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Re: Would an NR be faster than an XPT???



Michael Walker wrote:

> Just out of interest, especially given all the talk of late about High
> Speed Trains, would an NR with a suitably modified or built carriage set
> be able to better XPT times between Melbourne and Sydney if allowed the
> speed or indeed on any track, especially that with adverse gradients?

No.  The limiting factor of speed is curves.  It wouldn't matter how many
horses were on the front, the train would still have to go slowly around
curves.

> Also along the same lines, since the NR locos have been pulling the
> Indian Pacific, have they been able to cut much time off the times
> achieved when pulled by CLPs? I understand that they are unlikely to do
> more than what the table allows when the train is on time but on one of
> the many occasions they have been delayed, has there been any remarkable
> feats of reducing late running by powering a little more than usual?

 No.  I chased it the other day, and it lost nearly half an hour between
Penrith and Lithgow.  This was due to the fact that they chose to run a
single NR (4,000 HP) on the consist, as opposed to two CLPs (6,000 HP).  A
16 car Indian Pacific on 1 in 30 would have to be getting close to the full
goods load of an NR wouldn't it?

--
David Johnson
CityRail Guard
trainman@ozemail.com.au
http://www.ozemail.com.au/~trainman/