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First Group wins the West Coast.


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1 hour ago, jim.snowdon said:

 What matters more is that the new operators don't screw up staff morale.

 

Jim

Yeah South Western Railways has been riding high in the morale stakes since Farce Group took over havent they! ;)

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On 29/11/2019 at 20:33, royaloak said:

Yeah South Western Railways has been riding high in the morale stakes since Farce Group took over havent they! ;)

 

Although on the flip side, I don't believe that a DfT encouraged move to DOO is on the agenda for the InterCity West Coast franchise.

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16 minutes ago, phil-b259 said:

 

Although on the flip side, I don't believe that a DfT encouraged move to DOO is on the agenda for the InterCity West Coast franchise.

It wasnt when the SWT franchise came up for bidding but First Group offered it.

 

But as you state it is not mentioned anywhere in the WC franchise.

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On 28/11/2019 at 06:29, Sir TophamHatt said:

Very similar colours to London Northwestern Railway, no? 

Screenshot_20191128_062837.jpg

It’s good to see they’ll be spending money swapping the handing of the wipers and replacing the coupler doors...

oh, and on a more technical note, modifying the pantographs to run leading one up

Edited by Talltim
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Personally I'm not sure that GWR green, or some slight variation thereof, really works well on modern trains, it just looks too dull. Seems to work ok on water boiling machines, with copper and brass work to set it off, but I'm not sure about modern, flush glazed, plastic finish trains.

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On 01/12/2019 at 19:27, Talltim said:

It’s good to see they’ll be spending money swapping the handing of the wipers and replacing the coupler doors...

oh, and on a more technical note, modifying the pantographs to run leading one up

Also running "Wrong line"!

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On 14/08/2019 at 18:00, Ron Ron Ron said:

Eliminating diesel operation on the electrified sections of the route is expected to reduce CO2 emissions by 61%.

 

 

 

.

61% of what? Pollution measured where?

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8 minutes ago, rodent279 said:

61% of what? Pollution measured where?

Presumably 61% of what it currently is.

And also presumably they are comparing the output of the Voyagers with that produced by the extra power requirements on the National Grid.

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On 01/12/2019 at 19:27, Talltim said:

It’s good to see they’ll be spending money swapping the handing of the wipers and replacing the coupler doors...

oh, and on a more technical note, modifying the pantographs to run leading one up

 

And restringing thousands of route miles to remove the droop on the catenary support wire...

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8 hours ago, 298 said:

 

And restringing thousands of route miles to remove the droop on the catenary support wire...

Why do pantographs need to be modified to run leading pan up? Surely the driver just raises the leading pan?

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1 hour ago, rodent279 said:

Why do pantographs need to be modified to run leading pan up? Surely the driver just raises the leading pan?

 

The airflow around and the dynamics of the pan on a Pendo dictate that it's better to run with the rear pan up. Plus with overhead electrics if the front pan gets damaged and falls backwards then you've lost both means of pickup, and chances are the front one will be past any damage should something  catastrophic happen so it could still be used.

 

Network rail had issues a few years ago with ice on the wires damaging the carbon strips so there were pendolinos running with the front pan up, which caused further dewirements.  

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9 hours ago, 298 said:

 

The airflow around and the dynamics of the pan on a Pendo dictate that it's better to run with the rear pan up. Plus with overhead electrics if the front pan gets damaged and falls backwards then you've lost both means of pickup, and chances are the front one will be past any damage should something  catastrophic happen so it could still be used.

 

Network rail had issues a few years ago with ice on the wires damaging the carbon strips so there were pendolinos running with the front pan up, which caused further dewirements.  

Yet, policy with the 8xx is to run with the leading pan raised, and unlike the Pendolinos, the pantograph is much nearer the front of the train, not three cars back where the airflow will have started to stabilise.

 

Jim

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At the moment, I would see that as being replacement simply for the sake of replacement. Mechanically, the Pendolinos should have at least a decade of life left in them. The situation may be different with the power electronics, but re-engineering that with more up to date components is not the world's most difficult job.

 

Jim

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3 minutes ago, jim.snowdon said:

At the moment, I would see that as being replacement simply for the sake of replacement. Mechanically, the Pendolinos should have at least a decade of life left in them. The situation may be different with the power electronics, but re-engineering that with more up to date components is not the world's most difficult job.

 

Jim

If you ordered new now, most of that decade would be gone before they arrive...

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HS2 is the Pendolino replacement plan - with a possibility that they of course will be Hitachi trains.

 

I thought they were buying a few more Pendolino derivatives for the additional electric trains, the bi-mode trains will be the interesting items, off the shelf it would be IEP.

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3 hours ago, lmsforever said:

Any new trains would have to tilt would they not  ?

No, they would not. Trans Pennine will operate their new Nova trains up to 125 mph without tilt on the northern half of the WCML any time now and Network Rail are actively investigating raising speeds to 125 mph without tilt in readiness for HS2 to avoid trains coming off HS2 being restricted to 110 mph. 

Edited by class26
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Pretty sure (from news items and forum comments elsewhere) that the new order of Hitachis for Avanti are only to replace the Voyagers on the west coast route - hence the bi-modes for Holyhead etc. The Pendolinos are staying put.

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The Avanti press release:

https://share.theappbuilder.com/qib7vv1671

 

The bi-modes should be to replace the Voyagers - although the diagrams will be interesting to see as there are 20 Voyagers with usually 18 or 19 diagrammed and there are only 13 bi-modes being ordered - and the electric only are to supplement the increase in the Liverpool services.

 

I suppose some of those all electric units could free up Pendos to cover some of the diagrams Voyagers currently work on all electrified routes.

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On 14/08/2019 at 07:57, black and decker boy said:

23 new units, 13 bi-,mode and 10 EMU. Will they be the same product (eg Hitachi class 80x) or will they need tilt?

I don't know but, 

they shouldn't need to as they are due to work the more straighter parts of the WCML.

London Euston - Birmingham New street

London Euston - Holyhead via Chester

London Euston- Liverpool Lime street / Blackpool north

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