C2C Gauging issue 357/3

[swadbus]

According to the C2C website, various early morning and late night services are diverted away from Stratford and Liverpool Street (serving West Ham and Fenchurch Street instead) due to gauging issues with their freshly refurbished 357/3's,

http://www.c2c-online.co.uk/travel-information/service-alterations/alteration/?id=212&type=0&calendar=4

Seeing as they are identical to their other trains (merely a refurb of the interior by removing seats - a highly unpopular move viewing the many comments on twitter), why would this cause a gauging issue?

 

[swt_passenger]

Reducing the seating capacity, and increasing the crush loaded standing capacity has a measurable effect on the suspension, and the change in vehicle dynamics with more people standing than originally designed for, means that gauge clearance can be affected.

This had to be done for the 458/5 conversions, as explained in Modern Railways a couple of years ago.

 

[The Planner]

Sounds like it is possible that the door steps could be lower down due to this and risk scraping the platform coping stones.

 

[edwin_m]

Sounds like it is possible that the door steps could be lower down due to this and risk scraping the platform coping stones.

I doubt it's that simple as the air suspension adjusts to keep the height roughly constant, and the train should still be in gauge even if the air bags deflate completely. More likely that with more passengers the train is more top-heavy so it sways a bit more.

 

[Class 170101]

Why not just diagram the 'older' trains instead to Liverpool Street and isolate the 'newer' trains on diagrams away from Liverpool Street.

You just couldn't make it up.

 

[Nym]

Yes, but you need to gauge for broken air suspension running on the rubber springs and stops as a worst case, and Clear Route takes account for this. Not that anyone really understands it...