Engine Punk

A refurbished 150 Sprinter class (Photo : Peter Skuse) The other day, I started to wonder about what engines powered my commuter train. A hundred years ago they would have been steam engines, maybe a steam rail motor but more likely powered coaches with a cheeky tank engine. Nowadays they are powered carriages that divide and multiply - as one literary person once complained - like worms. If anyone knows who said this let me know. I think it's a great quote. The worms I ride on are usually Class 158 or 150s Sprinter units but sometimes we get 155 or 153 Class units, either singly in pairs. Class 150s and 158s all have a single Cummins NT355 or NTA355 water-cooled six cylinder diesel engine to each unit. Mounted on their sides under the floors of the passenger saloons, these drive the bogies through a hydraulic final drive. These put out either 325 or 400 bhp at 1800rpm. Bore and stroke is 140 x 152mm (5.5 x 6 inches!) for a capacity of 14 litres (I make it 1403...

The camera can lie - this is actually the scene of chaos outside Plymouth railway station this afternoon. All those people standing outside are First Great Western's displaced persons and the British Transport Police policeman was looking more necessary as the confused crowd grew. Well, the end of the world didn't happen and a lot of people are standing around now looking very foolish and at a bit of a loose end. Yes, I'm looking at you First Great Western because you cancelled the 15:12 to Liskeard. Like many other travellers, I knew the world wasn't going to end - not really. I'd finished work art midday today and gone into Plymouth city centre for a very good meal at Lorenzo's tapas bar with some workmates and chumrades and decided to get the 15:12 home to avoid the rush that had been predicted (accurately as it turned out). Consequently, instead of avoiding the rush, I became a part of it. The next train to Liskeard was the 15:57. It was packed wit...