Awards for the most reliable units

[northwichcat]

The winners of the Annual Modern Railways Golden Spanner Awards were announced at the Fourth Friday Club meeting on Friday 28th November 2014.

The awards, based on statistical data produced by ATOC, rewards excellence in rolling stock maintenance.

Porterbrook picked up 5 of the 6 available Gold awards as well as 2 Silver and 1 Bronze, a total of 50% of the available awards. The table below shows Porterbrook's winning fleets.

These results underpin Porterbrook's reputation of leading the industry on fleet performance and we would like to thank our partners for their contribution in achieving this success.

Gold - Most Reliable Fleet
Ex BR DMU Class 159/1 South West Trains
Ex BR EMU Class 455 South West Trains
New DMU Class 170 Cross Country
New EMU Class 458/1 South West Trains
Pacer Class 144 Northern

Silver - Most Improved
Ex BR DMU Class 153 London Midland
New DMU Class 170 London Midland

Bronze - Fastest Incident Recovery
New DMU Class 171 Southern

http://www.porterbrook.co.uk/pages/corp2014.html

The most reliable Pacer Class :roll: I imagine that's because they'll never win an award unless it's a Pacer only category. I notice 350s are no longer claimed to be the most reliable new EMU following on from this year's very poor performance.

 

[samuelmorris]

Is there any publicly available list of the full data for these? I've often wondered about the details of units that aren't 'best' or 'worst'...

 

[starrymarkb]

Modern Railways usually have a league table in their write up of it.

 

[ainsworth74]

Yes Modern Railways normally have very good coverage (unsurprisingly seeing as one of their writers is involved in running it) which includes some commentary on the figures and normally gives details on those units that didn't actually win a spanner.

 

[cjmillsnun]

http://www.porterbrook.co.uk/pages/corp2014.html

The most reliable Pacer Class :roll: I imagine that's because they'll never win an award unless it's a Pacer only category. I notice 350s are no longer claimed to be the most reliable new EMU following on from this year's very poor performance.

458/1??? I thought they were 458/0 (unrefurbished) or 458/5 (refurbed ex 460 or ex 458/0 with a 460 car added)

 

[Kite159]

Must be the less powerful engines in the 159/1s making them more reliable than the /0s

Also toilet doors with actually close with one press of the button.

 

[5920]

http://www.porterbrook.co.uk/pages/corp2014.html

The most reliable Pacer Class :roll: I imagine that's because they'll never win an award unless it's a Pacer only category. I notice 350s are no longer claimed to be the most reliable new EMU following on from this year's very poor performance.

The 458/0 has won it's category three years in a row.

 

[londiscape]

The 458/0 has won it's category three years in a row.

That's interesting - I had thought that the 458 was plagued with reliability problems when it was first introduced. Is it usual for initially unreliable units to become top of the class after a few modifications?

 

[CyrusWuff]

That's interesting - I had thought that the 458 was plagued with reliability problems when it was first introduced. Is it usual for initially unreliable units to become top of the class after a few modifications?

Given the necessary TLC, yes...The good old "bathtub" curve of reliability. See also: Classes 180 and 357, among others.

 

[jopsuk]

That's interesting - I had thought that the 458 was plagued with reliability problems when it was first introduced. Is it usual for initially unreliable units to become top of the class after a few modifications?

It's not just modifications- there were changes in how they were being serviced and by who.

 

[starrymarkb]

Must be the less powerful engines in the 159/1s making them more reliable than the /0s

Also toilet doors with actually close with one press of the button.

Usually both batches of 159 are very close to each other and leagues ahead of anything else. You'll probably find very little difference!

 

[northwichcat]

Full list is apparently

New generation EMU:
Gold: SWT Class 458/1
Silver: ScotRail Class 380
Bronze: Heathrow Connect Class 360/2 and ScotRail Class 334

Ex-BR EMU:
Gold: SWT Class 455
Silver: ThamesLink Class 321
Bronze: ScotRail Class 314

New generation DMU:
Gold: CrossCountry Class 170
Silver: London Midland Class 170
Bronze: Southern Rail Class 171

Ex-BR DMU:
Gold: SWT Class 159/1
Silver: London Midland Class 153
Bronze: ScotRail Class 156
Pacer: Northern Class 144

Intercity:
Gold: CrossCountry Class 220
Silver: First Great Western Class 180
Bronze: First Great Western Class 180 (again- obviously they didn't want to award it to a Pendolino!)

 

[Geezertronic]

My cousin showed me a picture of the Golden Spanner award they received for the 170s (XC) 7 years of hard work and they recognise him with a spanner on a bit of wood

 

[Chrisgr31]

Full list is apparently


New generation DMU:
Gold: CrossCountry Class 170
Silver: London Midland Class 170
Bronze: Southern Rail Class 171

Wonder why the Southern Class 171s don't appear in the Porterbrook list, they are owned by Porterbrook aren't they? Incidentally what other classes than the 170 and 171s are in this category?

In the original post it states that Southerns 171s got a bronze for fastest incident recovery. Anyone know what incident recovery is?

 

[cjmillsnun]

wonder why the southern class 171s don't appear in the porterbrook list, they are owned by porterbrook aren't they? Incidentally what other classes than the 170 and 171s are in this category?

In the original post it states that southerns 171s got a bronze for fastest incident recovery. Anyone know what incident recovery is?

185, 175, 168, 172

 

[starrymarkb]

My cousin showed me a picture of the Golden Spanner award they received for the 170s (XC) 7 years of hard work and they recognise him with a spanner on a bit of wood

Hand made and sprayed by Mr Ford I beleive (or at least they were)

 

[DownSouth]

The most reliable Pacer Class :roll: I imagine that's because they'll never win an award unless it's a Pacer only category.

Industry awards have category of dubious merit created to make sure everyone gets a good chance at a win? Surely not!

 

[3141]

Usually both batches of 159 are very close to each other and leagues ahead of anything else. You'll probably find very little difference!

One factor is the small size of these fleets, especially the 159/1s. If just one unit from a small fleet has a major problem causing a large number of delay minutes, that has a very big impact on that's fleet's reliability figures.

 

[cjmillsnun]

That's interesting - I had thought that the 458 was plagued with reliability problems when it was first introduced. Is it usual for initially unreliable units to become top of the class after a few modifications?

SWT's maintenance is second to none. Expect the 458/5 to be getting golden spanners in a couple of years as they learn how to deal with their foibles.

 

[arty762]

That's interesting - I had thought that the 458 was plagued with reliability problems when it was first introduced. Is it usual for initially unreliable units to become top of the class after a few modifications?

455 and 458s are as good as they are because of the work the fitters at Wimbledon put into them, we have a great team of fitters, cleaners and logistical staff dedicated to keeping them running.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

SWT's maintenance is second to none. Expect the 458/5 to be getting golden spanners in a couple of years as they learn how to deal with their foibles.

already learning , our guys often showing Alstom and contractors how to fix stuff, one of the top alstom guys is ex wimbledon fitter as well

 

[Juniper Driver]

Got to agree with Arty.Think that goes down to all SWT maintenance depots.Look at the 455's especially look really nice and so do the Red 456's.Nice on peoples,keep it up.

The 458's aren't that bad I think it's mainly the ASDO system which is a problem.

 

[arty762]

Got to agree with Arty.Think that goes down to all SWT maintenance depots.Look at the 455's especially look really nice and so do the Red 456's.Nice on peoples,keep it up.

The 458's aren't that bad I think it's mainly the ASDO system which is a problem.

give the guys time and they;ll get that under control, like all new stuff it takes time to bed in , we only just got the new asdo test gear.