Abellio Greater Anglia Class 755s (Regional Trains)

[168001]

The Jacobs bogie are disc brakes and the motor bogie has discs and tread brakes.

 

[AlexNL]

I was however surprised that the gap bridge bridged the gap fully then pulled back about 1" - is this a fault? The Swiss ones don't do this, they fully bridge the gap.

I've ridden quite a number of FLIRT 3s in Europe in recent years and they all seem to do this.

I think this is done to prevent the sliding step getting stuck on top of the platform, in cases where the track or platform isn't fully level.

That was at least an issue in the Netherlands, at some stations the step of the NS FLIRT could get stuck on the platform. A software update was rolled out which mitigated the issue.

 

[Carlgoss]

So rolling past the Crown Point sidings today after a week chasing trains in Italy, I was looking forward to seeing some new introductions of 755's. And low and behold a whole bunch of mark 3 carriages filling all the sidings where pre-Italy I'd seen months of stationary 755's. Excited as I arrived into Norwich platforms.. but NO 755's .. Indeed I was on a replacement 8 car EMU set from London. And just across the platform, 2 sets of unbranded 170's, gleaming like they haven't gleamed in years (photo sadly doesn't do them justice). I ask myself are these the ones that made it to Wales only to be sent straight back because 'something' wan't right, or are they yet more stock being sent off to their new home, when right now GA needs every working unit it can get? Surely this must be considered now as extremely bad planning or alternatively a complete mess.

 

[trebor79]

Some 755s are in service, are you getting mixed up with the 745s?
It is a bit of a mess to be sure. Unfortunately the industry seems to operate on more or less fixed dates for stock cascades regardless of whether the new stock has entered service to plan or not.

 

[168001]

So rolling past the Crown Point sidings today after a week chasing trains in Italy, I was looking forward to seeing some new introductions of 755's. And low and behold a whole bunch of mark 3 carriages filling all the sidings where pre-Italy I'd seen months of stationary 755's. Excited as I arrived into Norwich platforms.. but NO 755's .. Indeed I was on a replacement 8 car EMU set from London. And just across the platform, 2 sets of unbranded 170's, gleaming like they haven't gleamed in years (photo sadly doesn't do them justice). I ask myself are these the ones that made it to Wales only to be sent straight back because 'something' wan't right, or are they yet more stock being sent off to their new home, when right now GA needs every working unit it can get? Surely this must be considered now as extremely bad planning or alternatively a complete mess.

View attachment 69885

Yes, both off to pastures new, I think that’s now 6 170’s out of service now.

 

[gingerheid]

Felixstowe really is being left to suffer while all this goes wrong

 

[dk1]

Felixstowe really is being left to suffer while all this goes wrong

It's the easiest to bustitute. Run direct Derby Road into Ipswich thus losing very little time & get East Suffolk trains to call additionally at Westerfield.

 

[Railperf]

OK, so after a LOT of buses (including a manky double decker on the X5) I've managed to track one down on Ely-Norwich which is giving me an hour or so to try one out!

Impressions so far...

• Acceleration average - 195s are quicker off the mark, I was surprised at this - I think unless they are driving them very carefully the 3-car units will be underpowered.

These are definitely not average performers by any means. Maybe you experienced a more restrained driving style. Certainly in the early days - these were way faster than any dmu including the 195's.
The majority of my runs seem to have utilised full power - but I did experience a run where a driver seemed to be using a lower power to reach top speed (or there were engine issues) - and the driving style seemed to be : accelerate to75mph - coast to 70mph - accelerate back to 75mph - on the 75mph speed limit section of tracks. On the 90mph section - he seemed to do the same but this time accelerating to 80mph and coasting back to 75mph. With this driving style we seem to match Class 170 running times. Not sure if this is driver choice or a new instruction to try and reduce fuel consumption! When driven flat out these do spend longer time dwelling at stations - which I personally don't mind. But not everyone is too keen on that. It seems to be a crime to wait 2 to 3 mins at station where the dwell is booked for 30 sec lol!

 

[trebor79]

I've noticed some less enthusiastic driving the past 10 days or so with damp rails and leaves now falling.
Could really hear/feel the wheel slip and wheel slide protection kicking in last time I travelled. In those circumstances it makes sense to avoid full power.
Driven flat out on a dry rail, I've never experienced a train accelerate as quickly.

 

[Railperf]

I've noticed some less enthusiastic driving the past 10 days or so with damp rails and leaves now falling.
Could really hear/feel the wheel slip and wheel slide protection kicking in last time I travelled. In those circumstances it makes sense to avoid full power.
Driven flat out on a dry rail, I've never experienced a train accelerate as quickly.

