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[Trivia] Unused Features in rolling stock?

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satisnek

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The 1930s express stock on the SR (6PUL, 5BEL and so on) had motor generators and 70v control circuits. The 4SUBs, though later, did everything at line voltage for compatibility with the existing SUB fleet.

Thanks, I wasn't aware of this. Presumably the Pompey units as well?

What sort of music would it have been Mr B, are we talking Brahms or the Sex Pistols? :D

I was going to ask the same question myself! Presumably it was 'lift music' kind of stuff back then. As someone for whom what they play in McDonalds is totally alien tuneless noise the concept of music on trains today doesn't bear thinking about!
 
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DelW

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When I was a teenager (early-mid 1990s), I travelled to and from Portsmouth Harbour station to go to school. In the springtime, polystyrene boxes containing freshly-dug wet garlic would arrive on the fast ferry from the Isle of Wight, and be loaded into the guards' compartment of the 1606 express to London, in order to be delivered to smart restaurants the same evening! Pretty sure this unusual traffic survived into the 442 era on the Portsmouth Line.

I don't think there was a 442 era on the Portsmouth line - in about 2004 it went from mk1s (CIGs, BIGs, VEPs) to (briefly) 444s to the current 450/444 mix.
 

47271

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I don't think there was a 442 era on the Portsmouth line - in about 2004 it went from mk1s (CIGs, BIGs, VEPs) to (briefly) 444s to the current 450/444 mix.
442s were the mainstay of Portsmouth expresses throughout the 90s.
 

Ash Bridge

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What sort of music would it have been Mr B, are we talking Brahms or the Sex Pistols? :D

I was going to ask the same question myself! Presumably it was 'lift music' kind of stuff back then. As someone for whom what they play in McDonalds is totally alien tuneless noise the concept of music on trains today doesn't bear thinking about!

Definitely not Punk Music Mr C :D this was around 1973 so it hadn't yet arrived on the scene, satisnek is nearer the mark as my memory recalls it was Burt Bacharach's " Do You Know The Way To San Jose" & suitably "Trains and Boats and Planes" apparently the idea was that the wallpaper music only kicked in when the train was stopped whilst passengers were boarding/disembarking.
 

JaJaWa

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Original 319 blinds included "Milton Ernest" - an unbuilt station to serve a housing development north of Bedford.

They also contain(ed) Dunstable as that was the proposed destination of the Sutton service. [Now a busway].
 

D365

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They also contain(ed) Dunstable as that was the proposed destination of the Sutton service. [Now a busway].

Ah, I think that might have been the town I was thinking of earlier in the discussion :D
 

Taunton

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Definitely not Punk Music Mr C this was around 1973 so it hadn't yet arrived on the scene, satisnek is nearer the mark as my memory recalls it was Burt Bacharach's " Do You Know The Way To San Jose" & suitably "Trains and Boats and Planes" apparently the idea was that the wallpaper music only kicked in when the train was stopped whilst passengers were boarding/disembarking.
Only slightly connected, but much earlier than this there was a pioneer installation on the then-new PCC tramcars in several cities in the USA, around 1950, but particularly St Louis. The recording technique was in its infancy then, but there was (probably on a wire tape unit) of 3 minutes of music, followed by a commercial, which paid for all the installation. A special signal on the tape then gave "start", because it had been determined that when first switched on it would be silent until it wound round to the beginning of the music. It was tied in to the master switch on the tramcars, the driver had no access to turn it off.

The crews hated the constant music all day, of course, so as soon as the music started they would throw the master power switch off for a moment, which unfortunately on a PCC also brings on full emergency braking. So journeys across the city were a sequence of 3 minutes of silence, then a couple of bars of "de-dum de-dum", followed by WHAM!!! as the power switch was turned off then back on again, all the passengers momentarily being thrown forward for a second, and then another 3 minutes of silence. Repeat ...
 

Ash Bridge

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Only slightly connected, but much earlier than this there was a pioneer installation on the then-new PCC tramcars in several cities in the USA, around 1950, but particularly St Louis. The recording technique was in its infancy then, but there was (probably on a wire tape unit) of 3 minutes of music, followed by a commercial, which paid for all the installation. A special signal on the tape then gave "start", because it had been determined that when first switched on it would be silent until it wound round to the beginning of the music. It was tied in to the master switch on the tramcars, the driver had no access to turn it off.

The crews hated the constant music all day, of course, so as soon as the music started they would throw the master power switch off for a moment, which unfortunately on a PCC also brings on full emergency braking. So journeys across the city were a sequence of 3 minutes of silence, then a couple of bars of "de-dum de-dum", followed by WHAM!!! as the power switch was turned off then back on again, all the passengers momentarily being thrown forward for a second, and then another 3 minutes of silence. Repeat ...

Thanks for that, very interesting :) so BR were not (by a long chalk) the first to trial onboard auto PA systems then, although I think some airlines at that time also had the idea of playing music over the aircrafts PA speakers during boarding/exiting, most likely operated manually though.
 
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43096

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Indeed they were.
I would dispute that. The 442s were the mainstay of the Bournemouth line. Well over half the diagrammed work was on the Bournemouth line. That's not to say they weren't on the Portsmouth direct - they were. But they were certainly in a minority compared with CEP/BEP/CIG on that route.
 

zn1

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the wessies had spare fleet capacity and several were put to work on pompey jobs, they were intensively worked in their first 5-10 years, lets just say you dont need 24 units to run what was essentially "an intercity" service between london and weymouth...
 

