GWR in North Pole

[BananaRepublic]

As North Pole is a Hitachi depot and nothing to do with GWR; I'm curious to know what arrangement has been made to temporarily maintain the Class 387 at Hitachi's facility?

 

[D1009]

I thought that, but eventually GWR will have to work with Hitachi to deliver the IEP service, so they might as well work together now.

 

[Philip Phlopp]

As North Pole is a Hitachi depot and nothing to do with GWR; I'm curious to know what arrangement has been made to temporarily maintain the Class 387 at Hitachi's facility?

It's not a Hitachi depot, it's an Agility Trains (West) depot. There are depot access agreements which ORR oversees, these allow a TOC to access a depot and for fair and reasonable charges to be applied.

Agility Trains (West) is owned by Hitachi, John Laing and MetLife, Hitachi are the major shareholder, the other two partners make up 30% in total.

Hitachi will have agreed a depot access agreement with Agility Trains (West) to enable them to provide the AT300 maintenance support and FGW will also have depot access, probably included within the original IEP contract at some level, but as there's not a full copy of the contract available, it's hard to say exactly what the agreement is.

 

[Class377/5]

Ready? Hardly. There is the not exactly minor matter of the overhead wires at Reading depot not actually being connected to a power supply, because the nearest electricity feeder points for the GW project are in London and Didcot.

Which is why the first GWR 387s will be maintained at North Pole depot for the time being, alongside the fact that Reading depot is busy looking after the Turbos and won't be able to take on much emu work until the Turbos start to transfer to Bristol.

The first 387 is supposed to be dragged there in June for static training. Interesting to see how long it'll be there unpowered.

 

[Philip Phlopp]

The first 387 is supposed to be dragged there in June for static training. Interesting to see how long it'll be there unpowered.

I can't find the depot plans at the moment, but the depot should have an independent power supply for the OLE, which will allow depot operations to continue during mainline OLE isolations. It's not entirely ideal if that's the case, but it will at least allow the unit dragged there to be powered up and for training and some testing to begin.

 

[Class377/5]

I can't find the depot plans at the moment, but the depot should have an independent power supply for the OLE, which will allow depot operations to continue during mainline OLE isolations. It's not entirely ideal if that's the case, but it will at least allow the unit dragged there to be powered up and for training and some testing to begin.

Is the depot supply even installed yet? I ask as I don't know for sure. Was stated the 387 drag in June on another forum by others more in the know on that side of things than me.

 

[Philip Phlopp]

Is the depot supply even installed yet? I ask as I don't know for sure. Was stated the 387 drag in June on another forum by others more in the know on that side of things than me.

I'm told it's not, and that it's not really an independent supply either, it comes from one of the sectioning sites at Reading, allowing the depot to retain traction supply when the Reading feeder is isolated.

I did read that depot is being extended with a wheel lathe going in, completion on that's supposedly June 2016, maybe the drag is connected with that and OLE isn't needed at all.

 

[leomartin125]

I've just read from the source below that GWR Class 387 moves from Brighton to North Pole IEP Depot will be run by the Rail Operations Group (ROG).

Source:

http://www.railopsgroup.co.uk/news/

 

[MrB]

I've just read from the source below that GWR Class 387 moves from Brighton to North Pole IEP Depot will be run by the Rail Operations Group (ROG).

Source:

http://www.railopsgroup.co.uk/news/

Will this be done with 37s that have dellner couplers or another locomotive using a translator vehicle?

 

[leomartin125]

Will this be done with 37s that have dellner couplers or another locomotive using a translator vehicle?

I do believe this will be done using their Europhoenix 37's yes. The 56's are currently operating their Kilmarnock moves from Laira and return so most likely the 37's.