Class 800 - Updates

[Geoff Endacott]

Can anyone explain the purpose of the sticky out stick at the front? Picture was taken on 6 March - a Bristol to Reading service according to RTT

 

It's an attachment point for the "Do not Move" sign for when they have broken down.

 

Geoff Endacott

[Gilbert]

It's an attachment point for the "Do not Move" sign for when they have broken down.

 

Geoff Endacott

 

Cheers Geoff - I suspected as much...

[locoholic]

Can anyone explain the purpose of the sticky out stick at the front? Picture was taken on 6 March - a Bristol to Reading service according to RTT

 

P1310533 IET 6.3.18..JPG

It's the in-flight refuelling probe, surely?

[royaloak]

Can anyone explain the purpose of the sticky out stick at the front?

I did post a serious answer but deleted it when I realised the question wasnt meant to be taken seriously.

Sorry about that, my humourometer must be malfunctioning.

Edited March 7, 2018 by royaloak

[Banger Blue]

Does anyone have any idea which departures from Oxford to Moreton-in-Marsh are likely to be Class 800s on Thurs/Fri this week? I'm expecting to get to Oxford late morning early afternoon. (CJL)

 

Chris

 

Had a quick peruse through the 800 diagrams and could see the following London Paddington - Worcester Foregate Street services which may suit your timescale (all times are departure from Oxford):

 

1W19 10:19

1W23 12:24

1W29 15:23

 

If I'm on early turn and catching the train at Reading, 1W29 is my steed home, last week it was a pretty solid 800 turn. 

A couple of Great Malvern services are diagrammed 800s as well but these have been a bit hit & miss recently due to the unavailability of 800 qualified train crew.

 

***Usual disclaimer applies, motive power may change on the day due to unit / crew availability***

Edited March 7, 2018 by Banger Blue

[Gilbert]

I did post a serious answer but deleted it when I realised the question wasnt meant to be taken seriously.

Sorry about that, my humourometer must be malfunctioning.

I am genuinely interested in knowing what it is for.. if you can elucidate?

[dibber25]

Chris

 

Had a quick peruse through the 800 diagrams and could see the following London Paddington - Worcester Foregate Street services which may suit your timescale (all times are departure from Oxford):

 

1W19 10:19

1W23 12:24

1W29 15:23

 

If I'm on early turn and catching the train at Reading, 1W29 is my steed home, last week it was a pretty solid 800 turn. 

A couple of Great Malvern services are diagrammed 800s as well but these have been a bit hit & miss recently due to the unavailability of 800 qualified train crew.

 

***Usual disclaimer applies, motive power may change on the day due to unit / crew availability***

 

Many thanks!

[JeffP]

I am genuinely interested in knowing what it is for.. if you can elucidate?

Isn't it the catch operating lever for the nose to be lifted and expose the coupling?

[jim.snowdon]

It's part of the Scharfenberg coupler - see https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ICE_3-Scharfenberg_coupler_PNr%C2%B00236.jpg - and is used to help gather the coupler heads together when they are out of line.

 

Jim

Edited March 7, 2018 by jim.snowdon

[jamie92208]

It's part of the Scharfenberg coupler - see https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ICE_3-Scharfenberg_coupler_PNr%C2%B00236.jpg - and is used to help gather the coupler heads together when they are out of line.

 

Jim

 

I think that all French TGV's have the same arrangement.

 

Jamie

[HillsideDepot]

GWR named 800009 today, the PDTSO end was named "Sir Gareth Edwards" at Cardiff, and the PDTRBFO end became "John Charles" when the set arrived at Paddington.

 

Each end of 800009 bears images of symbolic coins above each name; with physical coins produced and given to Sir Gareth and the family of John Charles. These have been annotated below to explain their significance.

 

Edit to correct which name is at which end

Edited March 7, 2018 by HillsideDepot

[royaloak]

GWR named 800009 today, the PDTRBFO end was named "Sir Gareth Edwards" at Cardiff, and the PDTSO end became "John Charles" when the set arrived at Paddington.

Bloody hell, couldnt they give it a bigger classification!  

[HillsideDepot]

Bloody hell, couldnt they give it a bigger classification!  

That's the code quoted in the Platform 5 book - my own records have the names under simple column headings: DFT and DST - that's enough detail for me!

[Geoff Endacott]

Which end is which? I have seen a photo which suggests that Sir Gareth is on the second class end.

 

Geoff Endacott

[HillsideDepot]

Which end is which? I have seen a photo which suggests that Sir Gareth is on the second class end.

 

Geoff Endacott

The GWR video shows Sir Gareth signing the London end, and the scrolling platform display says First Class at the front. But the photo at Paddington shows a grey passenger door behind the Sir Gareth end cab. - Original post amended.

[Geoff Endacott]

So football is a first class sport and rugby is a standard class one.

 

Which end is which on the other three named pairs?

 

Geoff Endacott

[Covkid]

Can anyone explain the purpose of the sticky out stick at the front? Picture was taken on 6 March - a Bristol to Reading service according to RTT

 

P1310533 IET 6.3.18..JPG

 

i think it is some kind of aligning peg on the couple head

 

https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=TdL69SvE&id=21E6BE6F3D0F9B0C7DDAC2D1A59F674DF8905C25&thid=OIP.TdL69SvEQM0r1is6zcsVQgHaEK&mediaurl=http%3A%2F%2Fr3.masstransitmag.com%2Ffiles%2Fbase%2FMASS%2Fimage%2F2016%2F09%2F16x9%2F1280x720%2FDellner_Coupler.57eacdb475982.jpg&exph=720&expw=1280&q=dellner+coupling&simid=608042237413359740&ajaxhist=0

Edited March 8, 2018 by Covkid

[modfather]

The pin is the dellner gathering horn.

