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Abellio Greater Anglia Class 755s (Regional Trains)

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superjohn

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Joined
11 Mar 2011
Messages
531
An interesting experience on the 1028 from Felixstowe (755419) this morning. We arrived at Trimley as normal and then stood for a while. The driver announced there was a problem and he would have to shut down the train, meaning the lights would go out. After a few more minutes the lights did go out and the driver exited from the cab, walking down the platform with a key in hand. While this was going on I overheard the guard saying the doors would not release. A while later the driver returned, the lights came back on and the doors released. We then set off 17 minutes late. The 1058 return working was cancelled and the unit shunted off and back into the sidings alongside platform 4. They are rather delicate flowers aren’t they!

As an aside, does the class 755 restricted access to platform 1 at Ipswich limit flexibility at all? It looks like two units might not fit even if they could go right to the stops, perhaps 2x3 car might. The current stop point leaves them short of the tanking hoses though.
 

dk1

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East Anglia
An interesting experience on the 1028 from Felixstowe (755419) this morning. We arrived at Trimley as normal and then stood for a while. The driver announced there was a problem and he would have to shut down the train, meaning the lights would go out. After a few more minutes the lights did go out and the driver exited from the cab, walking down the platform with a key in hand. While this was going on I overheard the guard saying the doors would not release. A while later the driver returned, the lights came back on and the doors released. We then set off 17 minutes late. The 1058 return working was cancelled and the unit shunted off and back into the sidings alongside platform 4. They are rather delicate flowers aren’t they!

As an aside, does the class 755 restricted access to platform 1 at Ipswich limit flexibility at all? It looks like two units might not fit even if they could go right to the stops, perhaps 2x3 car might. The current stop point leaves them short of the tanking hoses though.
The dreaded 419 yet again. Yes there is now only one able to fit into platform 1. Trains stop short too as wires to not go down to the stops. Drivers diagrams now show shunts to/from the goods road to form some workings.
 

86246

Member
Joined
18 Sep 2013
Messages
326
The last time I saw 419 was about ten days ago. It was operating between Ipswich and Stowmarket on diesel so presumably it is still restricted from its Elmswell incident.
 

dk1

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The last time I saw 419 was about ten days ago. It was operating between Ipswich and Stowmarket on diesel so presumably it is still restricted from its Elmswell incident.
Yes, there are several with pans isolated but 419 possibly the longest.
 

eastdyke

Established Member
Joined
25 Jan 2010
Messages
1,923
Location
East Midlands
You've lost me on that one.
From the wiki '419' disambiguation page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/419_(disambiguation)
419 may refer to:
  • 419, the year 419 C.E.
  • 419 (number)
  • Advance-fee fraud, also known as the 419 scam, the Nigerian scam, and the Nigerian money transfer fraud
  • Area code 419, which is the area code of the northwestern corner of Ohio
  • 419 (police code), police hundred code code for dead human body
  • 419 (novel), an award-winning novel by Will Ferguson
  • The original title for the Charles Stross novel Rule 34

Best add:
  • 419 - jugged hare ????:)
 

LAX54

Established Member
Joined
15 Jan 2008
Messages
3,759
An interesting experience on the 1028 from Felixstowe (755419) this morning. We arrived at Trimley as normal and then stood for a while. The driver announced there was a problem and he would have to shut down the train, meaning the lights would go out. After a few more minutes the lights did go out and the driver exited from the cab, walking down the platform with a key in hand. While this was going on I overheard the guard saying the doors would not release. A while later the driver returned, the lights came back on and the doors released. We then set off 17 minutes late. The 1058 return working was cancelled and the unit shunted off and back into the sidings alongside platform 4. They are rather delicate flowers aren’t they!

As an aside, does the class 755 restricted access to platform 1 at Ipswich limit flexibility at all? It looks like two units might not fit even if they could go right to the stops, perhaps 2x3 car might. The current stop point leaves them short of the tanking hoses though.

They seem 'very' delicate ! they seem to need a reboot on a frequent basis, as for P1, we have an instruction 1 x 755 only, no distinction between 3(4) and 4(5) car, hence the booked ECS moves to /from Up and Down Goods or Claydon Loop.
 

dk1

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They seem 'very' delicate ! they seem to need a reboot on a frequent basis, as for P1, we have an instruction 1 x 755 only, no distinction between 3(4) and 4(5) car, hence the booked ECS moves to /from Up and Down Goods or Claydon Loop.
A 4-car 755 is only just inside CO319 now we can no longer pass the large X approx 2 coach lengths from the stops.
 

86246

Member
Joined
18 Sep 2013
Messages
326
On a more positive note, things seemed to have improved in the Kennett area this week.
 

LAX54

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15 Jan 2008
Messages
3,759
On a more positive note, things seemed to have improved in the Kennett area this week.

