91 At Newcastle

Here's a rare picture - Newcastle on a sunny day! No, only joking of course ...Newcastle is famous for sunshine as everyone knows.

When the East Coast Mail Line was electrified in the 1980's the Class 91's were introduced as the 'top link' electric motive power. The voltage is the same as the West Coast Line - 25kv.AC - but actually I'v never seen a locomotive from either route on the other so that's one bit of standardisation that turned out to be irrelevant - so far.

Perhaps with rising oil prices they could link the two across country with a new electrification through Sheffield. Hey! Even better! They could try designing locomotives that run on coal eh? How would they work? You could have some cylinders at the front and ...

This is 91 107 'Newark of Trent' in 'GNER' livery and about to start for London. It's at the back of the train - these are very high speed 'push-pulls' with a driving trailer at the south end and locomotive at the north end. Why anyone would want to call a locomotive 'Newark' - a small and undistinguished town on the ECML - beats me. But there are odder engine names these days.

The 91's have 'cruise control' and a top speed of 140 mph but they are limited in service to 125 mph. They are 'odd ended' and were built so that at night they could be used on freight trains and driven from either end but on passenger trains they are always wired up like this. Actually I've never seen one either used on a freight train or being driven 'B' end first either. Some more redundant flexibility I guess.