Newbie Train Questions
 

So as i said in my intro i`m thinking about getting into the hobby of recording trains,and so i`m just wandering when people say they see a class 66 or whatever what does that mean? and when you see the number on trains does that mean anything?

Sorry if you think i`m no being serious i am, i just haven`t bothered taking trains seriously till now.Though i`ve always enjoyed watching them:)

cheers

Carl

All diesel locomotives used in the UK have a classification depending on their specification. For instance, a Class 66 is a type of locomotive that is used by various freight companies including DB Schenker (formerly EWS), GB Railfreight and Freightliner. Other classes of diesel locomotive in use on a regular basis on Network Rails lines include Class 08's, 59's' 60's, 67's and 70's, and diesel units have lots of other numbers. Then on preserved lines you likely to find classes 24, 25, 31, 37, 40, 55 and loads of others, and they all have their own dedicated gang of followers.

There's lots of sites online where you can get more information about the individual classes of loco. A decent starting point could be Wikipedia, but there's hundreds more. Try Google.

Try this link to see what sort of info you can get by a Google search.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_66

And here is a link to a description of the railway "TOPS" classification system for locomotives and units.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British...ication_-_TOPS

Wikipedia is not always the most accurate site, but it's a good place to get started.

Hey Carl,

The way I like to think of it, is this;

TOPS is a computer system, and the system used to keep track of trains in the UK.

Every different type of train is allocated a TOPS number, so for example,

A Class 08 is a shunter, assigned to Class 08 in tops.
A Class 66 is a freight locomotive, you might see a lot of these days.
A Class 150 is a DMU you probably also see a lot of.

There are lots of different classes, basically every different type of train will have its own class. You can tell which class it is because the first two or three numbers on the front of the train give it away, normally these numbers are on the yellow warning panel.

Each locomotive has a unique number after it's class number to identify it, so the first loco of Class 66 would have on the front;

66 001
then 66 002 and so on

The TOPS computer system can keep track of every train, where it's going, coming from, it's history, etc.

There are also "subclasses", so if a Class 66 loco has modifications made to it, it could become "Class 66/1", so it's number will now be

66 101
66 102
etc.

Wikipedia is a pretty good source for this, so clicking around on their, reading about TOPS, and checking out the different classes is not only educational but a fun read!

Danny

Ok thank you all,it makes more sense to me now.:D

There you go Carl, always ask on here, no one will take the "mickey" out of you mate, there is always someone on here that will be only too pleased to help you, they are a great bunch.
Enjoy your new found interest, keep us up to date on how it is going.


48111

Will do.hehe kinda like playing pokemon ain`t it hehe,gotta catch em all:D

Now I have an image of Dr. Beeching in a Team Rocket outift. :p