AirCon vs Opening Windows

[Rick1984]

As a sometime hay fever sufferer, aircon for me every time. My worst experienced with it was on a rake of Mk2s behind two 31s on the Cambrian in (I think) 1992, when the air and pollen was just coming through the open windows and swirling round the coach.

To this day I can't itravel in a 156 at the relevant time of year unless I take a backwards-facing seat at the very front of the coach where the draught is minimised.

And the quietness of a standing EMU may be good, but the noise from a train at speed with all the windows open, especially a DMU or when on corrugated rails, can be deafening.

My wife has had to sit in the toilet before it's been that bad.

A class 365 battering through various tunnels up the ECML to Cambridge with the hopper windows open isn't very comfortable on the ears.

 

[jimm]

US rapid transit stock demonstrates that fully effective air con in hot ambient conditions with multiple doors opening every minute or two is quite possible, it's just cost concerns that lead to ineffective UK products, particularly on diesel stock. It would be interesting to know just what Chiltern did to their 165s to make them much more effective than the equivalents at Paddington.

a. GWR 165s do not have air conditioning, only the 166s do and that system had to be added as a an afterthought when the 166 was created out of the 165, which made installation awkward and probably didn't do much for its effectiveness, as we have seen for 20 years. Not that the ability for passengers to open the hopper windows did much for its effectiveness either, as the howling gale created by opening the windows usually knocked it out. There have been valiant efforts to improve matters in recent years - with the 166 fleet visiting Long Marston one by one for specialist attention recently - but short of tearing each coach apart and starting from scratch it's never going to be perfect.

b. The Chiltern sets do not have air conditioning in the sense that other trains do - what Chiltern fitted does not control humidity. The system was described as air cooling when it was installed and Angel Trains calls it 'Comfort Cooling'. It basically uses commercial air chilling kit of the kind installed in office buildings.

 

[samuelmorris]

I'm all for fresh air instead of A/C, but on a warm day, open windows simply doesn't do enough, never mind during periods of delay when you're sat stationary with no wind. On most stock, the risk of A/C not working to the extent you cook seems to me less regular an occurrence than travelling on traditional stock where it's too hot for the open windows to cope. As a fellow hayfever sufferer I also sympathise with the potential hazards there, and the noise in certain locations with opening windows can be really quite awful - the first half-mile outside Liverpool Street for example.

 

[physics34]

..therefore AC just wins. Shame we couldnt have a choice of both.

 

[satisnek]

Air conditioning: it's only since reading this thread that I've realised how good we have it in the West Midlands in that department. Apart from the 323s, which are only used for short journeys, and the odd LM 153 tacked onto a 170, everything going in and out of Birmingham has air con.

Leaving aside the droplights and sliding windows of old, I'm easy when it comes to a choice of windows you can't stick your head out of or air con. I do find it ironic that rolling stock has become quieter as passengers have got noisier and I personally prefer a noisy train, not to mention a good breeze once under way (open window should be a couple in front of you on the opposite side ). On the other hand, you can't beat boarding an ice-cool carriage on a boiling hot summer's day when the air con is in top fettle.

 

[Mikey C]

The Southeastern 376s are the last current stock to be built without aircon, will any future mainline trains not have it? It does seem like the default option now.