Train of the Week

The Class MY (and MX ) is a very familiar looking locomotive to us North Americans (well, and Australians too I suppose). The Class MY was built by Swedish firm NOHAB between 1954 and 1965 for the Danish State Railways (DSB) which began the replacement of steam locomotives. As the shape of the locomotive's nose might suggest, the unit was indeed powered by the famous EMD 567. The 3-axle trucks also resemble American design. The A1A-A1A wheel arrangement suggests truck design of the MY is similar to the E-unit . The Class MY gets 1,700-1,950 hp and weighs 112 tons. A lighter but otherwise close resembling Class MX (1,425-1,445 hp, 98 tons) was ordered by the DSB to be used in territories where MY was deemed too heavy. The top speed of the Class MY is 83 mph. Copies of the MY and MX (and similar locomotives of different classes) have been preserved and are still in working condition today in a few European countries. One unit, Swedish TÅGAB 106 was featured in the movie Da...

The Xplorer and Endeavour are mechanically identical diesel multiple units used by Australian passenger rail operators CountryLink and CityRail respectively. The DMU came in 2- to 4-car flavors and are built by ABB (now Bombardier) between early and mid 1990s in Australia. A total of about 50 cars were built for the two railroads to be used on a total of 8 lines. CountryLink Xplorer at Sydney Central Station Interior of coach class Given that these are diesel electric multiple units, each car is equipped with a 514 horsepower Cummings diesel engine coupled to hydraulic transmission made by Voith Turbo. A separate 181 hp Cummings engine powered auxiliaries such as air conditioning and lighting. Top speed of the DMU is 100 mph but capped at 90 in service. The DMU first saw service on the CountryLink in 1993 with full deployment on both railroads in 1996. The sets were refurbished in 2009. Interior of the CityRail Endeavour

The E44 is one of the handful of electric locomotives to haul freight along the mainlines of North America. Built by the General Electric Company in the early 1960s, the E44 replaced the not-so-satisfactory P5a (which we shall discuss at a later date) for the legendary Pennsylvania Railroad . The E44 was based on the (later known as E33), which the Virginian Railway seemed to have found ample success with. Unlike electric locomotives designed for passenger use in North America, the freight electric looked almost identical to diesel-electrics with the narrow long hood arrangement (well, except for, of course, the pantographs sticking out of the roof). The 6 traction motors of the E44 pumped out a total of 4,400 horsepower (some were upgraded to E44a and had a whopping 5,000 hp), which was remarkable at the time, when diesel-electric units in the same era, such as the General Motors SD18, only did about 1,800. Since the E44 is a freight unit, we are interested in her weight an...

This week we will feature the little brother of the famous British Rail Class 55 "Deltic" locomotive. Dubbed the "Baby Deltic", the Class 23 is just about half of everything the Class 55 offers. Equipped with a 9 cylinder Napier Deltic engine, the 4-axle unit produces 1,100 horsepower and has a top speed of 75 mph. Locomotive builder English Electric produced a total of 10 units in 1959. The Baby Deltic started life on the slower suburban passenger services. Like the Deltic, the Baby Deltic also suffered its share of reliability problems , but according to sources (i.e. Wikipedia, LOL), the problems have mostly been worked out through the 1960s. Sadly, no Class 23 has been preserved. However a replica is being built by Project Baby Deltic as we speak. More pictures are available on Napier Chronicles .

This week let’s look at another Desiro trainset designed for operations in the UK. We’ve talked about two series used in the UK so far, the Class 350 for London Midlands, and the 185 Pennine Desiro . This week feature is the Class 380, used in Scotland by First ScotRail . The Class 380 was intended to be used on the Glasgow Airport Rail Link , but due to public spending cuts, the line was canceled and the Desiros have been dispatched onto the Ayrshire Coast Line , Inverclyde Line , and the North Berwick Line all linking Glasgow Central. Class 380 featured at Railfest 2012 Two flavors of the Class 380 are currently available, one with a 3-car consist, and one with 4-car. A total of 38 sets have been purchased, all of which have been built between 2009 and 2011 at Siemens’ plant in Krefeld, Germany. Like the other Desiro series trains in the UK, the top speed of the Class 380 in service is 100 mph. Very nice and modern looking cabin