Class 800 - Updates

[frobisher]

I discovered an interesting issue on 800 020 this morning. After the pantograph went up at Didcot the electrical interference received by my iPhone through the charger made it unworkable. Home button clicking, random apps opening when different bits of the screen were touched, and impossible to type. Unplugged it and all was well. No wonder it interferes with signalling!

Is that an Apple charger or third party one? If the former, then somewhat worrying, if the latter not at all surprising.

[jamie92208]

I've just received the October Railway Magazine. There is a report that Hitachi is laying off about 200 plus contract workers at Newton Aycliffe. The 700 or so permanent staff aren't affected at the moment. Apparently the works is short of orders. Is it going to end up like a replay of the Thrall works at York.

 

Jamie

[exet1095]

Is that an Apple charger or third party one? If the former, then somewhat worrying, if the latter not at all surprising.

Apple, a new iphone7 charger. Fine on diesel, but madness when on electric.

 

Whoever designed the position of the sockets also needs sacking too. Impossible to see, and very hard to feel. My nine-year-old daughter pointed out how much more sensible the Chiltern ones on the 168s were on our return journey.

[jim.snowdon]

I've just received the October Railway Magazine. There is a report that Hitachi is laying off about 200 plus contract workers at Newton Aycliffe. The 700 or so permanent staff aren't affected at the moment. Apparently the works is short of orders. Is it going to end up like a replay of the Thrall works at York.Jamie

With Hitachi now embedded elsewhere in the EU, and Britain casting itself adrift, it would not surprise me if they abandoned Newton Aycliffe. What's the benefit to them of staying in Britain if they want to develop their presence in the European market? None.

 

Jim

[Zomboid]

Is Newton Aycliffe anywhere near a port for exporting trains?

The problem with building trains in the UK is that exporting has an extra level of difficulty because if they're too big to run on our rails, how do you do it? A rail connected factory in Italy has no such trouble. So our factories can only really support the domestic market, unless they're very close to a deep water port or HS1. And since just about every franchise has lots of new trains now, where are the orders going to come from?

[jjb1970]

At the rate things are going with the 80X trains I'm not sure that Brexit should be Hitachi's biggest concern, their real problems might be a little closer to home.

[jamie92208]

With Hitachi now embedded elsewhere in the EU, and Britain casting itself adrift, it would not surprise me if they abandoned Newton Aycliffe. What's the benefit to them of staying in Britain if they want to develop their presence in the European market? None.

 

Jim

 

 

With Hitachi now embedded elsewhere in the EU, and Britain casting itself adrift, it would not surprise me if they abandoned Newton Aycliffe. What's the benefit to them of staying in Britain if they want to develop their presence in the European market? None.

 

Jim

Roger Ford has been predicting a shaky future for the factory for some time.

 

Is Newton Aycliffe anywhere near a port for exporting trains?

The problem with building trains in the UK is that exporting has an extra level of difficulty because if they're too big to run on our rails, how do you do it? A rail connected factory in Italy has no such trouble. So our factories can only really support the domestic market, unless they're very close to a deep water port or HS1. And since just about every franchise has lots of new trains now, where are the orders going to come from?

There seems to be no problem in getting all the bodyshells up to Newton Aycliff which arrive by sea, at I think Hartlepool.  There's also Middlesborough and Sunderland to choose from so I don't think that there would be a problem.  However as you say it adds an extra cost factor as the trains would have to be built, joined together for testing and trial running at NA then split up again for transport.

 

Jamie

[The Stationmaster]

Interesting day yesterday seeing various 80X sets running in the vicinity of Reading.  I think the current game for train watchers is guessing which set likes running on mains electricity and which ones prefer to be running on diesel even if the electricity is there.  Right old mixture yesterday and about 50:50 of the trains I saw.  And a former colleague reported seeing at least one set running on electric power at Swindon.

