rembrow Posted April 24 Share Posted April 24 (edited) Was reading in Modern Railways the other night, that Chiltern has submitted a requirement to dft for replacement of their Mk3 stock used on London to Birmingham services. They have apparently stated replacement can be dmu or loco hauled. The article stated that Chiltern are interested in the Mk 5 stock, and would want to take all sets, which are a greater number than existing Mk3 sets, so presumably planning some expansion, possibly for the Oxford to Bletchley service, and later to Milton Keynes on the East West line,which is not being electrified. Edited April 24 by rembrow correction 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium nightstar.train Posted April 24 RMweb Premium Share Posted April 24 Chiltern's Mk3 sets are 6 coaches + DVT, so there has been some end of platform wibble about the Mk5 sets being reformed. Chiltern currently have 6 Mk3 sets. The Mk5 fleet is 13 sets plus a spare DT. So if you disbanded 3 sets you get 9 spare centre coaches, so could make 9 sets of 6 coaches and one of 5. Tremendous waste of the spare end coaches and DTs though. CAF might be willing to make you a few more coaches if you ask nicely, and have wheelbarrows full of cash. Chiltern might do a Virgin and run more frequent, shorter trains. Or maybe they don't have sufficient loadings to justify the 6 car sets. I hope, from a purely selfish modelling perspective, that Chiltern get a new livery if they get the Mk5s. I really don't like their grey with extra grey, much preferred the original blue and white. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rembrow Posted April 24 Share Posted April 24 21 minutes ago, nightstar.train said: Chiltern's Mk3 sets are 6 coaches + DVT, so there has been some end of platform wibble about the Mk5 sets being reformed. Chiltern currently have 6 Mk3 sets. The Mk5 fleet is 13 sets plus a spare DT. So if you disbanded 3 sets you get 9 spare centre coaches, so could make 9 sets of 6 coaches and one of 5. Tremendous waste of the spare end coaches and DTs though. CAF might be willing to make you a few more coaches if you ask nicely, and have wheelbarrows full of cash. Chiltern might do a Virgin and run more frequent, shorter trains. Or maybe they don't have sufficient loadings to justify the 6 car sets. I hope, from a purely selfish modelling perspective, that Chiltern get a new livery if they get the Mk5s. I really don't like their grey with extra grey, much preferred the original blue and white. As I mentioned, the added factor is the start of services on the 1st section of the east/west route, from Oxford to Bletchley. Track laying is completed and it is expected that the infrastructure at the Bletchley section will be handed over to Network Rail later this year, for services to commence, extending to Milton Keynes in 2025. Chiltern is the passenger service operator. As east/west will be an evolving route, as the next stage from Milton Keynes to Cambridge is constructed, they may be looking at using currently available stock in the interim, for the truncated first part of the route. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold adb968008 Posted April 24 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 24 I thought I read elsewhere Chiltern ditched the mk5 idea and are going to refurb the mk3’s to save money ? (Admittedly ive no idea if its true or not). 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Roy Langridge Posted April 24 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 24 1 hour ago, adb968008 said: I thought I read elsewhere Chiltern ditched the mk5 idea and are going to refurb the mk3’s to save money ? (Admittedly ive no idea if its true or not). There will probably be some political pressure through the DfT to take the Mk5s thus avoiding bad news as we run towards a general election. Roy 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rembrow Posted April 25 Share Posted April 25 (edited) 13 hours ago, adb968008 said: I thought I read elsewhere Chiltern ditched the mk5 idea and are going to refurb the mk3’s to save money ? (Admittedly ive no idea if its true or not). Modern Railways stated that Chiltern put out to tender in Jan this year, for replacement of their Mk3 sets by other loco hauled coaches or dmu. The tender also requires the sets to be available for staff training in 2024 and enter scheduled service in 2025, so clearly can't be new build. Edited April 25 by rembrow Address info 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Roy Langridge Posted May 10 RMweb Gold Share Posted May 10 On 19/04/2024 at 11:49, Accurascale Fran said: Hi folks, We have teamed up with our friends at DCC Concepts who have developed a decoder with an attached stay alive capacitor specifically for our TPE Mark 5 Driving Trailer. Zen decoder software has always been smooth, clever and easy to use but the new BLACK decoder range takes this to a new level, with extended and improved automatic braking and shuttle abilities, simple-to-use ONE step locomotive set-up and advanced brown-out protection. All DCC Concepts decoders are tested at least 3 times before they package them for sale, so they know that they all work perfectly when sold and you can be quite confident that reliability is assured. Decoder features: 1.1 Amps peak power 750mA continuous power 4 functions at 100mA each 2 additional “logic” functions 22mm x 16.5mm 21-pin direct, 8-pin & harness One-Step Loco Setup Shuttle mode (requires ABC boards for this to function) Stay-Alive connection Decoder Programming: F0 – Head/tail lights F1 – Cab interior lights F2 – Destination boards F3 – Destination mode This decoder is now in stock and can be bought exclusively via the Accurascale website right here: https://www.accurascale.com/products/transpennine-express-mk5a-dt-decoder-stayalive Cheers! Fran Anybody received their’s yet? Thanks, Roy 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIRCLASS80 Posted May 11 Share Posted May 11 11 hours ago, Roy Langridge said: Anybody received their’s yet? Thanks, Roy Ordered after a couple of hours of release and still heard nothing. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Roy Langridge Posted May 11 RMweb Gold Share Posted May 11 2 hours ago, NIRCLASS80 said: Ordered after a couple of hours of release and still heard nothing. Ok, not just me then. Will drop a message on Monday. Thanks. Roy Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DIRTY DIESEL Posted May 11 Share Posted May 11 1 hour ago, Roy Langridge said: Ok, not just me then. Will drop a message on Monday. Thanks. Roy I asked support a week last Friday and they said they’d not received all the chips they thought they were getting so there’d be a roughly 10 day delay, so should be incoming I’d of guessed… 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIRCLASS80 Posted May 13 Share Posted May 13 Just had a dispatched email so things are moving 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium ERIC ALLTORQUE Posted May 14 RMweb Premium Share Posted May 14 Got my two today so they are up and running with these. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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