Above: Class 380
No. 380105 waits
time at Carstairs
on June 15, 2018
with the 12.37
Ayr-Edinburgh
Waverley via
Glasgow Central.Right:With
Arthur's Seat as
a backdrop, set
Nos. 334018 and
334031 approach
Edinburgh Park
on February 7
with the 13.10
Waverley-
Milngavie service.Glasgow ‘three hour’ trains from 1962.
As we pass through the ancient Kingdom
of Fife, Graham points out he tends to run
slightly below Class 170 speeds at certain
locations and brake earlier because the 2+4
sets take longer for the brake to apply and a lot
longer for the brake to come off again.
“It’s a bit like waiting for water to appear
from a hosepipe after turning on the tap, then
waiting for it to stop when you turn it off
again,” he says. Of course the brake force is
also less than a full length HST, although not
subject to short-formation speed restrictions
that apply to similar loco-hauled trains.
Having safely crossed the Tay Bridge and
left Dundee 5½min late we prepare to enjoy
the level run past the links golf courses to
Arbroath. Although Graham whips the HST up
to 98mph at Balmossie, we can enjoy the speed
for only a couple of minutesbefore we have
to wait for the 11.02 Edinburgh-Arbroath
terminator to shunt to the Up side, for which
we are given 6½min pathing time.Signalling enhancements
On leaving the home of the famous
and tasty ‘smokeys’ we encounter our only
temporary speed restriction of the journey, to
70mph approaching Inverkeilor making our
train 4½min late over the single line across
the Rossie and South Esk viaducts from Usan
Jct to Montrose where a Class 170, being
used for the 17 round trips per day local
service from Aberdeen, is waiting in the Up
siding. Signalling enhancements have been
necessary to provide sufficient capacity. The
29½min ‘2+5’ Arbroath to Stonehaven timing
is challenging even for ‘2+4’; the fastest
time in the Railway Performance Society
(RPS) archive at the time of writing being
31min 36sec. Station overtime occurs at the
Stonehaven stop, as at Arbroath, but this is
an as-yet unmodernised slam door set, and
the sliding door modifications from Wabtec
should eliminate these annoying delays.
Housing developments in the area might
allow a station reopening at Newtonhill now
there is a local train service available to service
it. The 6.46miles from Portlethen summit
(MP 234) to Ferryhill Jct are downhill, as
steep as 1-in-102 through Cove Bay.
Graham takes the descent steadily,
remarking to Jim that inexperienced drivers
have to curb a tendency to ‘bounce the train
around’ down here with alternate acceleration
from gravity and brake applications. With
5min of allowances our projected arrival
is 2½min late but a check to 10mph at
Craiginches puts paid to this vain hope as we
pull in 4½min late. See Table 2.
Table 3 shows an Aberdeen to Dundee
log with a 2+9 LNER HST compared to a‘2+4’ run experienced by RPS member Baard
Covington, who was in the area the day before
my visit. While the LNER set was able to
arrive at three station stops ½min early, it just
failed to keep time into Dundee over the last
mile from the former Camperdown crossing
after coasting.
Coasting seemed anathema to the ScotRail
HST, which is timed to take some 5min (net)
fewer than the 2+9 set, giving a taste of the
potential improvements when the full quota of
refurbished sets has been delivered. ■
■In the August issue, The RM will look at the interior
of ScotRail’s refurbished HSTs and also the Class 385,
assessing both from a passenger perspective.
Unit 43367+43308 43129+43028
Load* 2+9/308/325/466 2+4 /143/150/291
Train 14.52 Aberdeen-King’s Cross 19:43 Aberdeen-Glasgow Queen St
Date May22,2019 May21,2019
Recorder/Position J Heaton 2nd of 11 B Covington 5th of 6Miles Timing Point Sch M S MPH Sch M S MPH
0.00 ABERDEEN d 0 0 00 Pfm 5 T 0 0 00
0.98 Craiginches North 237 38 246 40/99
8.03 Portlethen 9 9 19 91 8½ 9 07 98
16.01 Stonehaven a 16½ 16 06 (4½)
0.00 d/p 18½ 17 49 -/91 19 14 37 74/73
5.42 Carmont 655473 23190077
11.04 Fordoun 9 50 93/99 22 46 98/99
14.34 Laurencekirk 12 11 56 97 28½ 24 50 94/80
19.71 Craigo 16½ 1533 81 32 2821 84
24.44 Montrose a 20½ 20 25 36 33 09
0.00 d 22½ 22 56 37½ 36 55
1.98 Usan Jct 331349/87 3½ (4½) 249 50/90
14.10 Arbroath a 14½ 13 55 17½ 1240
0.00 d 16½ 16 11 -/99 19 19 08
6.19 Carnoustie 5½ 5 32 98 coast 5 4 47 99
7.79 Barry Links 6 31 97 5 45 98
10.68 Monifieth 8 20 91 7 31 99
13.05 Brought Ferry 10 9 58 83 9½ 9 06 88
[3]
16.30 Camperdown 13 13 05 30 15 11 40 38
17.01 DUNDEE a 15½ 16 32 18 14 40
*=Vehicles/tare/gross tonnes/including power cars
(4½)= minutes pathing [3]= 3min recoveryTABLE 3:ABERDEEN TO DUNDEE
July 2019 •The Railway Magazine•21World Record Officially the world’s longest-running railway series, established in 1901