Like other's I can only speculate - but in my professional capacity, and looking at the photographs so far, that bent main frame would be beyond practical repair. I would expect that the lcomotive would be stripped, the components all assessed and tested. If in any doubt about their soundness they would be scrapped and replaced with new. The bent main frame (bed-plate) would certainly have to be scrapped - no one could certify any repair on damage of that extent. I'd expect a lot of the components are recoverable, though.
A big problem after such an incident is getting Network Rail safety certification to run the locomotive after repairs are done, as it's not easy to assess what unseen damage (stresses) have been put into the structure that could cause premature or even catastrophic failure in the future. It's a brave engineer who'd put his name to such a certificate!!
It's a similar situation with the Grayrigg Pendolino - many of the vehicles suffered only minor deraliment damage and rapid deceleration stresses. But it was deemed easier to claim the insurance and build a new train than return these to service.....
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
A question that has occured to me before given the class 70s weight vs delivery challenges. Why are these locomotives not being kit built in the UK. The UK is not a third world country (I will duck now) so why is it other countries, with less engineering capability, around the world get to build their own trains from components delivered in kit form ?
.
1. Any locomotive builder prefers to build in his own factory, in order to retain control over quality issues. Unless there are big financial benefits in "localisation" - UK ain't renowned for "cheap labour"!! :roll:
2. The countries that do assemble their own locomotives from foriegn supplier kits do so either because of:
a. the point above about financial savings.
b. government import restrictions and insistence on high local content of value (e.g. Bombardier electrostars assembled in South Africa for Gautrain)
c. as part of a technology transfer deal (e.g. Alstom, Bombardier and Siemens in China)
Years ago we made locomotives for countries all around the world - that was mainly because we ruled those countries as colonies, or the other countries then were not industrialised.... Sadly, no longer the case
