Inter City Trains in the UK
The UK has a population of nearly 3 times that of Canada, and
given the fact that over 90% of Britons live in urban areas (typical
for most western countries) this means there are about 60 cities
that are connected by rail with intercity services. Smaller towns
and villages are connected with local services called regional
railways. Inter-city trains are express trains stopping only at
city stations usually with high speed.
Inter City Trains in the UK are pulled by the following Classes:
See Also: A list of classes of Locomotives in the UK
Why don't only the fastest trains only operate inter city
services?
Well, it would be great if the class 91 could operate everywhere
in the UK, but it can't. The East coast mainline is the only stretch
of railway (400 miles long) that has been upgraded to cope with
these speeds. Also being an electric train it only runs on the
electrified railways. Also there are only 31 of these locomotives
in existence, clearly not enough for the whole UK
The Inter-City 125 has a great advantage. Although not amazingly
fast it can run on all railways, and there are a very large number
of them, 196 of these trains exist. This is just as well, because
for diesel routes the only substitute is the much slower class
47
Class 43:
See: The Inter-City 125
This was built as a diesel express
engine in 1960s. It has a top speed of 95 mph, which was used
for intercity services before the inter-city 125 became widespread.
Journey times were a lot worse in those days, about 50% more than
today. Because of the sheer number of these engines still around,
over 300, they are still used for shorter haul intercity services
along with ic125 trains, to increase frequency on timetables.
Then people have to option to wait for the faster train, or take
the slow one. These engines are now used heavily for freight.
Also now that DMUs can travel at 90 mph this engine is not really
needed much more. Still travel along some obscure intercity route
at off peak hours and you might be in with a chance of being pulled
by this loco. Aside from the class 43, this is the only diesel
locomotive used to haul intercity trains.
High Speed Train? For a diesel its fairly fast but not really
high speed, with the class 43 the engine is fairly obsolete as
a form of high speed passenger transport.
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This engine was one of the
first mainline electric loco in the UK to be built, designed to
take advantage of the extensive electrification along the west
coast in the 1960s. These engines have a maximum speed of 100
mph, and are still useful because the class 91 doesn't travel
on the west coast line, although primarily for freight services,
but it does get used for the occasional intercity services, although
the class 87 and 90 are its main competitors.
This is one of the more widely
used engines for passenger inter-city services along the west
coast mainline in the UK. Designed as an upgrade from the class
86. Visually its almost indistinguishable from the class 86 however
there are differences which are important. It is more powerful
than the 86, and more importantly it is faster with a top speed
of 110 mph. This was introduced into service in 1973, and will
be removed from service in 2002 when the west coast upgrade program
High Speed Train? Yes just about. When it was built it certainly
was the fastest locomotive around but most "conventional"
trains like DMUs and EMUs cannot currently travel in excess of
90mph and 100 mph respectively. It is certainly the fastest train
operating along the west coast mainline.
There was only ever one class
89 built. It was a pre-class 91 experimental engine, with a top
speed of 125 mph. The reason why no others were built is because
the class 91 was the eventual outcome. The engine is used for
intercity from London to Leeds. This is perhaps a case of an experiment
gone wrong, but wasn't thrown away.
High Speed Train? Yes - not very fast comparitavly but one of
the faster engines, although part of the reason why this class
was abandoned was because a better speed was expected, more like
140 mph in commercial use however, that is where the class 91
came in.
In the 1980s British Rail wanted
to build some more class 87s. It was realised that the 87 has
no aerodynamics which are important at 110 mph, so it was decided
to give it a slightly more streamlined outlook. Although it is
hard to see from the picture there is a cab at both ends of the
locomotive. Often this is used for freight services, for which
it is limited to 75mph. The class 91 looks similar to this engine,
however the front is slightly more slanted, and it only slants
at one end.
High Speed Train? See Class 87
Class 91
See The Inter-City 225