Northern Class 195: Construction/Introduction Updates

[childwallblues]

After getting a double 195 from Parkway to Lime Street yesterday at around 17:50 I was a little disappointed to be on a single 195 on the 15:50 from Manchester Airport to Lime Street today. Doesn't matter how much an improvement it is over a pacer if you are sat on the floor.

The 1550 is booked for a single unit.

 

[fowler9]

The 1550 is booked for a single unit.

Well it maybe shouldn't be. If I can expand on that I think the 19:19 Lime Street to Oxford Road is booked for a pair of units. If you value your privacy catch this train as you will share the front unit with about two other people and it is often a 156. What a service is booked for and what is required is a bit different.

 

[fowler9]

View attachment 65156

View attachment 65156


Well stop hanging round the toilets then! Lol

Ha ha, nice bogs.

 

[Plethora]

I asked the driver of one of the units his thoughts while stopped at Deansgate for a platform at Oxford Road. His reply - "don't like em, give me a 142". Sadly he didn't get to expand on that before the signal turned.

 

[a_c_skinner]

Well we must see how it all pans out. The real issue for Northern and TPE remains capacity.

 

[EE Andy b1]

I asked the driver of one of the units his thoughts while stopped at Deansgate for a platform at Oxford Road. His reply - "don't like em, give me a 142". Sadly he didn't get to expand on that before the signal turned.

Pulling your leg i think!

 

[LeylandLen]

I used 195 121 today, from Preston to Windermere and return to Man Picc with a Northern £10 day ranger.Very impressed ;inice clean toilet, of course on its 2nd day.
One gripe is that I found it difficult to plug in my phone charger down between the seats.Its a matter of feeling your way as its almost impossible to see it.Northern proclaim 'power points at every seat' whereas it seems to 1 with every pair of seats.
As mentioned elsewhere, the PIS was not always correct, saying 'This is Preston,' etc when in fact we had left Preston seveal minutes before.; it was repeated more than once. I thoiught there was too much repetition of saying where the service was going to. Just small gripes, presume the software needs to settle own and the way its used . Presume its automatic?

 

[Bletchleyite]

I'd have thought the floor of a 195 is still more comfortable than the floor of a Pacer!

Carpet rather than hospital style vinyl at least.

(What *is* it with hospital style flecked vinyl on trains? You can have vinyl printed in any design you like - why not something nice looking like fake wood like some bus companies do?)

 

[Bletchleyite]

Why were they assigned two different class numbers, when 1xx class numbers are in such short supply?

To be fair, once all the Pacers are gone 100 to 149 (except 139) will be available for use. I suspect diesel (particularly diesel-mechanical rather than bi-modes which would go into 2xx or 7xx) will be a thing of the past before 48 new classes of DMU are developed.

You've also got 173-179 and 181/2/3/4/6/7/8/9 spare.

Plenty!

 

[a_c_skinner]

Northern £10 day ranger.

Off topic, but can you help me with that ticket?

 

[Bletchleyite]

But they still can't bring themselves to say "London Euston" on the 221 front PIS.

While I do agree that is stupid for a long distance unit, I think these days people pay more attention to platform displays which are now more accurate, to the point you could get away with not having on-train displays at all. Though they are useful confirmation that things are in the right place.

 

[js1000]

I asked the driver of one of the units his thoughts while stopped at Deansgate for a platform at Oxford Road. His reply - "don't like em, give me a 142". Sadly he didn't get to expand on that before the signal turned.

Sounds like he was being sarcastic

 

[krus_aragon]

Slightly off topic, is there actually going to be a mechanical difference between the Class 195 and Class 196?

Why were they assigned two different class numbers, when 1xx class numbers are in such short supply?

To be fair, once all the Pacers are gone 100 to 149 (except 139) will be available for use. I suspect diesel (particularly diesel-mechanical rather than bi-modes which would go into 2xx or 7xx) will be a thing of the past before 48 new classes of DMU are developed.

You've also got 173-179 and 181/2/3/4/6/7/8/9 spare.

Plenty!

According to Railway Group Standard GM/RT2453, the entire 6xx range has been made available for DMUs, so there's growth space there too.

 

[adrock1976]

Off topic, but can you help me with that ticket?

Very briefly, this is the promotional offer where you collect 2 or 3 tokens from the local and regional rags that participate e.g. Stoke Sentinel (2 tokens) and Lancashire Post (3 Tokens).

This is a seasonal promotion that has been running for a few years now and as a general rule of thumb, is not available during school holidays, July and August, and during December.

 

[a_c_skinner]

Off topic thanks. We are Westmorland Gazette!

 

[Greybeard33]

Not on every unit then. Neither 195118 nor 195121 have used any abbreviations at all on the screens that I've seen, and I've just spent the 25 mins from Ox Road to Wigan staring right at one.

In which case the PIS has been updated already. It was on 195121 between Oxford Road and Wigan that I first saw the abbreviations.

