TimboM
Established Member
- Joined
- 12 Apr 2016
- Messages
- 3,732
Taking a stab at it, and guessing, we're probably looking at a minimum of 6-8 weeks to do the dellner fitment and CAF mods...
Only way I can see us having all the CS 92s and some of the 'freight' 92s modified by September/October for the new stock debuting
I agree 6-8 weeks absolute minimum, but suspect they'll be more like 2-3 months each. 038 was in 7 months (albeit having an overhaul too) and 023 was in 6 months. No doubt there's been lots of lessons learned from those two that will significantly speed up the mods on the remainder. The 73/9 mods were about 6-8 weeks once they got underway, however they're a little more straightforward I believe (e.g. the 73/9s already had retractable buffers).
It's only the lowlander that's due to go over to the new stock in october... so they don't necessarily need the full complement of modified 92s ready by then.
Aye - I reckon they'd still need 6 or 7 modified though for the launch of the Lowlander new stock at end of October (assuming that date is achieved!) - 1M11, 1S26, Carstairs portion (1C11/1B26), 2x ECS locos and at least one spare. (I still think longer term there'll be a different, non-92 solution for the ECS, but in the short-term they may need to use them when the Mk5s are introduced on the Lowlander - particularly as the ACLG locos (which may be one of the longer-term options being considered) are all out of action currently.)
Given 8 of the currently in-service ones are having the mods, you're getting not far off the position that realistically they'd want most/all of them done by October anyway.
Assuming 028 goes in as expected on Sunday, 014/033/028 will all have gone into Brush over the space of one month (18th Feb - 18th Mar), so you'd think that's plenty to be working on. Assuming they start to reappear May/June time, there's realistically one more "slot" to get most if not all of the rest done, out and tested (including with the Mk5s) ahead of the Lowlander Mk5 launch date
Don't forget 92006/020 are being added to the pool and they will also have Dellners fitted during their current overhauls.
I'd think at the moment they're in the category of potentially being available for the Mk5 launch date, but probably not with enough certainty of them being ready in time at this stage to rely on them - noting they will also need rigorous testing and possibly some wrinkles ironing out having been stored 12 and 17 years respectively.
Suspect the plan will be along the lines of get the three in now done, a couple more at least before end of October and if 006 and/or 020 are also ready by then, great, but if not it's not a big issue.
Last edited: