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Greater Anglia's Stadler Flirt - Class 745 & 755


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I find it interesting that, particularly with selective door opening available, that presumably it has been deemed more 'economic' to have a mix of 3- and 4-car units, rather than a standard go-anywhere fleet.

 

Inevitably there will be a 3-car unit rostered on a service where a 4-car unit would normally be used.

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I may be wrong, but I mostly see stock on the Breckland line and Wherry lines and can't recall anything longer than 3 coaches anyway. I think Felixstow is a 153 (?) And the East Suffolk line is 2/3 coach units. Do they double up units at all at the beginning and end of the working day?

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I'll be interested to hear what the ride quality is like, given that ride quality is one property of modern UK trains that seems to have gotten much worse.

I think it's down to track not being maintained to very high standards but rather to 'acceptable' standards these days; certainly even Mk3s don't ride as well as they used to on certain stretches of track.

 

Siemens-built stuff in particular seems to be especially poor riding on indifferent track, the 380s up here really 'rock-and-roll' at much over 60 mph, while the 318 and 334s which preceded them on the Ayrshire mainline rode perfectly well at 90 by contrast. I've yet to sample a 380 at its maximum permitted 100, and to be honest I'm not sure I want to!

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I find that although the Class 319's still used by LNWR on WCML services are significantly worse than the Class 350's in every other way their ride is better. They still move around a bit and can be quite lively at speed but it's a much gentler movement without the dreadful lateral acceleration of the 350's. I have decided to pay the extra and switch my season ticket from Bletchley to MK Central when I renew it next month to use VT as it has gotten to the point where I just hate the 350's. I think I went over a tipping point a couple of weeks ago trying to use the toilet in one of them.

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When i were a lad, the family lived in North Kent; we moved away when I was 9. Since we didn't have a car, we went everywhere either by bus or train. On the trains, that meant of course the EPBs. They always seemed to have a swaying motion when moving, particularly round curves. That was 50-odd years ago. So there's nothing really new under the sun, is there? :this:

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When it comes to atrocious historical rides I will just put out these three numbers:

3 - 0 - 4

 

A spectacularly whiplash inducing combination of bungee-style springing, seemingly threepenny bit shaped wheels and bumper-car sideways hunting that BR bizarrely thought acceptable for use on semi-fast services between the Midlands and the North-West for many years.

 

Even Nodding Donkeys were better than these vile crates.

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I was re-reading my copy of Today's Railways September issue and I happened to notice that the photo of the first completed '755' bi-mode (755 401) seems to have been fitted out with First Class.

 

In the photo on page 14 you can clearly see a yellow stipe over the two window bays behind the doors on a driving vehicle along with the label "1st" between the two windows.

 

Have GA reconsidered fitting the bi-modes with First Class then?

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I may be wrong, but I mostly see stock on the Breckland line and Wherry lines and can't recall anything longer than 3 coaches anyway. I think Felixstow is a 153 (?) And the East Suffolk line is 2/3 coach units. Do they double up units at all at the beginning and end of the working day?

 

Breckland has seen 2 x 170/2 (6 cars) but I think one of the units is locked out of use. Last Saturday there was a 2 x 156 set from Ely to Norwich (after dark so no pic). Fexlixstowe is normally a 153 but can be a 156 or even a 170/2. I don't think any peak strengthening happens.

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I don't know if it's been mentioned on here, but I've heard a rumour the power unit of the 755 is too heavy for the Sheringham line. Seems a bit odd, but I think it's down to axle weight (power unit essentially distributes its weight through 2 axles on the 755, conventional unit/loco is 4 or 6 axles) can anyone shine light on that?

The power-packs weigh 27.9 tonnes, a good bit less than a 156 vehicle, so I don't think it'll be an issue. The units are pretty light.

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The power-packs weigh 27.9 tonnes, a good bit less than a 156 vehicle, so I don't think it'll be an issue. The units are pretty light.

But with a lot less axles and axle loading is key.

 

Let’s hope GA thought about it and have it covered and aren’t relying on NR having been proactive and sorting out any infrastructure mods in advance

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Though even if all of that was through 2 axles it's less than 15 tonnes per axle. Are there any parts of the GA network where locos are banned? Because that's less than a class 37 (102/6 = 16ish).

 

No doubt it's more complicated than that...