[Ron Ron Ron]

I've just received the October Railway Magazine. There is a report that Hitachi is laying off about 200 plus contract workers at Newton Aycliffe. The 700 or so permanent staff aren't affected at the moment. Apparently the works is short of orders. Is it going to end up like a replay of the Thrall works at York.

 

Jamie

 

 

That's not new news Jamie.

It was reported on a couple of months ago.

Hitachi took on several hundred extra contract staff not only to deal with the highly concentrated peak in Class 385 and Class 800 series production, but in anticipation of winning the LU Piccadilly Line contract for new tube trains.

As it is, Hitachi have missed out on the Piccadilly line contract and 385 and 800 series production will start to slow down in the new year.

 

When Hitachi committed to the Newton Aycliffe factory, they had hoped to sell their AT100 and 200 series trains into the UK market, which if successful would have provided work well into the next decade, but since then CAF and Stadler have appeared on the scene and bagged big orders, leaving Scotrail as the only AT200 customer to date.

 

Had the Class 800 series production been scheduled over a longer delivery period and had they not farmed out some production to their new acquired Italian plant, the prospects for Newton Aycliffe may have been a lot better.

However, they are still hoping to win the HS2 rolling stock order, in conjunction with bid partners, Bombardier.

 

 

.

Edited October 30, 2018 by Ron Ron Ron

[Richard E]

And don't forget, as said, we do not have the loading gauge to build for export. Yes, the 800's arrive by sea but they are built to UK clearances so there isn't a problem with those.

[Mark Saunders]

And don't forget, as said, we do not have the loading gauge to build for export. Yes, the 800's arrive by sea but they are built to UK clearances so there isn't a problem with those.

 

But they are still going by road from Tees Dock to Heighington!

[Legend]

With Hitachi now embedded elsewhere in the EU, and Britain casting itself adrift, it would not surprise me if they abandoned Newton Aycliffe. What's the benefit to them of staying in Britain if they want to develop their presence in the European market? None.

 

Jim

Well we should remember that if they want a continued presence in the UK market

[Mark Saunders]

And don't forget, as said, we do not have the loading gauge to build for export. Yes, the 800's arrive by sea but they are built to UK clearances so there isn't a problem with those.

 

We never did but managed in the past!

[jamie92208]

We never did but managed in the past!

 

Leeds Forge built a lot of continental gauge trains in the early 20th century and managed to get them out somehow.  A large number of Wagon Lit coaches I think.  Their works were up in Armley and I've no idea how they got them out.

 

Jamie

[jim.snowdon]

So too did Metropolitan-Cammell and Birmingham Carriage & Wagon. The issue with a lot of continental stock was not necessarily the height and overall width but the width below platform level. European loading gauges tend to go straight down at each side whereas the UK gauges tuck in and are narrower below platform level.

 

Jim

[RJS1977]

I've certainly seen a photo of a Garratt bound for South Africa being transported by rail from Beyer Peacock at Gorton.

[159220]

Sadly, those "people in the industry" are misinformed. The ORR temporary freeze on acceptance of Agility EAST 800 series trains is independent of Agility West and remember, the class 802 is outside of the IEP - owned by Eversholt. Acceptance into passenger service is still very much on (as the GWR safety case mitigates the known risk) with the class 802/0 (and of course the Agility West 800/3s with 316 accepted the other day). 802012 should be accepted by weeks end with 013/014 not far of. Of course, 016 shall be out out sequence due to damage taking down the GWML wires the other evening under test. 

 

They may be misinformed .. but the info came from an individual who is definitely 'in the know' at the ORR, and who when asked "are the 802s affected by this, or are those not yet in service covered by the existing authorisations", specifically said any Class 802s not currently authorised will not be until Hitachi have undertaken further work on this issue.  

 

 

I am sorry, I know it is never nice being told you are wrong. Yet, your information is most certainly misplaced and the 'ORR contact' is misinformed. I would be very interested to know who this individual is, please PM me, as it may be a simple case of confusion over the very separate worlds of Agility East and West fleets, plus the class 802 acceptances on different routes. They may or may not be confused over the pause of 802202 and subsequent 802/2s (&/3s), ultimately for TPE (HT) through Angel Trains.