SpacePhoenix

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One thing of 442s that wasn't used much were the covers over the brake and main res pipes, because of the problems they had with them, iirc they caused injuries to staff
 

BestWestern

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The 'Shredder Room' on HST buffet cars. Never seen a shredder in there!

The aircon on Class 158s....?? :lol:
 
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Then they should be fixed properly. Why does the railway struggle to provide decent toilet facilities that include a working bog and sensible soap, water and hot air facilities? It is an utter joke.

because allowing the space and services to do so eats into revenue earning space, plus you've seen the kind of baseless ignorant vitriol directed at accessibility regulatiosn compatible toilet modules... the only smaller toilet cubicles i;ve seen that those on trains are those on road coaches ( the mid mount sunken ones , rather than the rear mount at floor level ones)
 

BestWestern

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because allowing the space and services to do so eats into revenue earning space, plus you've seen the kind of baseless ignorant vitriol directed at accessibility regulatiosn compatible toilet modules... the only smaller toilet cubicles i;ve seen that those on trains are those on road coaches ( the mid mount sunken ones , rather than the rear mount at floor level ones)

Desiro stock seems to take that to new levels though; if using one of the non-accessible lavs you pretty much literally p**s in a cupboard! Pleasant they are not.
 

Ash Bridge

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Desiro stock seems to take that to new levels though; if using one of the non-accessible lavs you pretty much literally p**s in a cupboard! Pleasant they are not.

Have to agree with you there after a recent trip on a TPE 185 where I needed to use the facilities, having said that by comparison to the front WC on EasyJet A320s the Desiro is positively spacious.
 

47271

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I would dispute that. The 442s were the mainstay of the Bournemouth line. Well over half the diagrammed work was on the Bournemouth line. That's not to say they weren't on the Portsmouth direct - they were. But they were certainly in a minority compared with CEP/BEP/CIG on that route.
My recollection from the mid to late 90s was that there were three Waterloo to Portsmouths per hour. Two were very quick and non stop to Guildford, one via Woking and the other via Effingham Jn, and both operated by 442s. The third was a regular express stopping at Woking and Clapham and operated by a slammer.

I'm just doing this from memory mind, but 442s were very much in the majority I think.
 

randyrippley

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The rewire on 205101 so it could run in multiple with electrics.

The prototype class 33/1, D6580, was briefly fitted with third-rail pickup shoes, which didn't do anything (presumably there were thoughts of adding a fully-electric mode at some point).
I believe that was to allow testing of the third rail positioning on the Bournemouth electrification before it was energised
 

Bletchleyite

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Have to agree with you there after a recent trip on a TPE 185 where I needed to use the facilities, having said that by comparison to the front WC on EasyJet A320s the Desiro is positively spacious.

The small bog on the Pendolino isn't really significantly bigger, nor that on the Electrostar/Turbostar.
 

BestWestern

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The small bog on the Pendolino isn't really significantly bigger, nor that on the Electrostar/Turbostar.

I bet it's less grim though!

The stainless steel toilet pan is the finishing touch on the Desi, it really adds a 'grotty public bog' ambience. That's in addition to the joys of the 'surprise' tap, which is amusingly triggered by anything you might happen to be carrying as you contort yourself into the tiny space, and blasts water as if it thinks it's fighting a Chilean forest fire, such that if you do happen to have your hands underneath the rest of you invariably gets soaked from the spray. A quality experience indeed. On the plus side, they do seem to be exempt from the standard Desiro Antarctic weather conditions.
 
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G0ORC

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The parcels lockers on 155s and 156s. The lockable doors at one end of 150s. Both intended to allow the units to carry mail, but this practice was discontinued within months of the units being built and was rarely used anyway.

One of the toilet cubicles on 158 MS vehicles. Taken out of use early on, now panelled over.

The 151s!

The first production sprinters, the Class 150/1 had the lockable parcel/mail area which was identifiable with a cant rail line
 

DelW

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My recollection from the mid to late 90s was that there were three Waterloo to Portsmouths per hour. Two were very quick and non stop to Guildford, one via Woking and the other via Effingham Jn, and both operated by 442s. The third was a regular express stopping at Woking and Clapham and operated by a slammer.

I'm just doing this from memory mind, but 442s were very much in the majority I think.

My earlier comment was evidently wrong :oops:

I used the Portsmouth direct from the mid 90s and I remember the trains being slammers until the Desiros arrived about 2004, but travelling from Godalming I'd have been using the stoppers not the fasts.
 

Juniper Driver

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One thing of 442s that wasn't used much were the covers over the brake and main res pipes, because of the problems they had with them, iirc they caused injuries to staff

There may have been another problem with those covers as well.AFAIR.

Buffets on BEP units 2301-2307 I don't think I ever saw them used when I drove those units.
 
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BestWestern

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I believe that it's not only unused, but completely disabled/removed (though the bits are in storage for if/when they return the units).

The usual story goes that there's a steel bar welded onto them somewhere?
 

TimboM

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Not sure if mentioned yet, but the Mk4's 140mph running capability is a sadly unused feature.
 
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