I saw 142003 at Lime Street, shoved in the corner behind a pair of 156s and a Pendolino.Managed to capture 142003 looking very smart as it passed Manchester Oxford Road. Looks like it’s going to get held up however at Chester due to an issue near Rhyl. Currently all coast bound TFW’s services are being held at Chester.
I wonder whether the issue at Rhyl is weather-related? Storm Agnes is due to make landfall any time now.
Good video! I noticed that the rear car has acquired fairly bad wheel flats since the outward trip. Harsh braking in the rain perhaps?
I've just seen it fairly slowly limping past Frodsham and the wheel flat now seems to be even worse, could still be heard thumping along well over two minutes after it had passed. Certainly doesn't sound healthy, how fitting for a pacer's first railtour that it's already worse for wear
It had a bit of a slide approaching Colwyn Bay on the outbound. Fitter passed it as fit to run while it was at Llandudno, but the flats have got louder and louder since then.
The problem is that once you get a sizeable wheel flat, every time you brake - especially in slippery conditions - the flat finds the railhead and slides even more, thus making it bigger with every stop. In my driving days we had an unofficial way of rounding-off smallish flats on tread-braked units....which was to make a step one brake application with power applied. Any higher brake application would cut-off the power on a 14x or 15x unit.
Even louder now passing Earlestown, sounds extremely unhealthy but seems like it's still ploughing through it, classic Pacer resilience
Let's hope the tyre doesn't fall off before it gets back to Wilmslow (....or Crewe)! Another problem with a major flat like that is that it has the potential to cause serious rail head damage. If it passes through a Network Rail 'wheelchex' detector, it may well be stopped and have to shunt into a siding. In a worst case scenario, you could be looking at being towed back to depot at 20 mph (5 mph through points and crossings) on a wheel skate. I once had to drive a damaged 3 car 144 all the way back from Carnforth Down Siding to Neville Hill on a skate....seemed to take all day!
Colwyn Bay is certainly a slippy piece of line. I remember a train overshooting the station by some distance a few years ago. TfW's 197s will have fun as slippy season approaches, they're pretty light-footed.
Still Northern I think, but it’s been cleaned and painted.
Looks excellent, the only thing missing is the orange end panels for total authenticity!
And, admittedly, the brown Treadmaster Lino! But otherwise, Arlington has done a top job with that one!
It set off the Wheelchex at Heaton Chapel and was restricted to 50 mph thereafter.
How does the information get passed to the driver from the Wheelchex?
