GREAT Northern Railway (Ireland) ‘Q’ class No. 131 passed the final stages of commissioning its electrical systems on May 21 with a day of electronic testing at Whitehead.
Two test engineers from Thales Ground Transportation Systems UK were on hand to issue
a ‘First- in-Class’ certificate for the Train Protection & Warning System (TPWS) on the 1901-built 4-4-0.
Such testing and certification would normally run into five figures, but the RPSI’s charitable, volunteer-led nature resulted in Thales carrying out the work for free.
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The tests followed an early hours TPWS trial on April 29, which saw No. 131 undertake a series of braking runs between Whitehead and Belfast Central.
During the trial, No. 131’s TPWS equipment had to bring the five-coach test train to a halt after passing red signals, with derogation obtained to run the loco at 60mph at one point.
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