transpress nz

Saturday, April 28, 2012

from the library - 'Two Miles a Minute'

With an output of over 140 books and 1,000 magazine articles on railways during his life, O.S. Nock, Ollie Nock, or to give his full name, Oswald Stevens Nock (1905–1994), was Britain's equivalent of Brian Solomon. This one was published in 1980 about the major development in British passenger trains at the time, the InterCity 125, the brand name of British Rail's High Speed Train or HST fleet, introduced in 1976. Brochures and TV advertisements appeared to accompany it, proclaiming "this is the age of the train", and it certainly was a talking point in the UK at the time.

The name InterCity 125 came from the train's top authorised speed of 125 mph or 204 km/h - according to train.wikia.com the actual top speed is 148 mph (238 km/h). It comprised two Bo-Bo type power cars, one at each end of a fixed formation of Mark 3 carriages. Being diesel-powered, unlike similar developments in France (the TGV) and elsewhere, it was available on Britain's non-electrified lines and it was the world's fastest diesel-powered train in regular service at the time of its introduction and for many years afterwards.

Officials of NSW's then Public Transport Commission were suitably impressed by it, and decided to order a variant of it for use there (a total of 19 power cars and 60 carriages), which began running in 1980. The British design was significantly modified, with the power cars shorter, the engines down-rated from the British 2250 hp, and air filters and the cooling system modified for hot and dusty Australian conditions; additionally the carriages were based on a Budd design, rather than the British Rail Mark 3 coaches.

In Britain, 95 HST sets including 197 Class 43 power cars were built between 1976 and 1982. More Mark 3 coaches were built in the 1980s for the Western Region Class 253s, to make them eight-car rakes in common with those used on East Coast and Midland Main Line services. During the 1990s only the Cross-Country sets remained as seven-car rakes, with just one first-class carriage.

After 36 years since their introduction the majority of the HST fleet is still in revenue service under privatisation - although the InterCity 125 brand name is rarely mentioned officially by the private Train Operating Companies - and still forms the backbone of express services on several British main lines. Most are expected to be replaced within the present decade by the InterCity Express (IEP) programme, but a number will continue in use on London to Devon and Cornwall services, where there are no plans to electrify the lines. Engineers from the companies responsible have calculated that, with a certain amount of rewiring, the Mark 3 carriages used can be made to last until at least 2035.

Ollie Nock's book also covered the experimental Advanced Passenger Train, which was an embarrassing failure, a separate post about that soon.