Happy 20th for 170/1

[dk1]

I've only experienced 170s on Ipswich to Liverpool Street services back in NXEA days. They were hopelessly inadequate for the purpose but I imagine would be luxury on the Wherry Lines in rural Norfolk. They did sound like they were about to fall apart at 100mph when they were relatively new though.

They are perfect on the Norwich-Cambridge run. Will be a shame to lose them next year.

 

[Prestige15]

Here is the 170/1 first day in service

 

[najaB]

The best all-round DMU is the 156.

Surely 158s beat 156s?

 

[Parallel]

I don’t get to ride 170s very often but find them very pleasant units. The leg room is poor but I find the seats are very comfy and they generally have a good ambience. I have only used them on XC and London Midland though.

 

[dk1]

I don’t get to ride 170s very often but find them very pleasant units. The leg room is poor but I find the seats are very comfy and they generally have a good ambience. I have only used them on XC and London Midland though.

You will find the seats & pitch far better on the ex-Anglia 170s.

 

[Batman]

I still remember my first ride on one of these in about 2000/2001.

It was quite a surprise to see one of these shinny new things pull into Bloxwich North instead of the usual 150.

They continued making occasional appearances on the chase line for the rest of the Central Trains era. It wasn’t until LM took over that the became the staple units, usually with a 153 attached.

My best memory of these units was probably watching a group of drunks do the conga down the aisle on the last train back from Birmingham on the last Saturday before Christmas a few years ago.

They are of course completely unsuitable for busy outer suburban services like this because of their 2+2 seating layout and slow acceleration. But they’re days on the chase are numbered even though we don’t yet know for sure what EMU’s will replace them.

 

[atraindriver]

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[atraindriver]

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[Prestige15]

Why would they?

Queiter, Better acceleration, Air con, Comfy seats and higher top speed.

 

[craigybagel]

A true son of the similarly long-lasting Met-Camm Class 101!

Just a shame the same factory went on to build the utter rubbish that is the Class 175/180.

Nothing wrong with 175s. Yes they had their teething problems but today I would argue they are far superior to the 170s. Better performance, more comfortable for the passengers and pretty popular with everyone who works on them as far as I can tell. I don't want to derail this thread or turn it into a fanboy argument, and I do have the bias issue of signing 175s but not 170s, but I know which fleet I'd prefer to work and travel on.

I'm sure if the 180s had had the same treatment as the 175s (basing the entire fleet out of the same depot with one TOC instead of being a left over unloved fleet spread across the country) their own reliability issues would have been massively improved by now.

Queiter, Better acceleration, Air con, Comfy seats and higher top speed.

158 air con? One thing I will say for 170s, their air con is pretty reliable and they're nice to travel on year round. 158s in Summer are a rather less pleasant experience.....

 

[ivanhoe]

As a regular then on the Liverpool' to Nottingham route, it was great to travel on Central Trains 170/1s. Even better when a declassified first class coach was attached. Great train and I still enjoy riding on 170's when traveling Leicester to Brum.

 

[gimmea50anyday]

The 170's are actually older as essentially they are adtranz class 168 clubmans built by bombardier. 168 were an updated design of the 165 which is the mechanics of a 158/8 with a networker body. Similarly the development of the Electrostar fleets also came from the identical bodied 365/465 networker EMUs which was supposed to evolve into the 471 units intended to replace the 411 CEP fleet. You can trace the heritage of BREL/ABB/AdTranz/Bombardier and the story of privatisation through these units! It would be interesting to see wether these units would have evolved in the same way or built in as many numbers had privatisation not occured...

 

[D365]

But they’re days on the chase are numbered even though we don’t yet know for sure what EMU’s will replace them.

Aventras, no?

 

[Mordac]

Aventras, no?

Not immediately. Even with the delays, electrification should be ready before the Aventras arrive.

 

[atraindriver]

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[Bletchleyite]

TBH 158s are a good case for very thin-backed seats so more legroom can be provided without knackering the as-built window alignment. Though it's a pity nobody has yet designed a thin-backed seat with a high level of comfort, which shouldn't be impossible as the base is what provides most of that as that's what gets most weight on it. There are some quite clever designs of airline seat of late.

 

[chubs]

TBH 158s are a good case for very thin-backed seats so more legroom can be provided without knackering the as-built window alignment. Though it's a pity nobody has yet designed a thin-backed seat with a high level of comfort, which shouldn't be impossible as the base is what provides most of that as that's what gets most weight on it. There are some quite clever designs of airline seat of late.

I quite like the EMT refurbished ones, the seats are comfortable enough. I've done Norwich to Manchester quite a few times and although it's very nice to stretch when you get off that applies to sitting in any seat for 4.5 hours.