First Eurostar Velaro delivery to the UK.

[Fat Controller]

They always used to run as ecs so interesting if that has been changed.

Yesterday's ones ran as 'W' missions, so the ones on the previous day may just have been used to give extra capacity after all the cancellations on Tuesday. I caught a glimpse of the planned test runs; apart from the normal routes to Paris and Brussels, they have some turns over the 'Classic' route via Hazebrouck, and a return trip to Marseille. 

[The Stationmaster]

Yesterday's ones ran as 'W' missions, so the ones on the previous day may just have been used to give extra capacity after all the cancellations on Tuesday. I caught a glimpse of the planned test runs; apart from the normal routes to Paris and Brussels, they have some turns over the 'Classic' route via Hazebrouk, and a return trip to Marseille. 

That's the way to accumulate some mileage.  With the 373s it was supposedly 1,000kms of 'fault free' running at one stage (talk about ambitious )  but even more important was the fact that the banks would not release the final payment to the lease company until each set had managed a round trip through the Tunnel.

[Fat Controller]

That's the way to accumulate some mileage.  With the 373s it was supposedly 1,000kms of 'fault free' running at one stage (talk about ambitious )  but even more important was the fact that the banks would not release the final payment to the lease company until each set had managed a round trip through the Tunnel.

Just the one round trip through the Tunnel, Mike? My French colleagues have an annoying habit of calling mileage accumulation runs 'Burn Ins'; I wish they wouldn't.

[woodenhead]

Sadly they lack the Shum Shum noise of the Eurostar

[Colin_McLeod]

Sadly they lack the Shum Shum noise of the Eurostar

We should demand a refund then LOL   or put in a different sound chip. 

[The Stationmaster]

Just the one round trip through the Tunnel, Mike? My French colleagues have an annoying habit of calling mileage accumulation runs 'Burn Ins'; I wish they wouldn't.

Just one round trip through the Tunnel for the bankers Brian - that, seemingly was all they wanted (and it only had to go through the Tunnel, it didn't matter if it turned round at Frethun     - well they were, reputedly, Chinese bankers)

[40052]

During the time I was involved the plan was two return trips London/Paris (one leg via a diversionary route in France) and one return London/Brussels for each set. Whole thing re-run if any pre-agreed fault occurs. Marseilles wasn't in the plan but they may be looking to run the trains there for next summer to increase capacity if this year's trains have been a success?

[BR(S)]

Temporarily taking this thread in a slightly different direction if I may, a friend of mine has an interview with Eurostar for a Train Driver position and is hoping someone may be able to provide some information about the second stage interview. 

 

He has been told that he will be given some job-related French words and phrases to learn and will then be tested on them in a role play conversation.  Is anyone able to give specific details about the words and phrases he will be tested on please?  He assumes it will be things like reporting a trespass or dealing with a train failure, but the list of possibilities is too numerous to guess at.  If anyone can narrow it down a bit he'd be very grateful. 

[BR(S)]

Sorry, but if he doesn't speak French already, he can't drive in France. It's part of the EU-wide regulations that a driver should be able to communicate in the native language of the country he is driving at the time. Doesn't have to be fluent, but sufficiently competent to have a normal conversation. This is the reason I cannot apply for a job at Eurostar, as I don't speak French, even though I have an European railway drivers license. I would be able to apply for a job in Belgium (as I speak Dutch, obviously) but not in the Walloon region ('cause they speak French there). But, I should be able to apply for drivers jobs in the UK and having some knowledge in German, I could also apply for Austria and Germany. (I tried Switzerland, where my application was rejected by the BAV, but not on language skills!)

 

Hello - he does speak French to a reasonable level, but just wants to know what specific things he might be asked to talk about/roleplay in the language-based interview.  As they are job-specific words and phrases, this will help him to brush up his language skills in relation to the role.

[The Stationmaster]

Temporarily taking this thread in a slightly different direction if I may, a friend of mine has an interview with Eurostar for a Train Driver position and is hoping someone may be able to provide some information about the second stage interview. 

