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Greater Anglia's Stadler Flirt - Class 745 & 755


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4 hours ago, beast66606 said:

 

It was 745001, I'll post a pic later, watching the deer incident on the Brecklands at the moment in case any unusual moves are used.

 

2 x 170 bang road into Eccles and over the crossover

 

 

Great Moulton

08 August 2019

66001 and 745001 on 5Q99, 03:43, Ripple Lane Exch Sdgs - Norwich C.PT. T.&R.S.M.D (08:23)

DAS827208.jpg.a7d6ac9bc25fdc5c76f171dbc091cedf.jpg

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14 hours ago, jools1959 said:

 

I spoke to a GA driver yesterday and the impression I got was that the 2-car Class 170’s were to go to TFW “urgently” and the Class 156’s were to take over their diagrams, especially the Ipswich - Peterborough service.  The 3-car Class 170’s were to follow the 2-cars asap.

 

The Class 153’s are either Northern bound or to Kilmarnock to be converted for Scotrail.

 

Thank you for posting. Maybe the GA 156s aren't going to TFW at all then or if they are it can't be any time soon. 

 

Good to hear that hopefully the GA 153s will still see further use elsewhere. The Northern ones still see regular use. I was on a solo 153 which doesn't happen often with them in Yorkshire, as they are usually coupled up with a 142, 150, 156 or 158. But it was only a shuttle service between Leeds, Castleford and return and the guard mentioned that it was doing these runs all day. So they still come in very useful for the shorter journeys but I feel for people who have to travel on them solo for the more longer journeys. 

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1 hour ago, DRS Crewe On A Mission said:

 

Thank you for posting. Maybe the GA 156s aren't going to TFW at all then or if they are it can't be any time soon. 

 

Good to hear that hopefully the GA 153s will still see further use elsewhere. The Northern ones still see regular use. I was on a solo 153 which doesn't happen often with them in Yorkshire, as they are usually coupled up with a 142, 150, 156 or 158. But it was only a shuttle service between Leeds, Castleford and return and the guard mentioned that it was doing these runs all day. So they still come in very useful for the shorter journeys but I feel for people who have to travel on them solo for the more longer journeys. 

They're fine on long, journeys as long as you get a seat. They're also ideal pootling up and down the Sudbury or F'lixtowe branches all day. My grief is diagramming them on Xmas shopping Saturday, Posh at home Peterborough - Ipswich or (for positioning purposes I believe) 07:45 Stow-Ipswich when the previous London bound has been caped! I'm well aware however that an empty seat doesn't make a TOC any money, so in terms of revenue vs. cost to run, I should imagine AGA love 'em.

 

C6T. 

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3 hours ago, Classsix T said:

They're fine on long, journeys as long as you get a seat. They're also ideal pootling up and down the Sudbury or F'lixtowe branches all day. My grief is diagramming them on Xmas shopping Saturday, Posh at home Peterborough - Ipswich or (for positioning purposes I believe) 07:45 Stow-Ipswich when the previous London bound has been caped! I'm well aware however that an empty seat doesn't make a TOC any money, so in terms of revenue vs. cost to run, I should imagine AGA love 'em.

 

C6T. 

 

I'm lucky because on the Northern ones I have been on in Yorkshire I have always had a seat and even if I didn't I have only ever been on them on the shorter journeys, so really it wouldn't have mattered much if I was stood up. Very true, I suppose they are very efficient to run with only a limited number of seats and still room for standing as long as they go on the most appropriate routes and services and they don't become too overcrowded. 

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Digressing slightly, and apologies if this has been asked previously in the thread, but is it fair to say that Anglia's Skoda's will end up with Freightliner, and that will see the end of their 86's?

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I think Freightliner were investing in their 86s, so I'd be surprised if they got rid of them.

There is scope for increased electric haulage of freight with recent projects though. GWML electrification is isolated from the rest of the network and therefore is useless for freight, but Gospel Oak to Barking allows more electric freight, and EGIP has electrified the Grangemouth branch as far as Fouldubs, so flows to there could be electric hauled too.

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1 minute ago, Zomboid said:

Who knows. It's about half a mile up the incline at Acton to get to the West London Line. Though that's not wholly the answer as there would need to be something done somewhere else to provide a destination.

Very true; I don't think a solitary Freightliner train from Felixstowe to Wentloog is enough for a business case.

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1 hour ago, Zomboid said:

Who knows. It's about half a mile up the incline at Acton to get to the West London Line. Though that's not wholly the answer as there would need to be something done somewhere else to provide a destination.

There is a very good practical reason why it hasn't been electrified but as this thread is about Stadler's efforts you might like to start another thread (prototype Questions?) to find out why.

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I wonder if anyone will be announcing a model of the Bionic Bunnies this year at Warley?  They are certainly one of the more distinctive trains on the network and with TfW having ordered Flirts for the Hwntw who won't be getting Supertrams, there's potentially more than one livery to come assuming they retain the same overall appearance.

 

Could be the kind of thing to create a buzz with younger modellers in the way Hornby used to do when they released models of the latest trains like APT and Class 58.

