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Eurostar class 373 did all the snowproofing get done?

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brianthegiant

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Following the numerous breakdowns of 373s in the tunnel a few years back, there was a comprehensive engineering study of what went wrong and recommendations made by an SNCF senior engineer, from memory these included:
In the power cars:
1) remove no-longer used DC equipment to create additional space.
2) Increase air gaps between 25kV conductors & body in the roof area.
3) improve sealing of electrical cabinets,
4) changes to panto mechanism (means of manually raising)?
5) use different outer grill construction in winter
6) also have more Krupps locos with fume filtration available at each end of tunnel.

Anyone know if these recommendations were all implemented or were any discounted as being unfeasible on further analysis?
 
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es373

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Closed Conditioned Air Management systems have been installed in the power cars which puts the electronics racks like el-cm, el-bm, ut-ak, ut-cm, etc in their own atmosphere so dust/moisture/heat isn't a problem anymore.

DC shoegear has been removed however, a lot of the equipment still remains but is being removed on the Mi-Ve which is happening very soon. First set to go is 3015/16 which is currently being prepped in the depot for the run up to Hellemmes.

If I recollect, the units had broken down in the ET because various VMD's and CMD's failed in the bad weather. This has since been rectified.

New/thicker seals fitted on the removable sections of the power car roofing sections.

As for the changes to the pantograph, I can't think of any just now. However some sets have recently had a new pan head fitted on trial. They are fitted to ski trains.

Lastly, snow screens are fitted in the winter months which attach in the inside of the power car as a precaution, also some are fitted further down the train on the HVAC side doors. They are fitted during the Winterisation program.

I can't answer the Krupps loco thing because this would fall under EuroTunnel, I think anyway.

Hope this helps.

All the best.
 
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themiller

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brianthegiant

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As for the changes to the pantograph, I can't think of any just now. However some sets have recently had a new pan head fitted on trial. They are fitted to ski trains.
It was to do with the pantos going down due to faults, and after a period of time, it not being possible to raise them again. From memory the suggestion in the report was either a means of raising the panto manually or provision of an auxiliary supply, cant remember which. But clearly better to prevent faults which might trip the panto in the first place, with the remedial actions you mention.
 

TGV

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Pantographs dropping due to a fault usually happens because of an ADD trip but not in this case. Problems occur when you can't raise it again to get line volts into the train and other things can prevent that - far too in-depth to get into here. There is no means of manually raising a pan, nor were any planned. There is no problem with the mechanism of either pantograph design installed on a 373.
 

es373

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As TGV rightly states, going in to the reasons why a pan wouldnt raise is a very massive subject. Some of the reasons though could be low main res, power systems lock out (a lock out is a means of protection where the components become electrically/pneumatically isolated and the only way to remove this lock out is via a maintenance laptop which drivers arent allowed to do). The list is rather endless.

There is a auxilliary compressor called the petit chevalle(sp?) located in the power car . This runs off of the 72v battery supply and in a short form of words allows you to build up enough air pressure to be able to raise the pan providing conditions are met.

I would like to see this report because it is seemingly innacurate. Hope this helps though.
 

TGV

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Your comment about raising the thing manually led me to think of someone winding a handle!

What it means is that the ability to raise any current collector is first routed through the train's main computer processor which does a lot of checking before the pan can be raised. If there are any problems with that, then the pan cannot be deployed which as it notes correctly is in contrast to TGV-R where raising the thing is a more direct link between the driver's desk, the batteries, aux compressor and pan air circuits. Basically that's all you need to get the pan up and on the wire, and from then on, you've got 25 big ones and you're in business.

Hope that helps!
 
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