 

[samuelmorris]

To be fair, once all the Pacers are gone 100 to 149 (except 139) will be available for use. I suspect diesel (particularly diesel-mechanical rather than bi-modes which would go into 2xx or 7xx) will be a thing of the past before 48 new classes of DMU are developed.

You've also got 173-179 and 181/2/3/4/6/7/8/9 spare.

Plenty!

Don't forget the 600 range that was never used!

 

[Roose]

It would strike me that "Barrow" and "Wigan" are the sensible abbreviations for these, given that Barrow only has one station that has that in the name (

'Barrow-in-F' might be a reasonable abbreviation if Northern want to formalise the destination but 'Barrow', as you say, is perfectly adequate.

 

[NORMAN471]

It would strike me that "Barrow" and "Wigan" are the sensible abbreviations for these, given that Barrow only has one station that has that in the name (we aren't DB, and so wouldn't do something like "Barrow-in-Furness Dalton" and "Barrow-in-Furness Roose") and there are no trains that serve both Wigan stations.

There almost was a train that served both Wigan Stations on 1st June 2019 unfortunately it was cancelled otherwise I would have caught it for the novelty value.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I guess that's an ECS of some kind that erroneously appeared on the displays. You sometimes see easyJet Luton-Gatwick positioning moves on the displays at Luton but you can't actually travel on them.

 

[LeylandLen]

'Barrow-in-F' might be a reasonable abbreviation if Northern want to formalise the destination but 'Barrow', as you say, is perfectly adequate.

So I presume will will be seeinmg 'Man Vic' and Man 'Pic' instead of the long names as terminal stations.

 

[LeylandLen]

Off topic again ( sorry ...) but these are the papers , owned by JPI Media https://www.northernrailway.co.uk/newspaper-offer/341-participating-papers-jpimedia

 

[LeylandLen]

Cancelled , sorry

 

[LeylandLen]

Off topic thanks. We are Westmorland Gazette!

[
Off topic again ( sorry ...) but these are the papers , owned by JPI Media https://www.northernrailway.co.uk/newspaper-offer/341-participating-papers-jpimedia
Id better give you the thread that deals with offers , oterwise I will get told off again !!
https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/special-offers-discussion.42163/

 

[Mathew S]

In which case the PIS has been updated already. It was on 195121 between Oxford Road and Wigan that I first saw the abbreviations.

I will keep my eyes open over the next few days. Was it Monday or Tuesday you saw it?

 

[td97]

Took one to Windermere today (trip booked before 195s were confirmed). Very impressed - these are fantastic units. Guard was completely clued up with door operation. Will post full impressions/photos later.

Here goes...
Background
I had a leisure journey planned prior to confirmation of Civity roll-out. £2.90 advance single from Bolton to Windermere. Yep, £2.90, with Northern’s ‘North50’ promotion. Had a 3-car 195 unit on the outbound, and a 158 on the return, on the Preston - Windermere legs.

It was the 2nd day of service and my journey was entirely on time. The loading was fairly light (2-car would definitely have been enough).

Northern have trained the ex-TPE links first (Barrow, Blackpool depots) on the new trains. The guard was friendly and enthusiastic. Full revenue checks completed. These units are initially replacing 185s on the ex-TPE routes. Not 158, 156 or 150, which were all short-term cascades.

Build Quality:
Good. Didn’t have vibes of a Siemens build, but equally nothing was inadequate. Didn’t notice any panels rattling/loose (and it’s definitely a bugbear of mine).

General feel was great. Still had a ‘new-train’ smell which is a first for me.

Carpets were a pleasant design and appeared freshly vacuumed, so hoping Northern are able to keep them clean.

Only thing looking on the cheap side is the panels on the exterior of the toilet. Dark-blue coloured and plastic-looking, and not a patch on the wood-effect panels on the 185s.

Seating
Seats were also good. Firm but comfortable. Only gripe is that the seatback pitch is slightly too upright. No issues with scratchy/loose seat coverings, but I was wearing full-length trousers. Legroom was great throughout (6ft here). Centre armrest was a tad on the slim side i.e. difficult to share with the person sat next to you.

Aircon
Spot on. Quiet in operation, apart from what can only be described as a periodic ‘whirring’ noise from above related to A/C operation. Carriage was cool but not draughty.

Windows
Nice and big, and obviously clean on the 2nd day of revenue-earning service. As has previously been pointed out, some table seats align with the pillars in the centre of the coaches, but these aren’t as obtrusive as other trains (looking at you, Mk4s and Pendolinos) whereby the entirety of the view is blocked.

Lighting
Adequate, if above-average. Good brightness levels, illuminating the aisles well and not too intrusive when seated, especially with a window seat. There are 2 spot LEDs at each door. The reason I said “adequate, if above-average” is because it’s nothing special, when considering what can be done on modern trains with LEDs and mood lighting.

Unwilling to comment how these will fare for night-time journeys. Lighting was on the cool side.

