0 to 60! Just how nimble are today’s locos and units, and what’s the quickest off the mark?

After a break due to coronavirus restrictions, our 0-60mph performance trials return with Neville Hill riding the Norwich line on a new Stadler-built Greater Anglia Class 745/1.

Keith Partlow

WITH 7000hp installed for a tare weight of just 375tonnes, one would expect a modern Stadler ‘Flirt’ unit to give a 32-year-old Class 90 with its DVT and Mk.3 coaches a head start and still win by a comfortable margin. But covering 0-60mph in less than half the time, that was unexpected! The wholesale re-equipment undertaken by the Greater Anglia franchise has brought new fleets of electric and bi-mode train sets to the region. At the top of the tree sit the Class 745 12-car aluminium-bodied semi-articulated units. These come in two versions, ‘745/0’ with some First Class seating for the Liverpool Street to Norwich expresses and ‘745/1’ which has Standard Class only for the Stansted Airport run. Tare weights for the two varieties are shown as the same, but undertaking simple…

You're reading a preview of

Rail Express (Digital) - 1 Issue, January 2021

DiscountMags is a licensed distributor (not a publisher) of the above content and Publication through Zinio LLC. Accordingly, we have no editorial control over the Publications. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers or other information or content expressed or made available by third parties, including those made in Publications offered on our website, are those of the respective author(s) or publisher(s) and not of DiscountMags. DiscountMags does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, truthfulness, or usefulness of all or any portion of any publication or any services or offers made by third parties, nor will we be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on information contained in any Publication, or your use of services offered, or your acceptance of any offers made through the Service or the Publications. For content removal requests, please contact Zinio.