FACTOID # 169: Train spotters should go to Australia - Australians have more railway per capita than anyone else on the globe.
 
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Encyclopedia > British Rail Class 168
A Chiltern Railways "Clubman" at Kidderminster station. This unit is from the first batch.
A Chiltern Railways "Clubman" at Kidderminster station. This unit is from the first batch.
A Clubman unit of the later cab design.
A Clubman unit of the later cab design.

The Class 168 Clubman is a diesel train used by Chiltern Railways between London and the Midlands. They were built in several batches from 1998 onwards. The first batch of units was classified 168/0 under TOPS and bore a large resemblance, both visually and in terms of electrical design, to the class 165 units previously built by BREL at York. However, subsequent builds, classified 168/1 and 168/2, were given the newer Turbostar style cab and a new design of wiring. Download high resolution version (1000x656, 219 KB)A Chiltern Railways Class 168 Clubman train terminates at Kidderminster station. ... Download high resolution version (1000x656, 219 KB)A Chiltern Railways Class 168 Clubman train terminates at Kidderminster station. ... Map sources for Kidderminster at grid reference SO825765 Kidderminster is a town in the Wyre Forest district of Worcestershire, England. ... Image File history File links Chiltern Press Image This is a copyrighted image that has been released by a company or organization to promote their work in the media. ... Image File history File links Chiltern Press Image This is a copyrighted image that has been released by a company or organization to promote their work in the media. ... Diesel or Diesel fuel is a specific fractional distillate of fuel oil (mostly petroleum) that is used as fuel in a diesel engine invented by German engineer Rudolf Diesel. ... For other uses, see Train (disambiguation). ... Chiltern Railways is a train operating company in England. ... For other uses, see London (disambiguation) and Defining London (below). ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ... Class 170, no. ...


In fact, the 168 is, in terms of engineering, a Turbostar in all but name. Class 170, no. ...


The Turbostar platform is a modular design, optimised for speedy manufacture and easy maintenance. It consists of an underframe, which is created by seam-welding a number of extrusions, upon which bodyside panels are mounted. A single piece roof, again made from extruded sections, is then bolted on. The car ends are made from GRP and steel, and are bolted on. Underframe components are collected in "rafts" which are bolted into slots on the underframe extrusion. Extrusion is a manufacturing process where a material, often in the form of a billet, is pushed and/or drawn through a die to create long objects of a fixed cross-section. ... GRP may refer to: Gastrin Releasing Peptide Gibraltar Reform Party Glass-reinforced plastic Gross Rating Point in television GRP Records Grusin Rosen Production Gentoo Reference Platform (pre-compiled packages for Gentoo Linux) .GRP file extention; used for program groups for Program Manager, and also in an unrelated code for data...


The drive system consists of a MTU diesel railcar engine, close-coupled to a Voith T211r hydrodynamic transmission. This is the same gearbox as previously used on all Sprinter variations. It has two speeds, the first one being a torque converter drive and the second a fluid coupling. A cardan shaft links the output of the gearbox to ZF final drives on the inner bogie of each vehicle. MTU is a three-letter abbreviation that can stand for: MTU Aero Engines, formerly a DaimlerChrysler division known as MTU München, an aircraft engine manufacturer MTU Friedrichshafen, a current division of DaimlerChrysler Maximum Transfer Unit, a networking term relating to packet size Michigan Technological University This is a disambiguation page... The Voith-Schneider propeller is a specialized marine propulsion system. ... Hydrodynamics is fluid dynamics applied to liquids, such as water, alcohol, oil, and blood. ... In mechanics, a transmission or gearbox is the gear and/or hydraulic system that transmits mechanical power from a prime mover (which can be an engine or electric motor), to some form of useful output device. ... A torque converter is a hydraulic fluid coupling that is used to transmit power from one or more engines or motors to a driveshaft or other output shaft. ... A fluid coupling is a hydraulic device used for trasmitting mechanical shaft power from a rotating driver to a rotating driven load. ... Gerolamo Cardano or Jerome Cardan (September 24, 1501 - September 21, 1576) was a celebrated Renaissance mathematician, physician, astrologer, and gambler. ...