PIS
Perhaps the least refined aspect of the journey. The visual screens were working correctly; however, the auto-announcer was not announcing any station names. No abbreviations anywhere.

"This train is the Northern service to [silence]. The next stop is [silence]"

The ETA time was also 1 hour behind (perhaps BST took CAF by surprise!)

Otherwise, they scroll between displaying the next stop, and the remaining calling points, and an ad about Northern’s £500m investment. Kudos that it worked correctly after the penultimate station, correctly changing to display that the train would terminate at the next station.

Exterior displays are also clearly visible and bright.

Toilet
Absolutely one of the best parts of these new units. Toilet bowl etc. is as expected. I was surprised by instant warm water straight out of the tap. Easy to find with a red laser beam. The soap dispenser either had no soap or I couldn’t figure out how to operate it. Given I’m an engineer by day job, I imagine the former. The hand dryer was also easy to locate with a different red laser guide, and was above-average for a train. Think Mk4-like. Also worth a mention: an absolutely mean extractor fan.

Door Operation
The guard explained he was ex-TPE and used to working modern stock (185,350) and seemed to nail the door operation at each station. Dispatch was from the 3rd door (i.e. 1st door of 2nd carriage) and I think the rear at Preston (although there may have been a crew change). Guard’s panel was good to see, and even the panels in the train saloons had a phone to enable cab communication/passenger announcements, which was used to override the redundant PIS. A bit on the quiet side though (manual, not auto announcements).

Ride
Ok, it’s undeniably a DMU. But it has to be a contender for the smoothest and quietest out there. Engine noise was inoffensive, and the ride overall was quiet. A little more lateral travel (slightly jerky) than expected over rough track, but otherwise was adequate. No 185-like engine revving/starting when stopped in stations either. Clearly a generation ahead.

Luggage
Upon alighting at Preston, half of the passengers disembarking had suitcases, and not the small ones either. There are no vertical luggage racks, and the only space is an alcove behind the doors but before the seating starts. I imagine suitcases were scattered/dumped throughout the train on this previous leg, which is clearly an inadequate provision on trains which are largely focussed on airport routes.

Overhead racks were large and better than average.

Performance
Took about 6.5 minutes to reach 100mph, but that isn’t representative as there was a restriction over some points we crossed. Accelerated to 50mph in 2:15. Again may have been hindered by the restriction out of Preston.

Acceleration is exemplary up to about 50mph. Tails off slightly afterwards, but still accelerates at an impressive almost-constant rate.

Attached files (on the next post) are from Preston to Carnforth (which was a non-stop pass).

Other
The guard was dressed smartly. Proper black trousers and a light blue shirt. None of the unprofessional polos and shorts which can be found on other services and in my opinion completely cheapen the look of the brand. Admittedly working aircon stock is different to a Sprinter.

There must have been 5+ staff members on board: driver, guard, and also a Spanish CAF fitter, Northern manager, additional Northern staff member (perhaps a Northern fitter/engineer) and an on-board cleaner picked up at Oxenholme.

The train was also clean upon arrival at PRE.

If you’ve been reading, I’ll sneak in here that the guard explained that the current plan for further introductions is 9 per month. Read that how you like; 9 on the 1st of August, a few here and there tricked in per month… only time will tell.

WiFi worked flawlessly. Easy to connect; no email address required (as yet). It said the speed was capped at 1Mbps but I measured 1.4Mbps. There was a cap of 125Mb (not sure on the timescale).

1 socket per pair is a bit stingy, especially at tables. Quite an awkward position but you’d probably get used to it after a few journeys. Great that these are 3 pin so I can charge at 22.5W and not a miserable 1-2W like a USB port would allow.

Improvements
Although hugely useful, I think the outdoor temperature gauge was 2-3° overzealous.

There was no indicator to show whether the toilet was occupied. This would be great to have as an icon on the PIS screen.

Vertical luggage racks, ASAP. Even just 1 per carriage.

I’d like to see extra carriages added to the 2-cars to make them 4-car. Which would invalidate the argument about lack of gangway connections when running coupled up.

Wrap Up
One of the best journeys I’ve had with Northern in a long time. Northern have really ticked a lot of boxes with these units. Are they a game-changer? Absolutely. Superb performance with a great interior make these one of the best investments in the Northern (region) rail scene in a long time.

The biggest question is; is it as good as a 185? A definitive yes from me.

 

[td97]

GPS logs from exact departure at Preston to passing through Carnforth (non-stop)

 

[superalbs]

I personally found the lighting to be perfectly fine, and really relaxing. I passed through a few tunnels, and it was fine in the dark.

Much better than the 800s, where you shouldn't make a journey at night unless you have sunglasses!

 

[superkev]

Any info on which route(s) are next.

 

[palmersears]

195118 for me this morning, PIS and announcements all working fine. I'd agree with previous comments that the temperature gauge is overestimating by a couple of degrees.