Class 800 - Updates

[Coach bogie]

11 x 23 m coaches requires ~ 253 m (ignoring the spacing between vehicles) - maybe a bit less if the 91 and/or DVT are shorter than 23 m.

 

Two 5 coach trains running together with 26 m coaches needs 260 m. 

 

Hmmm.

 

When a 225 set is in Northallerton, is all of it alongside the platform?

Best view I can give from York end. The junction signal is on the end of the ramp at the north end, so the loco cannot be off the platform.

Mike Wiltshire

[Jaggzuk]

Not to go too much off topic here, but just to say that work started a couple of weekends ago at Northallerton for the Platform 2 extension.  Vortock fencing is up.

 

The OLE headspan has had insulators moved towards the track so that the horizontal wires over the new platform extension are not live.  Also, signal and track circuit cabling is currently being relocated.

 

Also, yellow track monitoring retro reflective targetss have been added to the webs of the rails.

[Richard E]

800101 running York-Newcastle test runs today. This is running as a 9 car set if I counted correctly   so shorter than DVT+91+9 by 12 metres. Two 5 car sets coupled are around 15 metres longer than a 225 hence the need to extend the platforms at some stations.

 

Edit to add it emerged from Donny depot 3 minutes behind my 225 and was still 3 minutes behind us at York so kept up quite nicely.

Edited February 24, 2017 by Richard E

[royaloak]

Not only high, but also as the coaches are 26m long (as opposed to the 23m of Mk 3 and 4 used by Virgin East Coast) the distance from the door to the platform edge is also greater at stations with curved platforms such as York.  No doubt DafT considered this point when they 'wrote' the specification.  Sorry my mistake - no doubt DafT overlooked this point when they 'wrote' the specification.

That shouldnt be the case, these are supposed to have the same wheelbase as a Mark 3 and the doors are about the same distance apart, the doors are not at the ends of the carriages as they are on a Mark 3, the extra 3m length is all at the ends, although it does mean the corridor connections will deflect like mad on points/ sharp curves.

[Jaggzuk]

Northallerton's 20m platform extension starts in earnest this weekend 25th Feb.  https://www.networkrail.co.uk/feeds/network-rail-to-extend-platform-at-northallerton-station/.

 

Will post a few progress photos as an when interesting things happen.

[Ron Ron Ron]

Is this another Class 802 body shell preparing to make its journey to the Italian assembly plant from Japan?

Note the date 5/3/17 (today).

 

 

 

Edited March 5, 2017 by Ron Ron Ron

[Wild Boar Fell]

If it's an 802, then I believe that will be the 1st in Class, my understanding is they are the 'Devon Followons'

[Ron Ron Ron]

If it's an 802, then I believe that will be the 1st in Class...... '

Not the first.

At least one other is already in Italy for final assembly and fit out.

 

 

Ron

[MarshLane]

If it's an 802, then I believe that will be the 1st in Class, my understanding is they are the 'Devon Followons'

 

 

No, there is at least one bodyshell in Italy for the Devon diesel version - Railway Herald did a full round up of all the current construction and which sets are where a couple of weeks back, might have been last week, I'll have to check, but there was a picture of the first green bodyshell in the Italy factory.

 

Lets hope they do a better job with these than they did with those high speed units for Belgium/Netherlands that got rejected and sent back!

 

EDIT: Oops, sorry got interrupted by a phone call while I was typing that and I see Ron beat me to the reply! Sorry for the duplication.

Edited March 5, 2017 by MarshLane

[The Stationmaster]

Does anybody know what happened on the trial runs last Saturday night?  The train left Reading early but lost almost 2 hours in running between Reading and Goring with a somewhat mixed performance onwards to Wantage Road while the back working lost 6 minutes between Moreton Cutting and Reading.  The second Down run lost 3 minutes between Reading and Goring and the second Up run lost 4 minutes over the same stretch while the third run was cancelled - presumably because by then it was too late as the second Up run was 153 minutes late into Reading.

 

The implication of something Mark Hopwood said last Thursday was that this was some sort of 'final' proving run.

[Zomboid]

Final proof that they don't work?

If it was for electromagnetic interference purposes the timing is academic.

[4630]

Does anybody know what happened on the trial runs last Saturday night? 

 

 

According to a GWR source in answer to the same question on another website;

 

To reconfigure the traction packages

[Jaggzuk]

View of the platform extension taken this morning.

 

In this view you can see the new grey insulator pods in the OLE headspan,  The beginnings of the foundations for the new platform can be seen.  These these are the square steel plates which are on top of steel tubes which I am assuming may be helical piles (like this http://www.fliscrewpiles.co.uk/screw-piles.php. Looks like signal will have to be move.