I had a 755 slipping on a restart from Thetford towards Norwich on wet rails, but in-spite of that- reached 60mph without much loss of time- only a few seconds behind a unit on dry rail. In that respect the wheel slip prevent equipment seems to be pretty effective!
They are on a par with a 321 to 60mph but romp away from a 321 to reach 90mph.
But not quite as quick (in self power diesel mode) as the super EMU's Classes 345/350/360/395/700/802.

 

[samuelmorris]

These are definitely not average performers by any means. Maybe you experienced a more restrained driving style. Certainly in the early days - these were way faster than any dmu including the 195's.
The majority of my runs seem to have utilised full power - but I did experience a run where a driver seemed to be using a lower power to reach top speed (or there were engine issues) - and the driving style seemed to be : accelerate to75mph - coast to 70mph - accelerate back to 75mph - on the 75mph speed limit section of tracks. On the 90mph section - he seemed to do the same but this time accelerating to 80mph and coasting back to 75mph. With this driving style we seem to match Class 170 running times. Not sure if this is driver choice or a new instruction to try and reduce fuel consumption! When driven flat out these do spend longer time dwelling at stations - which I personally don't mind. But not everyone is too keen on that. It seems to be a crime to wait 2 to 3 mins at station where the dwell is booked for 30 sec lol!

Reminds me of an old BR training video on youtube where drivers are told not to be wasteful going flat out to arrive at stations early. 'Arrive too early and your passengers will think there is a problem' or something to that effect.
An inevitability with new stock though, especially in cases where full deployment of said new stock may lead to a timetable recast.

 

[Bletchleyite]

These are definitely not average performers by any means. Maybe you experienced a more restrained driving style. Certainly in the early days - these were way faster than any dmu including the 195's.
The majority of my runs seem to have utilised full power - but I did experience a run where a driver seemed to be using a lower power to reach top speed (or there were engine issues) - and the driving style seemed to be : accelerate to75mph - coast to 70mph - accelerate back to 75mph - on the 75mph speed limit section of tracks. On the 90mph section - he seemed to do the same but this time accelerating to 80mph and coasting back to 75mph. With this driving style we seem to match Class 170 running times. Not sure if this is driver choice or a new instruction to try and reduce fuel consumption! When driven flat out these do spend longer time dwelling at stations - which I personally don't mind. But not everyone is too keen on that. It seems to be a crime to wait 2 to 3 mins at station where the dwell is booked for 30 sec lol!

Ah, that makes sense. It did surprise me - I'd expected EMU like performance like you get from a 230 (when they're working) rather than Class 150 a like DMU performance, though it probably does make sense for the drivers not to be ragging them to death if they don't need to.

 

[TheEdge]

There is no point going out at the moment to measure the performance of the 755s.

We've all worked out quickly that on a damp or slippery rail they spin very very easily so getting away from stations you need to be very gentle, even once you are moving. On a dry rail however I can leave Acle down road from a stand and be doing 60 before leaving the woods.

Luckily however their WSP is phenomenonal when it activates under braking.

 

[ac6000cw]

Low floor and gap bridge good - should be mandatory. I was however surprised that the gap bridge bridged the gap fully then pulled back about 1" - is this a fault? The Swiss ones don't do this, they fully bridge the gap.

All the 755s I've seen/ridden on do this - I assume it's to stop the 'bridge' being rubbed against the platform edge as the bodyshell moves around on the suspension as passengers get on and off.

Acceleration average - 195s are quicker off the mark, I was surprised at this - I think unless they are driving them very carefully the 3-car units will be underpowered.

I agree with the other posters - when driven hard they are very fast to accelerate (I was on a late-running one from Cambridge once where the driver was certainly exploiting the full performance at times). I think you had one being driven more gently than they can be.

 

[ac6000cw]

We've all worked out quickly that on a damp or slippery rail they spin very very easily so getting away from stations you need to be very gentle, even once you are moving. On a dry rail however I can leave Acle down road from a stand and be doing 60 before leaving the woods.

So (just curious) what happens if you don't back off when wheelslip happens and just let the traction equipment deal with it (as it I'd expect any modern AC drive traction control to do almost instantly, holding the powered axles in the 'controlled wheelslip' zone - axles rotating slightly faster than equivalent ground speed - of maximum tractive effort versus available adhesion)?

 

[Railperf]

There is no point going out at the moment to measure the performance of the 755s.