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On 08/08/2019 at 16:06, DRS Crewe On A Mission said:

 

Thank you for posting. Maybe the GA 156s aren't going to TFW at all then or if they are it can't be any time soon. 

 

The Class 156’s are also Northern bound because of type familiarity. 

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On 08/08/2019 at 06:19, Siggie in the east said:

153s are going to scotrail to bolster their current 153 fleet and form 2car sets with some being converted so they can store bicycles, a bit like the compartments in the GA DVTs. 156s are also moving that way eventually apparently but not 100% sure and theres isnt a timescale yet.

170s are all going to Wales as soon as september/october but as a previous post as said, they want them asap.

 

Thanks

 

Scotrail don’t have any 153s, except for the 2 (or maybe 3) currently at Kilmarnock being made into bike vans. There’ll be 5 of those eventually and they’ll couple up to 156s or 158s or Oban and Fort Bill trains. 

 

I think that its Transport for Wales who want to get more 153s to double up their existing ones. Basically undoing the conversion from 155s into 153s. 

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Apparently the SpotRail 153s are going to have some sort of self service coffee and sandwich vending area, according to the Friends of the West Highland lines.  There's posh for a 153, I wonder if Transport for Wales would consider a self service wine bar area on the 153s allocated to the Cardiff Bay shuttle to attract the Assembly Members to the service.

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24 minutes ago, Zomboid said:

It seems reasonable to say that it'll be more than 4 months to complete the introduction of a large fleet of new trains when half of them haven't even been delivered yet.

 

I get that it's fashionable nowadays to express outrage at the slightest thing,  but the comments I read online recently describing a journey on a crowded 153 were possibly a bit over the top.

Words like " apocalyptic" and "inhumane" were used.

My personal vision of the apocalypse involves things like headless horsemen wanting to skewer you with pointy things and certainly does not include diesel railcars.

Each to their own.

Yes, I'm keen to see the back of single carriages on busy seaside routes but being born into a social media and emoji-free world, I'll just have a nice mug of tea and wait patiently.

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Since a large part of "journalism" became looking on twitter for some "I'M ANGRY AND ILL INFORMED" comments, using catastrophe terminology to describe relatively minor inconvenience has become a way to get noticed. So the spiral continues...

I doubt anyone will be that disappointed when their 1 car train becomes a 3 car, but for the vast majority of people it's not that insufferable to have to stand up for 15 minutes.

Edited by Zomboid
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15 hours ago, wombatofludham said:

I wonder if anyone will be announcing a model of the Bionic Bunnies this year at Warley?  They are certainly one of the more distinctive trains on the network and with TfW having ordered Flirts for the Hwntw who won't be getting Supertrams, there's potentially more than one livery to come assuming they retain the same overall appearance.

 

Could be the kind of thing to create a buzz with younger modellers in the way Hornby used to do when they released models of the latest trains like APT and Class 58.

 

Piko already produce models of the Flirt trains that are used in other countries. However the window layout and possibly the front end are very different and would require major work to get it right. Whilst the new trains are not well known, you might get away with a repaint, but not for long.

 

Nick

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3 hours ago, Zomboid said:

It seems reasonable to say that it'll be more than 4 months to complete the introduction of a large fleet of new trains when half of them haven't even been delivered yet.

Presumably each set will have to do the usual 1,000 miles (or however many) of fault free running before acceptance so there will be an awful lot of light test running to be done to get all of them in to service. 

 

Mind you Ipswich to Lowestoft takes somewhat longer than 15 minutes, I think I'd be more inclined to travel via Norwich when the choice existed.

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24 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

Presumably each set will have to do the usual 1,000 miles (or however many) of fault free running before acceptance so there will be an awful lot of light test running to be done to get all of them in to service. 

 

Mind you Ipswich to Lowestoft takes somewhat longer than 15 minutes, I think I'd be more inclined to travel via Norwich when the choice existed.

 

The fault free running requirement is a bit "dubious", originally set at 4500 (iirc) it was "as if by magic" lowered to 2500 for reasons no-one seems to know.

There's a lot of test running up and down the GEML, although this mornings Norwich - Ipswich - Norwich was turned back at Diss., they also have test runs out to Yarmouth and Lowestoft but the Thetford option seems to have fallen out of favour.

 

@Satan's Goldfish

Rumours that Monday will see them enter service on the Norwich - Cambridge - Norwich diagram

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On 10/08/2019 at 06:28, Zomboid said:

It seems reasonable to say that it'll be more than 4 months to complete the introduction of a large fleet of new trains when half of them haven't even been delivered yet.

 

Capacity is a problem at the moment, this mornings delivery was caped because Crown Point is full and there's nowhere to put them. Harwich has been mentoned as a temporary option and the refurbished Norwich Victoria sidings should be available "soon" (railway soon is not necessarily the same as the dictionary soon)

Edited by beast66606
corrected City -> Victoria
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15 minutes ago, beast66606 said:

 

... the refurbished Norwich City sidings should be available "soon" 

...

 

I’m guessing these are on the stadium side of Thorpe rather than — as I excitedly thought for a microsecond after reading it — the old M&GN City station being brought back into service...

 

Paul

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