 

It's purpose is to align the coupling heads.

 

The toggle to release the nose in an emergency is below it to the other side of centre.

[Coryton]

Just seen an IET leaving Cardiff for Paddington.

 

Unfortunately the destination displays said it was heading for Swansea, next stop Bridgend.

 

I know that getting these things to work properly can be surprisingly hard, but perhaps they need some way of turning them off when they misbehave. A blank screen is surely better than one giving the wrong information.

 

Looked as if there were reservation tickets out - don't know if they were in addition to the electronic system or if that had also failed (seems quite likely). Perhaps they also need some backup destination stickers to put in the windows HST-style for when the electronic displays fail. 

 

First class was in the middle - shame the screens in the station were saying first class at the front.

 

I haven't been paying attention recently but this suggests that they are still unable or unwilling to marshal the trains correctly (i.e. in the way their posters say they will be). Possibly there are contractual issues there but I would have thought that the right thing to do (which presumably wouldn't need to get lawyers involved) would be to put practicality over appearance and put some nice thick yellow cantrail lines over first class, and some clear indicator on the front ends showing which is the first class end.

 

 

[159220]

Scharfenberg coupler

 

The Hitachi 800/801/802 series have Dellner couplers, see: 

 

 

PDTRBFO

 

Wow this is worse than what Hornby call them! Hitachi, who "like" made the train use a much simpler system.

 

Driving Pantograph Trailer First (DPTF) - this coach contains the kitchen and transformer. 

Motor Composite (MC). 

Motor Standard (MS) -  the class 801 it is known as the MeS.

*9 car only* Trailer Standard - with inner frame bogies.

Driving Pantograph Trailer Standard (DPTS) - this coach contains an additional transformer. 

 

For reference see: http://www.hitachi.com/rev/pdf/2014/r2014_10_105.pdf 

[royaloak]

I haven't been paying attention recently but this suggests that they are still unable or unwilling to marshal the trains correctly (i.e. in the way their posters say they will be). Possibly there are contractual issues there but I would have thought that the right thing to do (which presumably wouldn't need to get lawyers involved) would be to put practicality over appearance and put some nice thick yellow cantrail lines over first class, and some clear indicator on the front ends showing which is the first class end.

They are having problems with the computers when they try and couple them together so once they find a way to couple them where the computers are happy they tend to leave them like that.

 

As for the 1ST Class yellow line, a lot of us have asked the same question and it even made the company newsletter and was answered by the MD himself, sadly the answer was the usual corporate bolleaux so the simple answer is tough because form is more important than function.

Edited March 8, 2018 by royaloak

[Coryton]

As for the 1ST Class yellow line, a lot of us have asked the same question and it even made the company newsletter and was answered by the MD himself, sadly the answer was the usual corporate bolleaux so the simple answer is tough because form is more important than function.

 

Hmmmm.

 

I think - given the overall plan to be implemented - the way that the rules were set up to make privatisation work was done pretty well (e.g. making sure that interavailable fares remained the 'default' for walk-up travel).

 

However, I wish they'd just said that yellow stripes for first class were a requirement, just as contrasting doors are now. (In fact wouldn't it actually be good if first class passengers with restricted vision could see where their bit of the train is more easily?)

[The Stationmaster]

Just seen an IET leaving Cardiff for Paddington.

 

Unfortunately the destination displays said it was heading for Swansea, next stop Bridgend.

 

I know that getting these things to work properly can be surprisingly hard, but perhaps they need some way of turning them off when they misbehave. A blank screen is surely better than one giving the wrong information.

 

Looked as if there were reservation tickets out - don't know if they were in addition to the electronic system or if that had also failed (seems quite likely). Perhaps they also need some backup destination stickers to put in the windows HST-style for when the electronic displays fail. 

 

First class was in the middle - shame the screens in the station were saying first class at the front.

 

I haven't been paying attention recently but this suggests that they are still unable or unwilling to marshal the trains correctly (i.e. in the way their posters say they will be). Possibly there are contractual issues there but I would have thought that the right thing to do (which presumably wouldn't need to get lawyers involved) would be to put practicality over appearance and put some nice thick yellow cantrail lines over first class, and some clear indicator on the front ends showing which is the first class end.

 

Apparently GWR specified the provision of the necessary slots for paper reservation tickets.  Maybe they'd been forewarned about the antics the TMS couldn't manage.   However I would have hoped that by now something would have been done to get the TMS issues sorted - maybe someone isn't happy to pay for software upgrades.

 

BTW back in 1973 we were finding that various EE Type 3s (Class 37 for younger readers) could be very finnicky about the way they could be multi'd with class mates.  we even had one pair which after a Driver had reported they wouldn't move were found when I went to look at them that they were trying to go in opposite directions, we swopped them round and coupled them using the opposite ends and they worked perfectly well.

[rodent279]

Apparently GWR specified the provision of the necessary slots for paper reservation tickets. Maybe they'd been forewarned about the antics the TMS couldn't manage. However I would have hoped that by now something would have been done to get the TMS issues sorted - maybe someone isn't happy to pay for software upgrades.

 

BTW back in 1973 we were finding that various EE Type 3s (Class 37 for younger readers) could be very finnicky about the way they could be multi'd with class mates. we even had one pair which after a Driver had reported they wouldn't move were found when I went to look at them that they were trying to go in opposite directions, we swopped them round and coupled them using the opposite ends and they worked perfectly well.

And they say diesels are characterless.....

[Zomboid]

I imagine they knew what voyagers are like with the reservation system. You'd hope things would have improved since then, but I guess if the slots are relatively cheap when you're specifying the seats, having them at worst does no harm.

 

Though assuming it works properly eventually, the red/orange/green scheme will be a big step forward.