Atomic Systems

GidDay! Hi my name is Robert Lewis. I live in the United States and I share an interest in British railways. I am also an avid HO scale model railway enthuaist, and I am actively involved in Microsoft Train Simulator which I do some repainting, and I am trying to learn 3d modeling. My first question for these forums has to do with the ill-fated nightstock train. I am interested in knowing at the time what classes of british diesel locomotive had redundant units that could have been converted to generator cars for use on the Belgium railways since they claimed they did not have a locomotive the could both pull, and power the ENS cars? Would something like the class 20 have been considered or some such? I have also heard over the years that there was a proposal for a Class 73 generator car for the Nightstar as well? Anyone have any drawings of this proposal? The reason I ask these questions is I want to model the Nightstar and have all the probable locomotives that might have been used to pull these trains.

My second question has to do with the Eurotunnel shunters. I was wondering if anyone could please share a couple of photos of the following items? I have seen some mentioning of these little locomotives, Class 0001 Diesel locomotive Rescue locomotive and the Class 0031 shunter locomotive. What I am looking for is information and photos of the Class 0001 exhaust scrubber wagons? I have never seen one so I do not know what they looked like? I would like to scratch build a model of these unique wagons if I can find a decent photograph? The other thing I am looking for is a decent shot of the Class 0031 shunters? I have never seen of these at all?

My next question is in regards to the number of units of the following?

I have heard since the Eurostar failures in the snow this past winter that the Eurotunnel purchased two more Class 0001 locomotives? What are the numbers for these two additional units? And is there anything unique about these two from the other units?

Finally I remember seeing on Wikipedia before someone removed it? Something about Eurostar owning something like 6 or 8 Class 08 shunters with the Scharfenberg couplers? As far as I know they only have or had one class 08 with Scharfenberg couplers? So did they have more at one time when Eurostar was EPS?

In my quest to model these fine trains I have discovered Ehattons site with fair prices on British model train stock. Does anyone know where else I could find a fair deal on the Class 373, Class 73 with Scharfenberg couplers, Class 37/6 locomotives, Class 08 switchers and possibly the Eurostar Barrier Wagons? Does anyone offer models of the Eurotunnel shuttle trains? How about the Class 0001 rescue locomotives or the class 0031 shunters? I found Adam Warr's "Electra Railway graphics," but he only does N scale right now? I will probably end up modeling in N scale because I would like to use Adam's vinyl sides and the Graham Farish Mk4 cars. However I would prefer HO or OO scale as you guys call it?


Robert

First of all, let me explain a little about the difference between British and European railways. The UK and the SNCF have completely different classing and numbering schemes, and these meet (and often clash) at the Tunnel. It is extremely important to know and state which country's numbering scheme you are using when you ask about a particular type of locomotive. It appears that the Tunnel also has it's own numbering scheme which is designed to *not* clash with current TOPS or SNCF numbers.

For example, in the UK the Class 01 was a very small and lightweight 0-4-0 shunter which was solely used to maintain a breakwater in Wales. All of them were scrapped long before the Tunnel opened.

Additionally, there is a difference between H0 and OO modelling. The track gauge is the same for both but the modelling scale is different (1:84 and 1:72 IIRC). This means that the track gauge for OO modelling is actually slightly wrong for the scale. British models normally use OO scale, due to a historical quirk - it was too difficult to fit electric motors inside a British locomotive at H0 scale, since the loading gauge is smaller than the UIC loading gauge used in Europe. Accordingly, if you put OO and H0 models together, they will run on the same track but they will look very odd.

Back to some of your clearer questions...

The Class 20 locomotive is very much a freight design. It does not have facilities to provide ETS to carriages. It can be seen hauling passenger stock on some preserved lines and during special events, but in virtually all cases that will be stock with opening windows and during the warm part of the year, or else with a heating capable locomotive (sometimes steam!) in the train as well. In theory the type could be modified to provide ETS to the tune of several hundred kilowatts, but this would completely disable it's traction ability (since there is only one power channel on the main generator) and I suspect that modifying more modern equipment would be just as easy. There is also the problem that the Class 20 is a rather noisy type, in complete contrast to the quiet of electrification, and for a sleeper train this would be important.

Instead, the sleeper services were intended to be hauled by Class 92 locomotives, which have multi-voltage equipment which should be capable of handling both the UK's 25kV AC and Belgium's 1.5kV DC overhead wires. It would have been a colossal oversight to fail to fit appropriate ETS equipment to them.

Eurotunnel does own a number of diesel locomotives, which they call Class 0001, for engineering and rescue operations in the tunnel. According to Wikipedia, both the existing and additional units are of the same basic type, and I imagine they would want to keep them all as similar as possible for maintenance reasons. For modelling purposes, you could repaint and detail a Dutch 6400 locomotive, as that is fundamentally what they are.

It appears that Eurostar *currently* own a single 08 shunter, which is probably used to shunt carriages and power cars around the maintenance depot - one downside of multiple-unit trains is that they cannot shunt themselves into or out of formation. No doubt they have one or two SNCF shunters available on the French side, or else they use the 0001s. They may have used more 08s in the past, especially during construction.

Class 37 and 73 locomotives were also used at one point, the 37s intended for sleeper haulage deeper within the UK, and the 73s provided for rescue services on the third-rail suburban network before the second phase of HS1 opened. The 37s have been sold and the 73s have been loaned on.

GidDay! All of the locomotives I have listed above are on the UK side and are either owned by Eurostar or Eurotunnel. I have not given the the French side much consideration at this time. My question about the class 20 was in regards to which class of locomotive that had the most units sitting disused about the time the Nightstar project was being considered? The reason being is that the SNCB claimed that they did not have a locomotive powerful enough to haul the ENS cars and provide ETS supply? Someone on here a long time ago had mentioned in a post the idea of converting a UK diesel into a generator car and shipping it to the Belgium railways to run in a similar fashion to the way the class 37 units would have been operated with a generator car sandwiched in between them.

Robert