 

 

[Christopher125]

According to a GWR source in answer to the same question on another website;

 

To reconfigure the traction packages[/size]

I think it was mentioned somewhere that the 390s had a similar issue?

Edited March 9, 2017 by Christopher125

[railsquid]

Class 800 attracting an audience of thousands (ca. 30,000) as it makes its way from factory to port for trans-shipment to the UK.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MSUAGrNX7U

[railsquid]

Is this another Class 802 body shell preparing to make its journey to the Italian assembly plant from Japan?

Note the date 5/3/17 (today).

 

 

 

 

Yup, probably same one as in the video above.

[Christopher125]

Is this another Class 802 body shell preparing to make its journey to the Italian assembly plant from Japan?

That looks like one of the completed pre-production vehicles to me - as with the early IETs a number of trainsets are being completed in Japan and will soon arrive for testing. The bodyshells being shipped to here and Italy are just that, empty shells.

Edited March 10, 2017 by Christopher125

[D854_Tiger]

Yup, probably same one as in the video above.

 

Japan, of course, has a truly marvellous railway system and they do tend to celebrate the fact, it should also be remembered that the railway hobby is huge over there, a higher crank ratio than even here in the UK.

 

Then they genuinely do revere the fact that Britain was the home of the industrial revolution, the nation that gave railways to the world, generally kicked off the modern world as we know it and they attach great significance to it.

 

It's considered to be a national triumph for them to have been selected as our future train provider, of choice, something they have worked very hard for over the years and not just for profit, they also consider it a great honour to have been selected, something that is very important to them and are highly appreciative of.

 

If you have access to NHK World, the Japanese news channel (in English), you would know the IEP has featured extensively in their bulletins, whilst most of the British population remain largely unaware of it

 

Any visit to the Kensington Science museum would leave you in no doubt that it is well known in Japan, considered to be some kind of holy grail and a must do feature on every Japanese tourist list, so much has their education included the significance and importance of people like Boulton, Watt, Brunel and the Stephensons.

 

Arguably, far more so than here in the UK nowadays, as you might expect from a nation that has attached so much importance to their industrialisation post-WW2.

[woodenhead]

A bodyshell with lights, wipers, underslung equipment and glass - all it needs are wheels and reserved tickets on the seat head rests.

[Ron Ron Ron]

That looks like one of the completed pre-production vehicles to me .......

 

 

It has been suggested on another forum, that this is the first pre-production Class 800/3.

The Class 800/3 was originally intended to be GWR's Class 801, before the GWR order was changed to deliver them as Bi-Modes instead.

 

If so, it does seem to put paid to the idea that the IEP procured 800 series would be supplied in a neutral base colour, as opposed to the non-IEP orders being supplied with a painted base colour.

Unless it's a one-off in that regard?

 

 

.

[HillsideDepot]

I came across this earlier today:

Admittedly there is a lot of the train which isn't mentioned, and so may not be sourced from the UK, but it is a reminder of how many businesses are involved in the construction of each set.

[rab]

I came across this earlier today:

IEP.jpg

Admittedly there is a lot of the train which isn't mentioned, and so may not be sourced from the UK, but it is a reminder of how many businesses are involved in the construction of each set.

Good to see Cornwall getting a mention.

I've passed that factory scores of times,

and often wondered what was produced there.

[Christopher125]

This is how the bodyshell's destined for Italy arrive:

 

http://press.hitachirail-eu.com/pressreleases/new-hitachi-trains-for-gwrs-devon-and-cornwall-route-a-step-closer-to-entering-service-1805662

[Christopher125]

It has been suggested on another forum, that this is the first pre-production Class 800/3.

The Class 800/3 was originally intended to be GWR's Class 801, before the GWR order was changed to deliver them as Bi-Modes instead.

 

If so, it does seem to put paid to the idea that the IEP procured 800 series would be supplied in a neutral base colour, as opposed to the non-IEP orders being supplied with a painted base colour.

Unless it's a one-off in that regard?

 

Having seen more photos it does appear that the body being paraded through the streets is in a similar state to those being delivered to Newton Aycliffe for (further) assembly, so presumably the photo above is not typical of those being sent to Italy? Bizarre.

Edited March 12, 2017 by Christopher125

[simon47603]

First Class 800 SET: No. 800002 arrived at Swansea High Street Station this morning. Then went onto the new Maliphant St. Depot:

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ciejcIqi_Y4

Edited March 20, 2017 by simon47603