of grunt?

Direct Rail Services

Direct Rail Services ordered the first batch of Class 88 locomotives, so they must have a business plan.

Still owned by the Government, they have a main duty of moving nuclear flasks around the country, but they seem to be developing a business of spotting gaps in the locomotive market and specifying suitable locomotives and ordering them. Wikipedia has a section on the use of Class 68 locomotives, which says this.

The Class 68 is a mixed-traffic locomotive intended for use on both passenger and freight trains. DRS has a contract with VSOE to provide locomotives for its Northern Belle service. DRS has indicated that the locomotives will likely be used on container traffic, and on Network Rail trains for which it is contracted to operate, but that they will not be used on nuclear flask trains.

The first passenger trains hauled by Class 68s were DRS special services for the 2014 Ryder Cup at Gleneagles.

Chiltern Railways have sub-leased six Class 68s from December 2014, which have replaced Class 67s on its Chiltern Main Line services between London and Birmingham. These are painted in Chiltern mainline silver livery and are fitted with Association of American Railroads (AAR) push-pull equipment to allow them to operate with Mark 3 coaching stock sets. Two DRS-liveried locomotives (68008 and 68009) have also been fitted with AAR push-pull equipment.

You could sum up DRS’s use of Class 68s, as providing a smart diesel locomotive for quality passenger services.

I suspect use of the Class 88 locomotive will be similar.

East Anglia

The new East Anglia franchise must be a good prospect.

Up to at least the 1970s, there were regular services from London to Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft and I can remember in the late 1970s getting the train from Woodbridge direct to London, at least a couple of times.

And it was no clapped multiple unit, but a proper rake of Mark 2 coaches, that included a buffet car, with a big diesel locomotive on the front.

There has been speculation that the new franchise would include direct services between London to Lowestoft, but as the route is not electrified from Ipswich, an alternative type of train must be used.

The tender document for the franchise gives the operator a way to provide these services. It says this.

Improve the quality of trains running on East Anglia’s network, providing a modern service with state of the art trains – extra points will be awarded to bidders who include plans to trial new technologies in rolling stock.

In my view there are two ways to provide a Lowestoft service, that would score extra points.

• Use an IPEMU, charging the on-board energy storage between London and Ipswich and at Lowestoft.
• Use a Class 88 locomotive on a rake of Mark 3 coaches and a driving van trailer.

I suspect, that the operator would extend an appropriate number of London to Ipswich services to Lowestoft.

The IPEMU would probably be at maximum energy storage range, but the Class 88 locomotive option, would give them other possibilities.

• They could replace the 1980s-built Class 90 locomotives on Norwich services, where necessary.
• London to Norwich services could be selectively extended to Great Yarmouth.
• They could run an alternative London to Norwich service via Cambridge, either as a regular service or when the Great Eastern Main Line is having one of its many blockades.

It should also be noted that the power of a Class 90 locomotive is only 930kW, which is less than a quarter of the Class 88 locomotive, working in electric mode and just 230kW less when in diesel mode.

I don’t know anything about how the power of the locomotive affects journey times, but it could help the operator achieve the much-wanted Norwich-in-Ninety and Ipswich-in-Sixty targets.

But the regenerating braking of the modern locomotive, must surely contribute to energy savings.

One problem that the East Anglian operator wouldn’t have is a shortage of coaches and driving van trailers, as they have 130 and 16 respectively of each.

But they would need to upgrade the coaches, so they met the latest access and disability regulations, but as Chiltern have shown, this is not only possible, but creates one of the best railway coaches in the world.

They may need to lengthen a few platforms, but that will be needed whatever trains are used.

In the future, Class 800/801 trains or another manufacturer’s equivalent will probably work the long-distance services, but there is a gap of a few years to fill, by which time the Class 88-hauled trains will hopefully have defined the market.

I estimate that direct trains from Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft to London, could be up to twenty minutes quicker than the current services, once Norwich-in-Ninety was achieved. Given other examples of increased passenger usage after this type of speed improvement, I’m sure the potential operators have a handle for the increased revenue that would result and will bid accordingly.

The Two Virgins

I doubt whether Virgin West Coast and Virgin East Coast will have too much use for a Class 88 locomotive pulling a rake of coaches and a driving van trailer.

It would probably not be fast enough to mix it with the current 125 mph trains on their routes, but there might be particular operations for which such a train would be an affordable solution.

One that comes to mind, is running the direct service between Euston and Holyhead, if it ever needed more capacity on the route.

But what do I know?

East Midlands Trains

The routes run by East Midlands Trains will be electrified in the next decade and as the electrification grows out of London to the North, they may have a temporary need for a train, that can run on both electrified and non-electrified lines.

They could probably hire in a Class 800 train, but a Class 88 and a rake of coaches would be an alternative.

Chiltern Railways

Chiltern Railways already run six Class 68 locomotives, which is a diesel cousin of the Class 88. So when services start to the electrified Milton Keynes in a couple of years, a Class 88 could be used on these services to take advantage of the wires at the Northern end.

Conclusion

The Class 88 locomotive will probably be a very good niche locomotive for passenger trains, especially if it is as well-received as the Class 68.

But it could be a very large niche!

April 16, 2016 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Class 88 Locomotive