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Greater Anglia's Stadler Flirt - Class 745 & 755


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18/04/2019

 

Gissing

66002, 755414 and 755413 on 5Q99, 03:43, Ripple Lane Exch Sdgs - Norwich C.PT. T.&R.S.M.D (08:23) - new unit deliveryDAS811836.jpg.18392a2221fff8ec5c7cf630dafa30e6.jpg

 

755410 on 5Q51, 08:10, Norwich - Colchester Up Passngr Loop (09:16) - unit on test, on overhead, diesel from Stowmarket

DAS811874.jpg.f0b0bf295eee09ab2255b3201819dd62.jpg

 

Tivetshall

755410 on 5Q56, 14:58, Ipswich - Norwich (15:44) - unit under test

DAS811944.jpg.99c9b3fdec0bab2e4919c025e31df40c.jpg

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29 April 2019

 

Tivetshall

755409 on 5Q53, 11:33, Norwich T.C. - Ipswich (12:21) - unit under test

DAS812108.jpg.b41b74b5ebcec0d0517338a84c88fea8.jpg

 

DAS812110.jpg.cf44de414654b74991b11485de132ab4.jpg

 

755409 on 5Q54, 12:30, Ipswich - Norwich (13:23) - unit under test

DAS812197.jpg.0413129041d007df11d1dda3fb28730b.jpg

 

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Any ideas as to when these units are likely to enter service?  I read on WNXX.com that GA are hoping to finish with the Class 37’s and short sets in June and move their Class 170’s onto another TOC though no date was given for that.

Edited by jools1959
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3 hours ago, jools1959 said:

Any ideas as to when these units are likely to enter service?  I read on WNXX.com that GA are hoping to finish with the Class 37’s and short sets in June and move their Class 170’s onto another TOC though no date was given for that.

 

A day of the week with a "y" in it is the only certainty at the moment, I suspect the short set will last beyond June

Edited by beast66606
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3 hours ago, jools1959 said:

Any ideas as to when these units are likely to enter service?  I read on WNXX.com that GA are hoping to finish with the Class 37’s and short sets in June and move their Class 170’s onto another TOC though no date was given for that.

I think the 170s are following me from East Anglia to Wales.  At least they are pretty much in the same livery and will only need a few tweaks!  The units are due towards the end of this year to meet the 2019 abolition date for the 14X fleet, but we'll see.

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Noticed how stretched the the pantograph is in one of the photos will this cause problems in the future ?  Also the livery should be Great Eastern blue but DAFT have probably decided that dull grey is best.

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By the look of it the unit is approaching a level crossing, so the pan will be following the increasing height of the contact wire that provides additional clearance for road vehicles at crossings.  No reason to suppose it will cause any problems in the future if the pan and OHL remain within specified limits.  

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2 hours ago, lmsforever said:

Noticed how stretched the the pantograph is in one of the photos will this cause problems in the future ?  Also the livery should be Great Eastern blue but DAFT have probably decided that dull grey is best.

 

The GEML around Diss / Norwich (and maybe more) has extra height on the overheads at crossings due to the farming nature of their use.

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1 hour ago, beast66606 said:

 

The GEML around Diss / Norwich (and maybe more) has extra height on the overheads at crossings due to the farming nature of their use.

 

All level crossings have the same height OLE throughout the country, the only exceptions are those which may have a lower height where the standard height is not possible.

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On 07/05/2019 at 09:59, Classsix T said:

Live Report!

 

A lone unit just zoomed thru' Needham northbound. Pan up.

Hope Dave's out for it, the weather is just right!

 

C6T. 

 

Dave's been in Cardiff / Newport / Bristol / Eastleigh for most of the week !

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18 minutes ago, Mersey507003 said:

I would say they are probably more suitable for use in Europe. 

 

I would have said that units which loom more like the class 345 and 710  would have been better mainly due to their uk origins as far as I know, who knows, maybe bombardier could have possibly developed a  hybrid version of the london underground S stock trains with the same capabilities as the 745/755s for traction and more variety of the length of each unit aswell as 2 bogies per coach.

 

The diesel engines could have been mounted underfloor if the design was suitable for this therefore giving full passenger seating throughout each unit instead of having 4 articulated coaches with 1 door per coach per side and a diesel section in the middle where nobody can be seated.  At least with the S stock, class 345 and 710s they have more doors per coach per side thus allowing a more rapid evacuation if the need ever arose

 

I reckon station dwell times will be the Achilles heal of these units - maybe not so much out in rural areas but Norwich and obviously the London end of the GEML are prime commuting locations where speedy boarding is a must to optimise line capacity.

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And of course they must have a reduced seating capacity compared with the 379's that they are replacing on the Lynn / Cambridge -Liverpool St services.