 

He has been told that he will be given some job-related French words and phrases to learn and will then be tested on them in a role play conversation.  Is anyone able to give specific details about the words and phrases he will be tested on please?  He assumes it will be things like reporting a trespass or dealing with a train failure, but the list of possibilities is too numerous to guess at.  If anyone can narrow it down a bit he'd be very grateful. 

Whatever he is asked will - I suspect - be simply at a level to test if he is accurately stating his existing knowledge of the language.  I don't know to what extent Eurostar now carry out language training but it used to be very comprehensive however they didn't always do a language test in French, at one time the normal method was to test the applicant's ability to grasp simple Arabic - apparently this is a very good way of assessing how good someone would be at learning languages.

 

Far more important I suspect will be his driving experience - in the past SNCF refused to accept anyone in Eurostar UK who had not had high speed driving experience in the UK (that doesn't mean HSTs etc but did mean regular driving at 100mph) but that too might well have changed.

 

As Dutch Master has explained any Driver working internationally has to have a proper working language skill - including relevant technical terminology - for the country he is working through plus, of course having been passed out on all relevant Rules & Regs, technical Instructions etc and learning that lot for the UK part, Eurotunnel, SNCF, and SNCB is quite a hefty task.  But again I would have thought he's hardly likely to be asked at interview if he understands the meaning of an SNCF Nf signal showing double red.

[HillsideDepot]

Reminds me of the story years ago where the Eurostar driver needed to report a deer on the line, but didn't know the correct word, so reported "a horse with the pantograph raised". 

 

Might be apocryphal, but still makes me smile.

[The Stationmaster]

Reminds me of the story years ago where the Eurostar driver needed to report a deer on the line, but didn't know the correct word, so reported "a horse with the pantograph raised". 

 

Might be apocryphal, but still makes me smile.

It was a true story and he actually described it as 'a horse with a pantograph' - which the Control at Lille actually understood to mean a deer.

[Fat Controller]

Whatever he is asked will - I suspect - be simply at a level to test if he is accurately stating his existing knowledge of the language.  I don't know to what extent Eurostar now carry out language training but it used to be very comprehensive however they didn't always do a language test in French, at one time the normal method was to test the applicant's ability to grasp simple Arabic - apparently this is a very good way of assessing how good someone would be at learning languages.

 

Far more important I suspect will be his driving experience - in the past SNCF refused to accept anyone in Eurostar UK who had not had high speed driving experience in the UK (that doesn't mean HSTs etc but did mean regular driving at 100mph) but that too might well have changed.

 

As Dutch Master has explained any Driver working internationally has to have a proper working language skill - including relevant technical terminology - for the country he is working through plus, of course having been passed out on all relevant Rules & Regs, technical Instructions etc and learning that lot for the UK part, Eurotunnel, SNCF, and SNCB is quite a hefty task.  But again I would have thought he's hardly likely to be asked at interview if he understands the meaning of an SNCF Nf signal showing double red.

They used the same test in another language (I think it may have been Romanian or Hungarian) when I was interviewed for CCF Lille (about fifteen or more years ago); apparently, according to Lynne, it's normal procedure in interviews to study Linguistics at university (she got Czech). Another test I had was being played a host of train announcements from around France, delivered in regional accents, and delivered over Tannoys of varying quality, and having to write them down. 

I'm not sure how strict the language criteria are now; one thing I do remember is that ET specified that all controllers had to be able to speak to the driver in the driver's mother tongue, though this was limited to French and English. In any event, I hope your friend does well in the interview.

[JeffP]

Tannoy announcements in regional accents? Wow......my French is pretty good, but even I struggled with the female announcer at Nice.

 

"Nice-ah, Nice-ah, terrrminews de la ligne-ah".

[Fat Controller]

Tannoy announcements in regional accents? Wow......my French is pretty good, but even I struggled with the female announcer at Nice.

 

"Nice-ah, Nice-ah, terrrminews de la ligne-ah".

