Page 26 - Rail Express - September 2019

PERFORMANCE

Northern’s newbie No. 331105 arrives at
Doncaster on June 28, with atestrun from Leeds
ahead of entering service on July1.
Paul Bickerdyke

Just hownimble aretoday’s

locos and units, and what’s

the quickest off the mark?

Northern hopes its newCAF-built ‘Civity’ units will transform travelinthe North, so Neville Hill went to

Yorkshireinsearch of the Class 331 EMU version.

ATCHING up with brand-new been terminated at WakefieldWestgate, (Class 331/1, formed of twodriving promised forthe AireValleyroutesand
traction can sometimes be butIeventuallycaught up with it there motor cars and twocentretrailer cars) elsewhere. Thesewillpresumablybe
Cunrewarding. Someclasses are after re-routing myself viaSheffield. butthree-car versions (Class331/0) capable of improvingonwhat is already
sidelined with gremlins that appearas Accelerations up the 1-in-100to with just one centre trailer car are anotablygood performance. E
soon as they aretested in frontline Outwood and,coming back, on the
service. Alot depends on good ‘intel’too, 1-in-150 down from Fitzwilliamtowards ADWICK TO BENTLEY
which is less of aproblem in this internet South Elmsall were promising.
agebut, even so, sometimes besetby The 3min latestart from Leeds Unit 331110
‘fakenews’. had stretchedto4½min late from Vehicles/tare/gross tonnes 4/148/152
It had been suggested that just Adwick(nowreopened), so there was Train13.21 Leeds to Doncaster
one of the twoself-contained diagrams every incentivetoput in afull power Date July 3, 2019
neededtoworkthe Leeds-Doncaster effort and60mph wasreached in just Recorder Neville Hill/3rdof4
localswouldbea Class331 and, of 0.37milesand 41.13sec –placing it
course, it wasnot the circuit that fourthinour league table so far. You Miles Location Sch MS MPH
immediatelyconnectedout of my main might think thiswas impressive,but 0.00 Adwick d. 0 0 00 T
line trainatDoncaster. Icould catch it wasslightlydisappointing as a 0.02 009 10
the next local to South Elmsall though, somewhat unspecificonline graph had 0.04 015 20
andthuspick up the ‘331’ on itsinward half-promised a figure below40sec 0.08 019 30
journey,except on this dayall Leeds in the very topechelon of modern 0.14 025 40
services were suspended followinga performance. 0.23 0.31 50
signalling blackout at Adwick. The RE Factorcame outat12527, 0.37 0.41 60
Now, Adwick wasexactly where whichiscomfortablyinthe upper half 0.65 0.56 70/75
Iwantedtobe. ThePennine foothills of ourleague. This figure suggests 2.25 Bentleya 3½ 3.13
create agoodfew sl ping starts, but the unit wasoperatingwellwithin its Notes: Timed to 1/100th of asecond and roundedtonearest full second; 0-30mph distances
thenew stations at dwick and Bentley capabilities,orhighest results(15000+) measured in feet and roundedtonearest 1/100th of amile; Averagespeed calculations to check
offer dead levelterri ory to measurethe beingdominated by older units being the table have used the unrounded figures.
accelerations to 60mph. worked hardontoday’s railway.
TheClass 331 inbound trainhad My ‘331’ hadbeen afour-car version
26 RAIL EXPRESS September 2019