 

Rule number one in being informed, never claim 'my mate in....' as the industry management does not work like that, there is a far more subtle art to it. 

 

Anyway, 800316 was accepted into traffic and 800317 is expected by Friday. Additionally, to burst the 802 'fake news' truly, 802012 was accepted into passenger service yesterday and can be seen on the network. 

 

For those interested, latest Agility West/GWR fleet info:

 

GWR IET Status 29/10/18

 

800/0 

 

001/002 - Hitachi/Agility Trains West Accepted, Used for testing till Dec, Bristol/North Pole.

003-036 - GWR Accepted/Passenger Service. Total available units: 34/36.

 

800/3 

 

302–310/313-316 - GWR Accepted. Total available units: 13/21. 

317/318 - Agility Trains West Acceptance/Mileage, Bristol/North Pole. (317 accepted by Fri)

311/312 - Hitachi Commissioning, Doncaster.

319 - Hitachi Commissioning, Eastleigh.

301/320/321 - Hitachi, Newton Aycliffe. 

 

802/0 

 

001/002  - GWR Accepted/Driver Training

003-012 - GWR Accepted/Passenger Service. Total available units: 10/22. 

013-022 - Hitachi Commissioning, North Pole

 

802/1 

 

101 - GWR Accepted/Passenger Service. Total available units: 1/14. 

102-114 - Hitachi, Pistoia, Italy. (102 expected Channel Tunnel w/s 12/11) 

Edited October 30, 2018 by 159220

[St. Simon]

I discovered an interesting issue on 800 020 this morning. After the pantograph went up at Didcot the electrical interference received by my iPhone through the charger made it unworkable. Home button clicking, random apps opening when different bits of the screen were touched, and impossible to type. Unplugged it and all was well. No wonder it interferes with signalling!

 

I've just tried to replicate this on my journey back from Swindon, iPhone 7 less than a year old and with the apple charger, sat right under the pantograph (I don't know which unit). No problems it seems when the pantograph was raised.

 

However, I have heard of this problem before, but it seems to be limited (I think GWR have tried to replicate the fault and haven't had any issues, but I'm not 100% sure)

 

Simon

Edited October 31, 2018 by St. Simon

[exet1095]

I've just tried to replicate this on my journey back from Swindon, iPhone 7 less than a year old and with the apply charger, sat right under the pantograph (I don't know which unit). No problems it seems when the pantograph was raised.

 

However, I have heard of this problem before, but it seems to be limited (I think GWR have tried to replicate the fault and haven't had any issues, but I'm not 100% sure)

 

Simon

Maybe it’s just 800 020? It was in reversed formation, and we were in the second coach, on top of quite a rattly diesel engine that went off with a shudder in platform 4 at Didcot.

[St. Simon]

Hi,

 

I captured this image on my when back from a meeting in Swindon:

 

 

Simon

 

 

[APOLLO]

I like the young Triffid awaiting the train !!

 

Brit15

[Banger Blue]

800/3

 

302–310/313-316 - GWR Accepted. Total available units: 13/21.

 

13 units available, where are they hiding them all?

 

I work on the railway, every time I see a 9 car 80x it’s 800305, every time I’ve ridden on an 800/3 it’s 800305.

An 800/3 was stabled on Reading TCD, the other night, after the OLE damage in the Ladbroke Grove area. I wandered down the yard to have a look…………

 

800305!!!!!!

 

Mutha Trucka

[Zomboid]

Didn't you get the memo? They're all numbered 800305. Apparently the number supplier had an excess of 5s, so they got a discount on the lot.

[159220]

800305!!!!!!

 

 

 

Haha! For me, 800304 seems to haunt me. Funny how a certain number follows you about. 

[jamie92208]

For me it was 66014 for several years.  My mate and I were also convinced that 156513 was actually made of Scotch mist and couldn't be seen by Sassenach's as we didn't see it for many many years.

 

Jamie