The seats are the originals just with new cushions and repainted, they certainly arent ironing board seats.The seats are the ironing board style seats, but it includes actual fabric as opposed to the harder style material found on the early refurbs. They do get a bit thin towards the middle of your spine, but the seat bases are perfectly comfortable.
It just seems an awful waste, given all the extra information you could display, other than just text.Those LCD screens are truly awful, well at least the programming of them anyway.
As all TOCs who have them seem to have the same awful style, I can only assume you can’t do much else with them.
Shame about those horrid and completely unnecessary yellow handles which actually reduce the clear door width for alighting/boarding. More worryingly the ends don't appear to have been 'terminated' to reduce the likelihood of passengers' bags or roller suitcases getting caught on those - they would seem a trip hazard from looking at that photo.The only unfortunate thing is that the inside door open and close buttons haven't been replaced, so even though they may possibly be PRM-compliant, it does feel like a bit of an oversight as they're quite bruised and battered. Minus the slightly patchy overhead lighting, I do feel that it is a great refurb, and especially from the outside, most punters would be hard pressed as to whether it is a new train or not!
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The seats are the originals just with new cushions and repainted, they certainly arent ironing board seats.
The ends are not terminated to reduce risk of catching bags/luggage on them.The handrails are a necessity for PRM.
- Apart from next to the toilet, the original lights are retained, and as far as I can tell they're still florescent tubes.
The new buttons are on order, but aren't available for the first couple of units, 234 will go back eventually for retrofitting.They still retain their original door controls, despite them being battered and warn out.
Do you happen to know what buttons they're getting? EAO Series 56, or something else?The new buttons are on order, but aren't available for the first couple of units, 234 will go back eventually for retrofitting.
Having travelled on 323234 for the first time a few days ago, I'm very impressed with the standard of this refurb, especially compared to what they've done with the BREL stock. A few notes:
Overall, I really like it. I hope these trains are in service for a good while.
- They still retain their original door controls, despite them being battered and warn out.
- The seat bases aren't actually plain blue; they do have the light blue dots on them.
- They've fitted a far better PRM toilet than in the other units - it's more spacious and all buttons are clearly labelled with what they do.
- TrainFX wasn't working. (Or rather, it just said "journey" on the screens for a few minutes, then went blank; the very helpful guard told me that they had been switched off by the driver, probably meaning that it was broken in some way).
- Apart from next to the toilet, the original lights are retained, and as far as I can tell they're still florescent tubes.
- Everything has been repainted, inside and out. But the white paint still appears slightly yellow because of the fluorescent lights.
- They still seem to run like the same trains. (Although they have fixed the grinding noise that the doors made!)
Already the moquette has started to fade and a couple of seat bases have come loose.
I believe it's due to getting them PRM compliant is more important. All Northern units will be fitted with WiFi and charging points from next year.The refurbished 323 was on the 08:23 Congleton to Stoke again this morning.
I noticed a lack of any power points and WiFi though. Any reason for this?
I believe it's due to getting them PRM compliant is more important. All Northern units will be fitted with WiFi and charging points from next year.
I dont think the WMR 323s have charging points either. Probably something else that will appear next year when they are at northernThe refurbished 323 was on the 08:23 Congleton to Stoke again this morning.
I noticed a lack of any power points and WiFi though. Any reason for this?
Should be 238 going back.Could this be the next refurbished 323 being returned to Allerton Depot tomorrow?
https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/K05346/2019-11-23/detailed
Finally I've seen 323234 in the flesh today crossing the viaduct at Dinting on its way from Glossop to Piccadilly.
Got to say it looks smart.
Rode on a refurb 323 recently, things I noticed.
The seats seem less comfortable than on non-refurb units. I'm not sure if they used less padding when re-covering them or what. On the plus side it seems they did use moquette rather than the flat cloth used on some of northern's other refurbs. As others have mentioned there was still visible corrosion on the droplight frames and visible wear on the door buttons. The information screens seem to show no intelligence in where they split the message, with station names being split across two screens, still it's probablly better than not having screens at all.
Hopefully the PIS system gets replaced or fixed to be better, the ones of from Televic and other manufacturers seem to be much better. As air con was fitted on Chiltern 165s and the 323s are staying long term, could the same be done to the 323s and cab air con has already been fitted to at least the wmt units.
Probably Porterbrook or TrainFX if a big enough problem is found.Which TOC would have to bear the costs, noting the ages of these units?