Design
The Blue Pullmans had a maximum speed of 90 mph (140 km/h). The fixed couplings reduced much of the jerky movement experienced by conventionally-buffered carriages and allowed smooth acceleration and stable running. The bogies featured hydraulically-damped helical springs, and the axles were pneumatically braked in a two-stage system, allowing highly controlled stopping.
The entire train was air-conditioned with automatic humidity control. Motor cars contained a large primary diesel engine and generator for motive power. A secondary diesel engine and auxiliary generator provided electrical power for the air-conditioning, fridges and ancillary equipment. A single auxiliary was sufficient to power the train systems normally. An onboard technician monitored the supply of services.
The passenger areas had armchair-type table seating in a 2+1 formation, each with a table lamp and steward call button. The saloons were protected from track noise by extra insulation in the bodywork and double-glazed windows with Venetian blinds between the panes.
Read more about this topic: British Rail Classes 251 And 261
Famous quotes containing the word design:
“Westerners inherit
A design for living
Deeper into matter—
Not without due patter
Of a great misgiving.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“Humility is often only the putting on of a submissiveness by which men hope to bring other people to submit to them; it is a more calculated sort of pride, which debases itself with a design of being exalted; and though this vice transform itself into a thousand several shapes, yet the disguise is never more effectual nor more capable of deceiving the world than when concealed under a form of humility.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)
“I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in providence, for the illumination of the ignorant and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth.”
—John Adams (1735–1826)