Hi all Having driven the TSW Class 33 for many miles on the WSR and quite enjoyed it, I thought I would go and see one in real life for the first time yesterday on the East Lancs Railway which isn't far from me. They had their diesel gala on Thurs- Saturday but yesterday the 33 was still there. I cobbled together a short video of it running around at Rawtenstall Stn. Also in case anyone is interested I stuck my head in the cab window to see how the control layout compares to our TSW setup.
So the 33 has dual controls! I never knew that. I wonder why. You can tell I've yet to purchase it in the game - waiting for the next ps sale. I love the sound of the slowly idling smaller Suzlers. It reminds me of my teenage years when class 24 and 25 were common around my area and used to sit ticking over for hours. The 33 isn't quite the same but it's not far off. By the way welcome back from your holidays TrainSim-Dmitri. All refreshed?
The controls are duplicated so that you don't need a secondman as a lookout, especially when shunting (cos the secondman might be on the ground while you still want to be moving). It's a shunter's layout. You can also better sight ground signals to confirm your road around tight radii, etc., and keep control with your head out, and you get better vision when working around docks/ferry terminals, etc. Really good for working in tight spaces. Quite handy bits of kit - 33s don't just have pretty faces... ;-)
Makes sense. More so because the central window is blocked on the 33 reducing vision to the right. The dual controls would have been handy along the Weymouth tram line I expect.
