GA Class 317 problem ?

[F Great Eastern]

There are changes at the top of the engineering department. The head which only worked an aviation before joining Greater Anglia at start of new franchise has left his position. I believe the few people he brought with him from British Airways and Qutar airways are still there near the top.

Hopefully this will see an end to the poor fleet performance and stock issues that have been all too common in the last year or two.

 

[Wivenswold]

To think that some were surprised when GA announced that it was replacing the 317/321s along with the newer rolling stock. Imagine keeping a fleet of their transport contemporaries like Ford Sierras, Leyland Lynx or Talbot Express vans running. I know that's a slightly unfair comparison but the oldest 317s are approaching their 40th anniversary, a drop in reliability is inevitable.

 

[F Great Eastern]

Oh it's high time that the 153/156/317 and MK3s went, for sure, although you have to question the idea of refurbishing so many 321s which still have a bit of life left in them, and then casting them aside and the 170/360/379 fleets still have plenty of life in them.

That being said the reliability of pretty much all stock has fell off a cliff the last 12-18 months

 

[anamyd]

Oh it's high time that the 153/156/317 and MK3s went, for sure, although you have to question the idea of refurbishing so many 321s which still have a bit of life left in them, and then casting them aside and the 170/360/379 fleets still have plenty of life in them.

That being said the reliability of pretty much all stock has fell off a cliff the last 12-18 months

i hope the 170s aren't in too bad a state as TfW are getting them in October.

 

[F Great Eastern]

They've just had an internal refurbishment, some of them have a bit of panel vibration. Mechanically they always seem to be a couple of units down at least which leads to a domino effect.

The domino effect being
2 car 170s replacing 3 car 170s
2 car 156s replacing 2 car 170s
1 car 153s replacing 2 car 156s
1 car 153s being replaced by nothing.

 

[samuelmorris]

To think that some were surprised when GA announced that it was replacing the 317/321s along with the newer rolling stock. Imagine keeping a fleet of their transport contemporaries like Ford Sierras, Leyland Lynx or Talbot Express vans running. I know that's a slightly unfair comparison but the oldest 317s are approaching their 40th anniversary, a drop in reliability is inevitable.

The Lynx postdates the 317s by a few years I believe, though to be fair, the design life of road vehicles has always been a lot lower than railway stock. 2003-registered Tridents and such like are being withdrawn en masse, yet I don't think anyone would argue the 360s are fit for scrap.

I'm curious what necessitated a design change to the 317s after such a long service life. Presumably there was an incident of some kind that resulted in this modification, even if it's had the exact opposite effect that was intended. You wouldn't modify a unit that was almost guaranteed to be scrapped within 2 years unless there was a serious safety issue that justified it.

 

[Class 170101]

I'm curious what necessitated a design change to the 317s after such a long service life. Presumably there was an incident of some kind that resulted in this modification, even if it's had the exact opposite effect that was intended. You wouldn't modify a unit that was almost guaranteed to be scrapped within 2 years unless there was a serious safety issue that justified it.

Probably related to Beast from the East last year. The EMUs reliabilty took a hit due to snow in the motors. I would guess the traction motor cover was to prevent this.

 

[RailWonderer]

Probably related to Beast from the East last year. The EMUs reliabilty took a hit due to snow in the motors. I would guess the traction motor cover was to prevent this.

Train engineering question here, since the post privatization stock (170s, 360s 379s) didn't suffer from the Beast from the East (I was taking the trains in the peaks at that time) and the 321s, 317s did, is it that the older stock wasn't designed for snow? Stock in Northern Europe seems to fair fine during snow.

 

[anamyd]

They've just had an internal refurbishment, some of them have a bit of panel vibration. Mechanically they always seem to be a couple of units down at least which leads to a domino effect.

The domino effect being
2 car 170s replacing 3 car 170s
2 car 156s replacing 2 car 170s
1 car 153s replacing 2 car 156s
1 car 153s being replaced by nothing.

thanks for the info

 

[hwl]

Train engineering question here, since the post privatization stock (170s, 360s 379s) didn't suffer from the Beast from the East (I was taking the trains in the peaks at that time) and the 321s, 317s did, is it that the older stock wasn't designed for snow? Stock in Northern Europe seems to fair fine during snow.

All the post privatisation stock has been tested at the climatic wind tunnel facilities in Vienna, originally at Vienna Arsenal but now relocated to a new site.

https://www.rta.eu/en/facility/customer-area/large-climatic-wind-tunnel-large-cwt

The first stock to go for testing was some late BR era stock e.g
92 / 91/ MK4 DVT / 323 went there.

The Bombardier electrical equipment is designed in Sweden and Switzerland so should be better in the snow and cold.