The 'force' has moved back towards Ipswich ! 2021 Ex Ips failed Stowmarket, shunted into loop, and earlier 1717 Ipswich to Beccles, never made it past the starting gate ! ( well not the 1st unit), and a couple of woes on the Cromer earlier
 

mawallace

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Joined
20 Nov 2006
Messages
291
Plus one of the Peterbrough to Ipswich had to be rebooted at Bury - one of the Ips to Cambridge trains cancelled as a result!
 

bahnause

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30 Dec 2016
Messages
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Location
bülach (switzerland)
Plus one of the Peterbrough to Ipswich had to be rebooted at Bury - one of the Ips to Cambridge trains cancelled as a result!
After driving Stadler trains for more then 8 years now, I still didn‘t habe to reboot a single one :E.

But I have planned a visit to Cromer at the end of march, so let‘s see how it goes 8-)
 

ashkeba

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13 May 2019
Messages
2,171
After driving Stadler trains for more then 8 years now, I still didn‘t habe to reboot a single one :E.

But I have planned a visit to Cromer at the end of march, so let‘s see how it goes 8-)
I do not think they will allow a passenger to reboot one, even if the passenger is a driver elsewhere. ;)
 

Tug

Member
Joined
2 Aug 2019
Messages
62
Just venting off but this whole 755 saga smells of incompetence.

Can you imagine buying a car that needs rebooting regularly or flying in an aircraft that stops working periodically? Why should a train be any different? Car & aircraft manufacturers run many many hours of testing before they would dare release a product to the public so why are railways any different? I remember very similar problems when untested diesels were first introduced to BR and there have been so many examples since. Why doesn't the rail industry learn?

The is all compounded by the weekend work that has been going on for so long on GA tracks which has made planning weekend trips where entertainment tickets have to be purchased months in advance largely impossible for years.

What a mess.

I am waiting with dread for Monday when the Norwich - Great Yarmouth line reopens after its 2 week closure. New trains (& more needed in service), new signalling system and new automatic crossings. We might well need divine intervention for that lot to work well!

PS This is not a criticism of the front line staff who are trying so hard despite the system.
 
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Tug

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2 Aug 2019
Messages
62
No you can't as you would never get a certificate of airworthiness to fly it without adequate testing.
 

Bletchleyite

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No you can't as you would never get a certificate of airworthiness to fly it without adequate testing.

Are we forgetting a certain Boeing product, perchance? Or indeed the rather earlier de Havilland Comet?

A cancelled train is an annoyance, hitting the ground at 500mph is a bit more than that.
 

bahnause

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30 Dec 2016
Messages
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bülach (switzerland)
No you can't as you would never get a certificate of airworthiness to fly it without adequate testing.

Check the history of the Bombardier C-Series. Despite the much longer development time, they were deliverd years late and with engines losing parts during the flight. Some airlines grounded them at some point.
 

Tug

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2 Aug 2019
Messages
62
I am not an apologist for the railway companies and I am a railway enthusiast. I would love the railways to be well run. I haven't forgotten any of the aircraft cases listed above, nor the batteries on a certain other airliner, but as soon as these problems were discovered the whole fleet was withdrawn/ limited until a solution was found and other airliners replaced them where necessary without inconveniencing passengers.

Railways just seem to expect the passengers to cope which I don't regard as an adequate response. There are no acceptable excuses for me.
 

ashkeba

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13 May 2019
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Can you imagine buying a car that needs rebooting regularly or flying in an aircraft that stops working periodically?
Not only imagine. I owned a FIAT with one of their early computer-controlled engines - called FIRE I think, which is very much an appropriate double meaning. That computer started rebooting itself while driving after a while - leading mainly to the engine running very rich and burning lots of fuel - and I was told it was a widespread problem. No product recall or withdrawal as far as I know. I scrapped the car in some government clunker grant scheme.

Summary: stuff not found in testing often arises in the real world, including cars and planes. I hope Stadler's engineers are as good as their reputation and it does not take too long.
 

dk1

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Railways just seem to expect the passengers to cope which I don't regard as an adequate response. There are no acceptable excuses for me.
I think it's just always been like that. Never worth building your hope's up as things generally dissapoint. The train operators, NR & BR before them don't help themselves as build it up so much banging on about how many millions they've spent, only for it not to work as planned.
 

samuelmorris

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18 Jul 2013
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Brentwood, Essex
Trains are also more of a systems integration problem certainly the cars, possibly also than aircraft. Other than infant self driving tech or EV chargers, there's no interface between the car and the infrastructure it drives on as that's all processed by the human driving it. With rail, the train has to be continuously communicating with all the relevant infrastructure and associated technology. Just making the train move should be very reliable these days (it's a bit of a shocker that it isn't with 755s, 230s etc) but having it correctly deal with signalling, track circuits, doors opening in the right places, all the safeguards correctly operating etc, that's where most of the challenge lies.
 

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