New trains stored waiting service (class 423s) reminds me of those class 317 "bedpan" units stored at Nottingham waiting to go into service on St Pancras - Bedford work.

How long have these been stored?

In this case though I think it was an industrial dispute.

Far as I know the 423s I mentioned were refused certification by the Federal Railway Authority for a couple of reasons, mostly involving safety devices around the doors. However, a solution has been found for that problem in the meantime, and all 423s already in service had an "optical grid" fitted to all doorways. Also, the door alarm, which had been used only in those cases where the driver had to close the doors centrally, has now been set to be active at all times, so whenever a door closes it goes beep, beep, beep. Somehow I would have preferred the door alarm from the Berlin S-Bahn, though!

Didn't realise the 101s were that quick. Presume there is hauled stock capable of similar speeds then ?

Actually there isn't - IC stock over here has a top speed of 200 kph. The only more or less conventional carriages capable of higher speeds I am aware of would be the Austrian "railjet" ones which are actually built for 230 kph to match the Taurus engines which haul them. However, far as I am aware the current maximum service speed of railjet services (railjet is officially written in lower case only) is just 200 kph - the increase to 230 kph being planned for 2010 or 2011, I think it was.

Well, no package from Austria . But on the plus side we rebuilt the playground for our rabbits.

Think I'll fix some tea now .

Forgot one little notice: Actually there is one DB engine with an even higher top speed than the 182. The engine in question is 103 222 which has been rebuilt as a departmental engine and is certified for 280 kph, using the modified bogies and gears from 103 118 which had been cleared for 250 kph. It is commonly used for inspection trains.

And another correction on my part: The coaches built for the now-ceased "Metropolitan" service were capable of 220 kph, like the 101s. These coaches are now used for a number of standard IC services.

On the Nuremberg-Munich RE stock...

 

Did they do something peculiar to the seats on these? I rode it on Oct 31st, in the Bpmbdzf, and found the cushions quite hard compared to the Bvmsz I rode a couple of days earlier. It was verging on being uncomfortable!

Only just spotted your comment - my apologies. I have not yet ridden the Nuremberg-Munich RE service myself and would have to ask others who have whether the stock for this service has been given, shall we say, "Regio" style seating. I mean, I can understand why the DB prefers to install vandalism-resistant and thus less comfortable seating in conductorless S-Bahn and regional stock, but would be surprised if they did so on the M??N??X.