Northern Rail

[Sprinterdriver]

RE: Northern Rail
It's not like DMU's have never had problems getting going from Thatto Heath! I've known of it and experienced it for several years!

What didn't help the situation with 319374 is that the RHTT hadn't run, so the railhead was worse than could be expected. To be correct the unit didn't have trouble getting power, just transmitting that power to the rail.

When you consider that the size of the area that a wheel has in contact with the rail is about the size of a 50p and you have four axles trying to put down about 1300hp, you are going to have problems on a steep gradient when it's slippy. The units have sanders, but they put sand down by the bogies either side of the power car, there simply isn't room on the PMS for sanders.

As for speeding up journeys, the options are limited, the maximum line speed between Huyton and Wigan is 60mph, so even though a 319 will accelerate more quickly and brake later, it will be a small saving.

SD.