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When it comes to atrocious historical rides I will just put out these three numbers:

 

3 - 0 - 4

 

A spectacularly whiplash inducing combination of bungee-style springing, seemingly threepenny bit shaped wheels and bumper-car sideways hunting that BR bizarrely thought acceptable for use on semi-fast services between the Midlands and the North-West for many years.

 

Even Nodding Donkeys were better than these vile crates.

The only time I have been genuinely frightened on a train was on one of these doing a Liverpool-Crewe run. Despite the deep horsehair seats in the ex first compartment, it was impossible to sit. The combination of exaggerated vertical motion, enormous lateral jerks and a peculiar for and aft dance left me hanging on to the light fittings in an attempt to prevent myself being impaled on one of said fittings or ejected through a door/window.............Never trusted a Gresley bogie after that.

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I was re-reading my copy of Today's Railways September issue and I happened to notice that the photo of the first completed '755' bi-mode (755 401) seems to have been fitted out with First Class.

 

In the photo on page 14 you can clearly see a yellow stipe over the two window bays behind the doors on a driving vehicle along with the label "1st" between the two windows.

 

Have GA reconsidered fitting the bi-modes with First Class then?

Are you sure it's yellow?

 

I think they have a green stripe for one seating bay on one end car, which I suspect will denote the wheelchair space?

https://www.russellwykes-photography.com/p428207483#hb72a6bf7

 

The 745s will have more than one car of 1st class, and the stripe on them looks to be an obvious yellow compared to that green based on the livery renders. I can't find any shots of 755s with a yellow stripe.

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It's not strictly relevant, but I noticed some pictures in the current modern railways of GAs other new trains - the bombardier 720s. Two things came to mind - they're painting the ends an unfashionable shade of yellow; and the interior looks reasonably inviting, in as much as the seats look to have some shape to them rather than the modern fashion for ironing boards. They're in 3+2 configuration, but then they are for suburban use. If they're anything like they appear, GA will have a pretty good fleet...

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Are you sure it's yellow?

 

I think they have a green stripe for one seating bay on one end car, which I suspect will denote the wheelchair space?

https://www.russellwykes-photography.com/p428207483#hb72a6bf7

 

The 745s will have more than one car of 1st class, and the stripe on them looks to be an obvious yellow compared to that green based on the livery renders. I can't find any shots of 755s with a yellow stripe.

It was yellow, the next (and current issue of Today's Railways UK notes on a caption of a photograph of 755 404 on test at Velim: "755 404 on test at Sokoleč on the short ring at Velim on 6 September. The green stripe indicates where the bike spaces are and the blue stripe the wheelchair area. Set 755 401 also carried a yellow stripe, but this was to prove the design only, there is no First Class in the 755s."

 

So I wasn't seeing things, but neither have Greater Anglia had a change of mind on First Class accomodation on regional routes.

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It's not strictly relevant, but I noticed some pictures in the current modern railways of GAs other new trains - the bombardier 720s. Two things came to mind - they're painting the ends an unfashionable shade of yellow; and the interior looks reasonably inviting, in as much as the seats look to have some shape to them rather than the modern fashion for ironing boards. They're in 3+2 configuration, but then they are for suburban use. If they're anything like they appear, GA will have a pretty good fleet...

1149 seats in a 10-car is quite impressive, especially as they don't appear totally crammed in.

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That surely can't be right.

720/1 (10-car): 1149 Standard Class seats including 113 tip-up seats (plus space for a further 290 standees)

 

720/5 (5-car): 546 Standard Class seats including 61 tip-up seats (plus space for a further 145 standees)

 

Both subclasses will have a Universal toilet and space for 3 wheelchairs, in the 5-cars this will be in a driving vehicle, but in the 5th coach in the 10-car sets. The 720/1 will also have two standard toilets, the 720/5 just the one. Both will have space for 4 bicycles.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Biggest Flirt...

https://railcolornews.com/2018/11/03/uk-the-longest-flirt-in-the-world-12-car-unit-for-greater-anglia/

 

Looking forward to seeing what these are like.

 

Wild Boar Fell

Looking at that photo, it seems the articulation is only at every second coach join, i.e. each pair of coaches has three bogies of its own. Coach A shares a bogie with B, then C shares a bogie with D etc.

Edited by eastwestdivide
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