• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Greater Anglia Bombardier Aventras (Class 720): Technical discussion and introduction

samuelmorris

Established Member
Joined
18 Jul 2013
Messages
5,121
Location
Brentwood, Essex
The same reason the Stadler units were changed, visibility not considered sufficient in the more rural areas. Not sure who forced the change.
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

uxm

Member
Joined
1 Sep 2018
Messages
197
The same reason the Stadler units were changed, visibility not considered sufficient in the more rural areas. Not sure who forced the change.
Do you think the Intercity and Stansted Express variants will have a black front?
 

samuelmorris

Established Member
Joined
18 Jul 2013
Messages
5,121
Location
Brentwood, Essex
Do you think the Intercity and Stansted Express variants will have a black front?
No, units already exist in all three classes (720, 745, 755) with yellow fronts. None of the new stock used in the Anglia franchise will have a non-yellow front, at least not initially.
 

Class37.4

Member
Joined
8 Oct 2018
Messages
125
In my copy of ‘Today’s Railway’ there a major article on both new trains with quite a few pictures of both, and the 720 with yellow front looks OK to me in that colour, the bottom valence has been redesigned from the 345’s and looks way better in my view.

The interior looks nice but if your fat like me the gangway between the 3+2 looks a bit of a challenge to say the least:lol:
 
Last edited:

samuelmorris

Established Member
Joined
18 Jul 2013
Messages
5,121
Location
Brentwood, Essex
In my copy of ‘Today’s Railway’ there a major article on both new trains with quite a few pictures of both, and the 720 with yellow front looks OK to me in that colour, the bottom valence has been redesigned from the 345’s and looks way better in my view.

The interior looks nice but if your fat like me the gangway between the 3+2 looks a bit of a challenge to say the least:lol:
Can you use existing between 3+2 gangways, e.g. the ones on the 360/1s ? There will be the same level of clearance I imagine.
 

Wivenswold

Established Member
Joined
24 Jul 2012
Messages
1,478
Location
Essex
I believe there will be 2+2 seating at the end of each unit for us tubbies!

I'll see you there and will try to bring cakes.
 

Wivenswold

Established Member
Joined
24 Jul 2012
Messages
1,478
Location
Essex
Sorry to bump this thread without an update but has anyone got any news, information or sightings of a Class 720? Was the first unit completed after the 3 car photo-call in September? There could well be Stadlers carrying passengers before an Aventra arrives at this rate.
 

Grumbler

Member
Joined
27 Mar 2015
Messages
508
Sorry to bump this thread without an update but has anyone got any news, information or sightings of a Class 720? Was the first unit completed after the 3 car photo-call in September? There could well be Stadlers carrying passengers before an Aventra arrives at this rate.
The Swiss are renowned for punctuality.
 

Bletchleyite

Veteran Member
Joined
20 Oct 2014
Messages
97,540
Location
"Marston Vale mafia"
The Swiss are renowned for punctuality.

Says the person that's never used the Riviera line along the banks of Lake Geneva/Lac Leman on a regular basis :D Let's say the "env. X minutes de retard" and "suppression" pages on the Solari displays are well-faded from frequent use.

More seriously, though, this is mostly caused by those dastardly Italians and their ex-Cisalpino Pendolinos...
 

Bletchleyite

Veteran Member
Joined
20 Oct 2014
Messages
97,540
Location
"Marston Vale mafia"
It's alive! Still not sure about that tiny window, next to angular window that's on the wonk with the bodyshape thing on the cab (I'm not a designer). Thanks for that TRAX.

I think it looks quite good, unlike the SWR renders with the shorter cab that more resembles a sci-fi spaceman's helmet.
 

samuelmorris

Established Member
Joined
18 Jul 2013
Messages
5,121
Location
Brentwood, Essex
It's alive! Still not sure about that tiny window, next to angular window that's on the wonk with the bodyshape thing on the cab (I'm not a designer). Thanks for that TRAX.
Well, it's outside. Alive has yet to be proven :D
Odd that the front panel is black before it becomes yellow. I presume that's the colour the material comes in...
 

K.o.R

Member
Joined
6 Dec 2017
Messages
658
You can see clearly that it's a single lamp aperture; so, high-intensity LEDs for the main lights?
 

samuelmorris

Established Member
Joined
18 Jul 2013
Messages
5,121
Location
Brentwood, Essex
Yeah that's an interesting difference from the 345/710, the front end is also either a slightly different shape or the colour scheme (the grey front valence notwithstanding) is misleading me to think that.
 
Joined
18 Jul 2013
Messages
29
Yeah that's an interesting difference from the 345/710, the front end is also either a slightly different shape or the colour scheme (the grey front valence notwithstanding) is misleading me to think that.
The driver's side window looks more symmetrical on the 710 & 720, it always looks odd to me on the 345 being at a slight angle from the horizontal.
 

hwl

Established Member
Joined
5 Feb 2012
Messages
7,354
At last! Slightly disappointed to see the 720 inherits the noisier traction gear of the 710. I guess the 345s were a one-off in that regard.
I suspect the 7 car 345s may not have the final traction motor cooling setup sort yet which might account for some of the noise difference...
 

samuelmorris

Established Member
Joined
18 Jul 2013
Messages
5,121
Location
Brentwood, Essex
I suspect the 7 car 345s may not have the final traction motor cooling setup sort yet which might account for some of the noise difference...
That may well be true but it's the drive frequency (or a component of it) that's different, around 1150Hz for a 345, around 1400Hz for the 710/720.
 

angryskipfan

Member
Joined
23 Aug 2017
Messages
21
CL345 and CL710 have two speed traction motor blowers so they can be very quiet when under low load. I believe that 720 has the same arrangement but it might have gone into high speed mode due to repeated full power moves on Derby TT. SWR and WMT aventras have moved to self ventilated traction motors.
 

rdlover777

Member
Joined
4 Feb 2014
Messages
450
Location
Kent
I wonder how far we are from service entry then? From memory it was about 9 months between the first dynamic tests of a 345 at Old Dalby and entry into service with TfL. Theoretically that'll be less with this class, but by much?

According to a comment on that twitter post, sometime late this year
 

dp21

Member
Joined
10 May 2017
Messages
358
You can see clearly that it's a single lamp aperture; so, high-intensity LEDs for the main lights?

They have the marker lamps built in. TfL decided they wanted them separate.

Yeah that's an interesting difference from the 345/710, the front end is also either a slightly different shape or the colour scheme (the grey front valence notwithstanding) is misleading me to think that.

The cab is a different shape. You'll note with the 720s there is more of an upward sweep on the side compared to the 345s.
 

Top