We've all worked out quickly that on a damp or slippery rail they spin very very easily so getting away from stations you need to be very gentle, even once you are moving. On a dry rail however I can leave Acle down road from a stand and be doing 60 before leaving the woods.

Luckily however their WSP is phenomenonal when it activates under braking.

luckily I did manage to record some decent performance in warmer weather when the rail was dryer. As you say, now the railhead conditions are more variable. I'm now awaiting the chance to record some dry AC performance. As with everything, I don't mind a slippery rail - as it gives us a chance to see how effective the unit is in dealing with it, and seeing the difference between best dry rail performance and poor wet weather running. Class 90's are a classic example of that. Fantastic when you get a good 4-legged one in the dry - particularly 001, and absolutely hopeless at putting down power on a wet rail - especially once the sand runs out! The difference in station to station timings between good and poor running is much larger than most people might expect.

 

[TheEdge]

So (just curious) what happens if you don't back off when wheelslip happens and just let the traction equipment deal with it (as it I'd expect any modern AC drive traction control to do almost instantly, holding the powered axles in the 'controlled wheelslip' zone - axles rotating slightly faster than equivalent ground speed - of maximum tractive effort versus available adhesion)?

It'll deal with it fine but as described by my trainer, if you have any pride in doing the job well you'll not leave it to the WSP when moving off.

 

[Railperf]

How many 'basil's' out today? I am reading that 10 now passed for pax service and 9 have been used.

 

[ScottyStitch]

I'm on the 09:30 out of Liverpool Street on Monday 11th November, does anyone know if that is likely to be a Stadler service? My return is 14:00 ex Norwich......

 

[ashkeba]

How many 'basil's' out today? I am reading that 10 now passed for pax service and 9 have been used.

I don't think there are any Class 47s out today, I'm sure there are more than 10 passed and it seems rather off-topic here. Maybe you meant to post in another topic? Maybe one about West Coast Rail who I think operate a lot of them, sometimes visiting Anglia?

 

[samuelmorris]

I'm on the 09:30 out of Liverpool Street on Monday 11th November, does anyone know if that is likely to be a Stadler service? My return is 14:00 ex Norwich......

Almost certainly not, as far as I know no date has yet been set for Stadler introduction on Norwich services, it may not happen this year.

 

[ScottyStitch]

Almost certainly not, as far as I know no date has yet been set for Stadler introduction on Norwich services, it may not happen this year.

Ah I see, okay thank you for that.

 

[306024]

I'm on the 09:30 out of Liverpool Street on Monday 11th November, does anyone know if that is likely to be a Stadler service? My return is 14:00 ex Norwich......

Most likely Mk3 coaches out, 321 back. The 14.00 from Norwich is the first choice diagram for relacement by 321s.

 

[Railperf]

I don't think there are any Class 47s out today, I'm sure there are more than 10 passed and it seems rather off-topic here. Maybe you meant to post in another topic? Maybe one about West Coast Rail who I think operate a lot of them, sometimes visiting Anglia?

47's nickname were 'Duffs' IiRC not 'basils' lol.

 

[ashkeba]

47's nickname were 'Duffs' IiRC not 'basils' lol.

Also known as Basil Brushes, after Brush Type 4.

 

[dk1]

Eleven 755/4s now accepted for traffic.

409/10/13/14/16/17/18/19/20/22/24.

 

[sheepy1991]

The Jacobs bogie are disc brakes and the motor bogie has discs and tread brakes.

There are no tread brakes fitted to the GA flirts, all axles on all bogie types are disc brake’d.
They do however have a cast iron scrubbing block that applies momentarily to clear the wheel of any crud, which is fitted to the leading vehicle motor bogies iirc. That might be confused for a tread brake but it provides no braking force, it is only there to provide a good wheel / rail contact patch.

 

[Railperf]

Eleven 755/4s now accepted for traffic.

409/10/13/14/16/17/18/19/20/22/24.

I have read somewhere that 418 is poorly. So how many of the other 10 in service and on what routes?

 

[dk1]

I have read somewhere that 418 is poorly. So how many of the other 10 in service and on what routes?

Sorry I wouldn't know what's on what. I did hear 418 has had problems & has spent quite a bit of time on/off the shed.

 

[Railperf]

Sorry I wouldn't know what's on what. I did hear 418 has had problems & has spent quite a bit of time on/off the shed.

Are all the Norwich drivers passed out on 755s now? And does that only pass you for 755/4s or does it include 3-car and 745?