The problem was, that the Railways were not constructed or designed by
a single entity. Todays railways are an amalgamation of several
different designers works, thus the differing Structure gauges,
cornice heights, platform heights etc. And thanks to the Thatcherite
'competition must prevail' culture, several different companies build
the different trains for todays railways. So there is no one standard.
No one builds a train with view to the fact it maybe needed to run on
lines away from the build remit.

The Networkers were an expensive build in terms of infrastructure
alterations. And even today they aren't used to their full potential.
They have regenative braking which cannot be used because the Traction
Supply isn't capable of sustaining trains putting current back into
the system!

Christine



On 6 Dec 2004 04:42:17 -0800, "Boltar" wrote:


Christine wrote:
There were lots of gauging problems when Netwrokers were introduce.
Several places having to have 'glued ballast'.

Presumably they are not passed on the 'Southern' lines because they
have never gauged tested the area for Networkers

It never ceases to amaze me how tight the clearences are on british
railways.
Did it never occur to the builders of the lines to maybe leave a spare
foot
here and there just-in-case? Ok , for tunnels this would be expensive
but
how much extra would it have cost to make lineside obstacles, bridge
supports
etc a foot or 2 further from the track when you're building a 30 foot
wide
permanent way anyway? Plus those victorians did loved their curved
platforms,
just to make life a real pain for longer vehicles.

B2003


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