The most important differences between the 168 fleet and other Turbostars, as far as drivers are concerned, is the provision of Automatic Train Protection (ATP) equipment, manufactured by Alcatel, and the tripcock system for operation on tracks shared with London Underground. Aditionally the Class 168 can only be coupled to British Rail Class 165 DMUs and British Rail Class 166 DMUs - these three DMU classes have a different pattern of electrical studs on their coupler faces, a result of BR's desire to prevent the latter two DMU classes from being reused by the Regional Railways sector of BR. Automatic train protection is speed and distance supervision, usually intervening (usually deploying emergency brake, as a last measure) when the driver of a train omits to react on optical signals given from the wayside system. ... Automatic train protection is speed and distance supervision, usually intervening (usually deploying emergency brake, as a last measure) when the driver of a train omits to react on optical signals given from the wayside system. ... {{Infobox_Company | company_name = Alcatel| company_logo = | company_type = Public (Euronext: CGE, NYSE: ALA) | foundation = Alsace, France (1898) | location = Paris, France | key_people = Serge Tchuruk, Chairman and CEO | industry = telecommunications | products = provides hardware, software and services to telecommunications service providers and enterprises | revenue = 14. ... The Tube redirects here. ... Class 165/1, no. ... Class 166, no. ... Coupler is a word used to describe any of a number of things: A railway coupling device; An electronic device, more properly, an acoustic coupler; A telecommunications device known as a directional coupler; A kind of laser mirror known as an output coupler; A connector between two moving parts to... Class 150/2 Sprinter no. ...


As with all other Turbostars, reliability problems were rife at the outset, but considerable effort was made by the manufacturer ADTranz (now Bombardier Transportation) to improve their record. The Turbostars are now widely considered the most reliable of the third-generation short-haul DMU fleet in Britain. However, some subsystems on board continue to suffer from reliability problems due to the poor quality of the components. The most obvious example is the Passenger Information System which is based on GPRS and GSM technology but frequently fails to accurately find its position, resulting in misleading information being displayed to passengers. This problem is prevalent throughout the Turbostar fleet. Adtranz was a German rail rolling stock equipment manufacturer which designed rail cars and engines. ... Bombardier Transportation is the rail equipment division of the Bombardier group. ... General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is a mobile data service available to users of GSM mobile phones. ... Not to be confused with Get Some Mates The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is the most popular standard for mobile phones in the world. ...

British Rail diesel multiple units
Diesel locomotives - Electric locomotives - DMU - DEMU - AC EMU - DC EMU - Departmental units
First-generation diesel units
Classes: 100 - 101 - 102 - 103 - 104 - 105 - 106 - 107 - 108 - 109 - 110 - 111 - 112 - 113 - 114 - 115  
116 - 117 - 118 - 119 - 120 - 121 - 122 - 123 - 124 - 125 - 126 - 127 - 128 - 129 - 130 - 131
Pre-TOPS: British United Traction - Derby Lightweight - Metro-Cammell - Railbus
GWR Railcars - LMS Railcars
Second-generation diesel units
Classes: 140 - 141 - 142 - 143 - 144 - 150 - 151 - 153 - 154 - 155 - 156 - 157 - 158 - 159 - 165 - 166
168 - 170 - 171 - 175 - 180 - 185
Diesel-electric units
Classes: 201 - 202 - 203 - 204 - 205 - 206 - 207 - 210 - 220 - 221 - 222 - 251 - 252 - 253 - 254 - 255
  SR designation: 3D - 3H - 3R - 3T - 4L - 6B - 6L - 6S
Departmental units
Classes: 901 - 930 - 950 - 951 - 960 - APT-E - MPV

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The British workers, who replied to that attempt by a gigantic strike, have shown the whole capitalist world that the firm stabilisation of capitalism in the conditions of the post-war period is impossible, that experiments like the British one are fraught with the danger of the destruction of the foundations of capitalism.
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