 

It seems that things like this weren't thought about during the design process, these appear to be trains designed for branch lines in Europe, not what are, in effect, intercity length journey's which will be packed to the gunnels in peak hours.

 

Yet again, a new cutting edge train, sadly designed for somewhere else!

 

Andy G

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1 hour ago, uax6 said:

And of course they must have a reduced seating capacity compared with the 379's that they are replacing on the Lynn / Cambridge -Liverpool St services.

 

It seems that things like this weren't thought about during the design process, these appear to be trains designed for branch lines in Europe, not what are, in effect, intercity length journey's which will be packed to the gunnels in peak hours.

 

Yet again, a new cutting edge train, sadly designed for somewhere else!

 

Andy G

 

I would argue the 379s are also the wrong design for that route: ~2 hours on plank-like commuter seating, crammed-in like sardines, doors at 1/3 and 2/3 which let in howling winter winds at every halt (that’s a particular problem on the Fen Line). 

 

In fairness, there are only a couple of peak-hour trains each day on that route. While purpose-designed stock would have been better for what is, at the limits, an InterCity route, you can see a poster up this page bemoaning increased dwell times and, I guess, the end of the world when this stock is introduced on the GEML. 

 

Unfortunately for us users, the Fen Line is impossibly multi-use which means no single rolling stock compromise would be entirely satisfactory. London-Cambridge-Ely-King’s Lynn was an InterCity route (after electrification it was relegated to an NSE Express route, then just an ordinary line - the real action shifted to King’s Cross, leaving a couple of direct peak-hours Liv St trains as a sop to angry City commuters). But the London-Cambridge and Cambridge-Lynn sections are, respectively, a commuter line and a busy country branch line. I can’t think of any existing rolling stock that could satisfactorily manage all that. 

 

Meanwhile, I am rather looking forward to trying these new trains. They certainly can’t be worse than the 317s which are still frequently used on the Liverpool Street trains. 

 

Paul

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Is the seating capacity published anywhere? Must be, but I haven't seen it.

I would expect the 3/4 car versions to be pretty rare in London once the fleet replacement is complete, given that they were bought for the various branches around East Anglia. The 12 car EMU versions for inter city style services to Stansted and Norwich, and the Bombardier order is for the London-centric commuter runs.

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On ‎10‎/‎05‎/‎2019 at 13:12, Classsix T said:

Live Report - with piccies!

 

Unit 410 thru Stow less than 15 minutes ago. 37800 lurks in the Down Goods Loop.

 

DSC_0147.JPG.d905014705c9971305da157ce707007b.JPG _20190510_130447.JPG.2f35b9424e4abada63e3ace227aaae70.JPG 

C6T. 

What on Earth is the rabbit logo above the "greater Anglia" wording?  Potential new branding?

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23 minutes ago, wombatofludham said:

What on Earth is the rabbit logo above the "greater Anglia" wording?  Potential new branding?

 

Appears to be branding/marketing.  If you go to their website you will see several images of the rabbit visiting places they serve, and there is a video showing the same thing with the rabbit leaping into place above the name at the end.

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On 11/05/2019 at 01:47, Mersey507003 said:

I would say they are probably more suitable for use in Europe. 

 

I would have said that units which loom more like the class 345 and 710  would have been better mainly due to their uk origins as far as I know, who knows, maybe bombardier could have possibly developed a  hybrid version of the london underground S stock trains with the same capabilities as the 745/755s for traction and more variety of the length of each unit aswell as 2 bogies per coach.

 

The diesel engines could have been mounted underfloor if the design was suitable for this therefore giving full passenger seating throughout each unit instead of having 4 articulated coaches with 1 door per coach per side and a diesel section in the middle where nobody can be seated.  At least with the S stock, class 345 and 710s they have more doors per coach per side thus allowing a more rapid evacuation if the need ever arose

 

What on earth has the place it was designed got to do with it?

 

The whole point of the diesel "shorty" module, rather than under floor engines, and of the articulation, is to allow a low floor and maximum accessibility. 

 

The fact is that this is the first design for the UK network that has caught up with things like accessibility that have been standard on units in other parts of Europe for 10 or 20 years. 

 

The more I've seen of these units leading up to their introduction, the more I'm looking forward to travelling in them regularly!

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6 hours ago, wombatofludham said:

What on Earth is the rabbit logo above the "greater Anglia" wording?  Potential new branding?

 

Without wishing to set one running, isn’t it a hare?

 

Native English hares are much more common in my part of East Anglia than immigrant bunnies. 

 

There’s anyway a tradition of associating trains with native animals: Auden memorably described an A4 as being “swift as a greyhound / strong as a boar”.

 

And Turner’s most famous railway picture also features a hare at speed. 

 

Paul

Edited by Fenman
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