Class 800 - Updates

[The Stationmaster]

22 hours ago, Mallard60022 said:

Is the AC working Dudds?

P

I hope so for his sake.  Apparently it wasn't working in one coach on the train I travelled back in from Exeter on Monday and itr wasn't working at the seating bay I chose on the 387 I travelled on after that.

 

20 hours ago, Mallard60022 said:

Well life on the EDCML is not happy either Loads of York 'shuttles' cancelled this morning and  a  reduced service of course, as announced. Most people seem to be understanding however a few are just doing the usual and getting in everyone's faces. Glad I'm not travelling to Peterborough until Saturday!!

Looks like the weather is breaking 'up' here (36E) and there could be storms later (thank goodness).

P

That would have been mainly related to linespeed reductions due to high rail temperatures but also there were probably onle tension (lack of) problems as well.

[Ian Hargrave]

Which leads me to ponder on how long steel rail would take to cool to its given safe temperature.The air temperature outside is now 10c less than it was some 24 hours ago.The main house thermostat however shows exactly the same . The fabric of this building ....brick etc. ....has retained its heat.

Edited July 26, 2019 by Ian Hargrave
Mistake

[Siberian Snooper]

Today I travelled from Taunton to Plymouth and whilst waiting for my late running XC poo tube, a 5+5 Zoomer came in the front portion was marshalled correctly, but the other part was the wrong way round with standard class leading.

 

 

[Covkid]

13 hours ago, Siberian Snooper said:

Today I travelled from Taunton to Plymouth and whilst waiting for my late running XC poo tube, a 5+5 Zoomer came in the front portion was marshalled correctly, but the other part was the wrong way round with standard class leading.

 

 

 

That is always likely to happen, but particularly at the moment when Hitachi are struggling to deliver enough serviceable units for the timetable. From the winter timetable though when GWR have received 800001 and 800002, and have hopefully changed all the GUs, they can concentrate on correct formations. Presumably there would need to be night GWR "ferry" drivers at North Pole, Stoke Gifford and Laira to take sets out for a spin round triangles in the case of "mixed doubles". Unless of course Hitachi have the luxury of splitting and joining 800/0s to correctly orientate two on the depot with their own staff.  

[Revolution Ben]

 

Hello all,

 

Kato are to offer the Class 800 in N: http://www.jp-ngauge.info/ngi/2019/07/kato2019-6f3c.html

 

cheers

 

Ben A.

[The Stationmaster]

16 hours ago, Siberian Snooper said:

Today I travelled from Taunton to Plymouth and whilst waiting for my late running XC poo tube, a 5+5 Zoomer came in the front portion was marshalled correctly, but the other part was the wrong way round with standard class leading.

 

 

Which at least is the best way of getting the orientation wrong as all the 1st Class is together.  Was the mis-marshalling correctly announced in terms of directing folk to the correct orange squares on the platform?

[Oldddudders]

On the 07.02 Padd - Penzance, which I joined at NA. On time, aircon functional, but being 2 x 5-cars and a lot of people needing the front unit for short platforms, it is evident that the quite large First Class notices by the doors aren’t sufficient, and some confusion resulted. A party of 6 joined at Plymouth, sat near me, and at 10.30, a chap opened a Pinot Grigio winebox! Style! They were among about 100 people who alighted at St Germans - where a freehand sign by the exit proclaimed the route to a festival. I am en route Camborne, and you can guess what I might be doing there!

[Gwiwer]

SWMBO has recently travelled by GWR and reported back as follows.

 

Paddington - Penzance :  2x5-car units (she isn't au fait with the numbering and "grey seats" doesn't define 800 or 802) with "the most awful seats ever".  She said the reservations were cancelled by the guard because of the number of passengers wishing to travel.  She occupied a seat with no reservation light lit and was challenged by reservation holders twice during the journey.  Because of her medical situation she is unable to stand and therefore refused to do so.  There was no catering service either visible or advertised by PA announcement.  The train was uncomfortably full and warm but the air-con was running.  She reports numbness in the hind quarters and lower legs from about 15 minute into the 5 hour 30 minute journey.

 

Penzance - Lostwithiel was on an "old train" which from her description sounds like a slam-door HST formation.  It was packed but otherwise OK.

 

Lostwithiel - Plymouth was on a 2-car 150.  She can generically identify a Sprinter.  Full and standing in a 2-car unit.  Desrcribed as "hot and making people feel sick".

 

Plymouth - Bristol on a 9-car IET.  Not full.  Trolley service advertised by PA as static in the first class section.  Seats and suffering as above.