Wait till you get 'septante' and 'nonante'

[eastwestdivide]

Back to the trains themselves, they were running up and down to Dollands Moor on training and test runs the last couple of weeks.

Managed to snap a working from the departure lounge at Ebbsfleet:

 

 

and a "spot the interloper" at the buffer stops at St Pancras:

 

What do we call them? Bleurostar? Neurostar?

[eastwestdivide]

Why would you want to give it a new name, it already has one! NIH syndrome in typical British style

 

It's the Velaro and if you're really keen, name it Velaro Chunnel* or something

 

*alternatives include, but not limited to, Velaro Cordiale, Velaro Euro, Velaro Star, Velaro Eurostar ( ) Velaro TML (trans manche link, my French isn't that good) and even Velaro Hercules Poirot

 

Why? Because I like wordplay, puns and nicknames.

[Colin_McLeod]

Why not call them Velcro? Do you think that would stick?

[Ron Ron Ron]

Why not call them Velcro? Do you think that would stick?

 

I've a feeling you've ripped that off from somewhere!

 

 

.

[DavidB-AU]

Saw one of the interlopers at Gare du Nord on Thursday around lunchtime. It had what appeared to be a full uniformed crew and a handful of "suits" milling around. It departed between the 1213 and 1313.

 

Cheers

David

[Ron Ron Ron]

Roof detail shown in this video.

Lots of pantographs.

 

 

[JeffP]

But only one in use?

[phil-b259]

But only one in use?

Yes.

 

Please remember the only reason for using 2 pantographs under 25KV AC was the BRITISH insistence that a 25KV power connector along the roof of the train linking the two power cars (which the French had been using on every single TGV set since the first LGV line opened) was inherently dangerous (despite the French never having had ANY safety issues occur with it).

 

This was also why the APT had to have both its power cars in the middle coupled back to back - British OHLE being done on the cheep (particularly those schemes completed after 1970) which meant that a twin Pantograph solution could not be used at high speeds.

 

Post privatisation the HSE finally caught up with the rest of Europe and allowed a 25KV roof mounted power line to be used on the Virgin Pendalinos thus allowing a single pantograph to power several separate cars thought the train.

 

Thus the new Eurostar train are also permitted to have this feature which means only a single pantograph should be in use on the 25KV sections.

 

(Note that because of the lower voltage and therefore higher current draws involved in DC systems, Eurostar trains operating on the traditional Belgan network (3KV DC) and the 1.5KV DC systems present on classic routes in the south of France will still require more than a single pantograph raised).

[The Stationmaster]

Not quite Phil - as I understand in a 25kv busline was not permitted in the Channel Tunnel (presumably that has now been relaxed?).  In addition the two ends of a Eurostar were required to be separately powered for Channel Tunnel evacuation purposes as the train had to be capable of being split in an emergency - impossible (or at least extremely diificult)  if there had been a 25kv busline between the two halves which had to be disconnected in an emergency.

 

In fact the distance between the two pantographs on Eurostars was a big problem on BR lines.  The only overhead on which they were really ideal was BR pre-Mk1 on the Styal Loop where they could have quite safely operated at 125 mph.  On BR Mk3 on the ECML the divided pantograph layout was pretty close to disastrous as the vibration set up in the contact wire by the leading pan resulted in the wire moving vertically either side of centre by 6 inches or more when the second pan arrived - even at 110mph with the original design of pan.  The amount of movement in the contact wire was considered so dangerous that it was never tested at the originally intended 125 mph.  Hence the redesign of the 'British' pantograph on regional Eurostar sets in order to reduce the uplift forces and to allow the sets to operate at 110mph on the ECML.

 

The APT had its two pans together because of contact wire movement and the problem still exists, I understand, with certain combinations of emu sets on the MML (if nowhere else) where there were marshalling restrictions.

[Zomboid]

The French have an inter unit 25kv power bus?

I would imagine it wasn't done on the 373s because they're two separate trains as much as anything else. I've never heard of having inter unit connections carrying the traction power in Europe, but I could be wrong there.