Arriva Class 121 bubble car

[anthony263]

can anyone tell me if the ATW bubble car has been put back into service as i havent heard any reports about it since the begining of november.

 

[LilLoaf]

Nope still sitting a Cardiff depot last time i past, mind that was about 2 weeks ago. I know its out of traffic for a while. Are you hoping for a trip on it like ?

 

[anthony263]

yes i was planninmg a trip on it as i have 4 hours spare time in cardiff in between traveling on the loco hauled services.

 

[LilLoaf]

What is the date for you trip, i think it will be out of service for another 2 months or so, I think feb was mentioned for it coming back to service. Thats just a rumour i'm not all that sure about it.

 

[anthony263]

wel the date i have booked is monday 15th december as i plan to travel on the atw loco hauled express from Newport to cardiff have a few hours in cardiff before traveling to bristol on the 14:00 cardiff to taunton service.

 

[LilLoaf]

Don't think it will be fixed by then. I'll keep listening out for things but not sure.

 

[87015]

You can see the branch unit whizzing backwards and forwards from the platforms at Cardiff Central so just a matter of keeping your eyes open.

Alternatively its hardly a big effort to do a unit up to Queen St to cover it there.

 

[EE Type 3]

OOS with a knackered gearbox isn't it? Haven't they got bits from the Severn Tunnel bubbles to repair it? I still need it for a phot and for sight

 

[37427]

There was a post on a forum about it saying it had been taken out of service in April, I saw it was the 17th April, so obviously it was after this date. IIRC I found out it was stored on the 21st April. However images on fotopic suggest it came back to work in or before October.

EDIT: Of course thats not to say its still working.

 

[LittleRedTrain]

It was working just fine when Gizzy and I rode on it in the last week of August.

 

[AlexS]

It is having a gearbox change apparently.

 

[EE Type 3]

It was working just fine when Gizzy and I rode on it in the last week of August.

Well in that case, Shauna broke it. She broke 150258 in July :roll:

 

[FusionRail]

Its OOS due to drivers seemeingly not realising it has a gearbox, and you need to rev down to change gear, not change in full revs, which has knackered the diff/gearbox. It runs Queen Street to Cardiff Bay shuttles, also a 153 unit runs this line.

 

[jv3531]

They have had a number of problems with it latly, including door release faults. The guard I spoke to a couple of weeks back didn''t seem to think it would return very soon.

The problems that I have seen I think relate to the fact is that the "newer" drivers have not ever driven anything like that before and as has been said previous, don't know how to handle the gearbox correctly. I was always under the impression that you had to put the thing into 1st gear before releasing the brakes (as per the older t/c instruction manuals), certainly provides a smoother take off but alot of them seem to release the brake and then put it into gear. You get one hell of a jolt as everything catches up and engages which can't do it much good.

Of course one always forgets that driving 14x/15x units all day they probably don't get used to it that well but driving the old units does require a skill which is regrettably dying out. Having being given a chance to drive a 108 on several occasions (these being lightweight are "fun", especially when its wet!!!) I am all to familiar with the gear box techniques as they are similar to the National buses too - same problem, drivers "slamming" the stick through = rough ride = higher maintenance costs when gerbox fails.

 

[John_158]

That i can immagine is why the Merseyrail 507/508s are Becoming Faulty more offten now and breaking down all the time as there is at least one per day that fails.
(Sorry if this is a little of topic)