 

Bristol - Bath by the sound of it on a 166 as she described "hopeless overcrowding and tiny seats"

 

Bath - Reading : one 5-car unit carrying the load of two as the guard apologised for the short train.  Packed.  Hot.  No catering.  Seats "even worse than going down".  

 

Feedback has been provided to GWR.  It makes little difference that this is staff spouse travel and not paid for at the public rate (nor indeed at all in some cases).  This is manifestly not good enough.  DafT specify the seats, the franchise effectively specifies the timetable and Hitachi are responsible for the IET availability.  GWR would be responsible for much of the rest though cannot entirely predict passenger loadings.

 

 

 

 

[Mallard60022]

There seems to be huge gripes 'down' here at the ECML HQ at 36E. Mostly to do with overcrowding and air con + no proper grub on board etc. That is on all services by the way. Overcrowding does seem to be a real problem at the moment. Is this something to do with The Trainline et al selling tickets for places that just don't exist?

How about this for a laugh (not); some elite barsteward on the LNER FB threads is banging on about ".....,they must raise train fares so that he does not have to travel on overcrowded trains and have to stand for long periods...….". He says it is just normal practice to ensure that the cost of something should be adjuted upwards so that it ensures that 'whatever' does not become overused or oversold! WTF is that all about? Fortunately, despite the disruption in the week, loads of people basically told him to f### off. I suggested very politely of course, that as he was so worried and having a hard time, that he should use a Chauffeur driven Merc to commute or whatever he was doing so that he didn't have to mix with us plebs. I am awaiting his response. 

I used to hate the term snowflake, thinking it was an insult used by older gits about youngsters that were always moaning, until my granddaughter explained what it was actually about! Yes it does tend to be a word used to describe mostly younger people, but that it is directed at those of any age that just can't get their little heads around the fact that (e.g.) there is not enough phone signal, there isn't a USB port on the train, or they couldn't get exactly the sandwich they wanted, or despite them being a princess they just can't get a reserved seat blah blah. Thus I now think snowflake (+ some decent adjectives) are words I might just use when addressing some complete arse's moans on these threads, just for fun of course. In all honesty it really is an eye opener seeing just how completely self obsessed and ignorant of the social conventions, often required in times of difficulty, that so many people seem to be totally unaware of these days. How the #### did all this happen? The behaviour described by the 'normal folk' of this increasingly abnormal bunch that use trains these days, is just unbelievable. Surely it can't just be the Azuma that is causing this

[Reorte]

19 hours ago, Ian Hargrave said:

Which leads me to ponder on how long steel rail would take to cool to its given safe temperature.The air temperature outside is now 10c less than it was some 24 hours ago.The main house thermostat however shows exactly the same . The fabric of this building ....brick etc. ....has retained its heat.

 

Brick holds heat rather longer than steel; the actual temperature drop in it should be fairly rapid. I'm guessing here but what you might still need to be wary about at first is whether everything has settled back down properly to where it's supposed to be due to contracting as it cools.

[Siberian Snooper]

2 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

Which at least is the best way of getting the orientation wrong as all the 1st Class is together.  Was the mis-marshalling correctly announced in terms of directing folk to the correct orange squares on the platform?

 

I don't know what announcements were made as I couldn't hear what was said, but I think there must have been something a few minutes before it's arrival as some people moved about.

 

 

[multivac]

Found on the web, sorry if this has been posted before. Click on each link in order to enjoy.

Omiya Railway Museum, Japan  mural showing key events in Japanese railway history ...

 

The big picture   The first one   Recent new trains

Edited July 28, 2019 by multivac

[multivac]

On 25/07/2019 at 23:42, Ken.W said:

...

The situation at LNER is that our maintenance depots - Bounds Green and Craigentinny - were transferred over to Hitachi last December when the first Satsumas were due into service.

All of the maintenance staff were TUPE'd over with them, like it or not, mostly not from what I've heard, including the Tech Riding Inspectors, and even the Maintenance Controller sat in the LNER Control office is now Hitachi.

 

This was also behind the XC HSTs transferring out of EC to Laira.

 

Any news of Hitachi introducing Japanese practice yet and I don't mean issuing white gloves for the train crews. Why are the A/C units dropping offline?

[royaloak]

On 27/07/2019 at 08:20, Covkid said:

 

Presumably there would need to be night GWR "ferry" drivers at North Pole, Stoke Gifford and Laira to take sets out for a spin round triangles in the case of "mixed doubles". 

Good luck with that one, unfortunately there arent enough drivers doing nights as it is or the spare capacity in the fleet/maintenance requirements to allow sets off early so they can be turned.

 

About the only way sets can be turned is en route to the depot at the end of the day or en route from the depot at the start of the day but only if the paths are available.

[royaloak]

On 24/07/2019 at 14:20, woodenhead said:

If the 802s have larger radiator groups to deal with the heat and are coping

Unfortunately they arent coping, the radiators are getting blocked by pollen just as the 800s are, its the usual 'if we manufacture the radiators with the fins closer together it will make the radiators more efficient so we can make it physically smaller' but fails to take into account the pollen and other 'flying vegetation' wont be able to pass through the rads and so blocks the element, end result no cooling and a very hot engine. 

 

I think I am right that we have been here before with the Voyagers in 2001/2002, the 150s in 1987 etc and am confident we will be here again with the next generation of units as we will have new designers all trying to be clever and lets be honest lessons are never learned are they!

 

They are now getting on top of the issues but only by blasting the radiator elements to remove all the pollen etc on a rather regular basis.

[royaloak]

Quote

 

  On 25/07/2019 at 23:42, Ken.W said:

 

All of the maintenance staff were TUPE'd over with them, like it or not, mostly not from what I've heard, including the Tech Riding Inspectors, and even the Maintenance Controller sat in the LNER Control office is now Hitachi.

 

Lucky them, unfortunately that was not an option at any of the GWR depot where all the staff had to apply for the 'new' jobs and if lucky enough to be taken on they were classed as leaving the 'railway' and moving to an external employer with all the repercussions on pensions etc.

 

That has led to the ridiculous situation where some of the remaining staff have had to change roles so fully trained fitters are now fueling trains and emptying  retention tanks.

Edited July 28, 2019 by royaloak

[Mallard60022]

I see that they are dragging my namesake out of the cupboard to meet me at York on Thursday. I suspect it might get parked in the bay next to Platform 5(?) as the York service usually uses Platform 6. Or it could be there to witness the passing of the Flying Scotsman service? Should be fun.

http://www.railadvent.co.uk/2019/07/steam-locomotive-4468-mallard-leaves-the-nrm-to-meet-lner-azuma.html?fbclid=IwAR0HpghX4Ex3tZ-Ys9sel-WrkahjWHT5hP-xoecTid-uNXUfyS6DlIVFuGc

P 

Edited July 29, 2019 by Mallard60022

[The Stationmaster]

1 hour ago, Mallard60022 said:

I see that they are dragging my namesake out of the cupboard to meet me at York on Thursday. I suspect it might get parked in the bay next to Platform 5(?) as the York service usually uses Platform 6. Or it could be there to witness the passing of the Flying Scotsman service? Should be fun.

http://www.railadvent.co.uk/2019/07/steam-locomotive-4468-mallard-leaves-the-nrm-to-meet-lner-azuma.html?fbclid=IwAR0HpghX4Ex3tZ-Ys9sel-WrkahjWHT5hP-xoecTid-uNXUfyS6DlIVFuGc

P 

I wonder if they'll be putting vinyls on it to match the zoomer. (or far better - putting nice garter blue vinyls on the zoomer)?

[rodent279]

1 hour ago, The Stationmaster said:

I wonder if they'll be putting vinyls on it to match the zoomer. (or far better - putting nice garter blue vinyls on the zoomer)?

I reckon Zoomer livery would work well on Mallard.

[Mallard60022]

52 minutes ago, rodent279 said:

I reckon Zoomer livery would work well on Mallard.

I reckon Mallard livery would work well on the  loomer

P

[rodent279]

2 hours ago, Mallard60022 said:

I reckon Mallard livery would work well on the  loomer

P

I think the blue might, but it would need to be relieved, maybe with a silver or cream swirl. Not sure the red wheels would work though!

[JDW]

I think a blue version of the [modern] LNER colour scheme would look quite classy (ie the same livery just with shades of blue instead of red - surely someone on here could take a picture of an IET and Photoshop it?). Actually, I bet it would work quite well in a variety of colours. A Silver Link inspired monochrome version might be quite nice, as might an apple green or dark blue version

[eastwestdivide]

6 hours ago, JDW said:

I think a blue version of the [modern] LNER colour scheme would look quite classy (ie the same livery just with shades of blue instead of red - surely someone on here could take a picture of an IET and Photoshop it?). Actually, I bet it would work quite well in a variety of colours. A Silver Link inspired monochrome version might be quite nice, as might an apple green or dark blue version

From one of LNER's own publicity shots. Blue's a bit iffy I think, and I didn't catch all the bodyside red, and picked up the train next to it too:

[Indomitable026]

Here's a couple of pictures of Mallard prior to the event..

 

[Mallard60022]

Ah that will be to celebrate my arrival on Thursday

Platform 7 of course not P5.

P

 

Edited July 30, 2019 by Mallard60022