92 tube stock upgrade

[90sWereBetter]

Space is required at Acton Works for a new workshop to be built for the '92 Stock upgrade.

Apologies for hijacking the thread, but I was not aware the 92s were being upgraded. Is it mostly mechanical work which is being undertaken, or a proper full refurbishment?

 

[Dstock7080]

Apologies for hijacking the thread, but I was not aware the 92s were being upgraded. Is it mostly mechanical work which is being undertaken, or a proper full refurbishment?

- Floor repairs and handrails; address floor corrosion and apply new floor lining and re-coat grab rails.
- AC Traction; replace unreliable DC traction system and obsolete control electronics with a modern AC traction package.
- Door Overhaul; core maintenance. Includes fitment of inspection hatches for door pillar cracks.
- DTS replacement; the DTS monitors train systems and provides information on asset health. It is increasingly unreliable meaning it is difficult to find faults.
- Mid-life repairs and RVAR compliance; comply with RVAR and address sub-standard condition and appearance. LED lights, wheelchair spaces, new CIS and internal screens.

 

[HainultLoop]

Are you aware as to why this work is taking place at Acton Works as opposed to the Central Line depots at White City/Hainult/Ruislip?

 

[Nym]

- Floor repairs and handrails; address floor corrosion and apply new floor lining and re-coat grab rails.
- AC Traction; replace unreliable DC traction system and obsolete control electronics with a modern AC traction package.
- Door Overhaul; core maintenance. Includes fitment of inspection hatches for door pillar cracks.
- DTS replacement; the DTS monitors train systems and provides information on asset health. It is increasingly unreliable meaning it is difficult to find faults.
- Mid-life repairs and RVAR compliance; comply with RVAR and address sub-standard condition and appearance. LED lights, wheelchair spaces, new CIS and internal screens.

Yup, that's most of it.

The programme also includes the fitment of CCTV within it's current authority.

The static converter (ACM in modern terms) is very likely within the scope of "AC Traction".

See Appendix 2 for source. http://content.tfl.gov.uk/06-lu-rolling-stock.pdf

Are you aware as to why this work is taking place at Acton Works as opposed to the Central Line depots at White City/Hainult/Ruislip?

Lack of space.

 

[Dstock7080]

Are you aware as to why this work is taking place at Acton Works as opposed to the Central Line depots at White City/Hainult/Ruislip?

White City, along with Lillie Bridge and Hammersmith are now downgraded to sidings status, no longer depots.

 

[D365]

Is the fitment of AC traction considered more economical than full fleet replacement at this point, or is the overhaul forced because of delays to the Deep Tube Programme?

 

[Blindtraveler]

Odly enough I was going to ask all this myself following the posts in the D stock thread!

I am rather fond of the 92 stock and whilst the traction motor sound will be missed reliability mods etc will indeed be good.

 

[Mikey C]

It's slightly back to the future, after all the heavy maintenance was sent out from Acton works to the line depots, to now do this work back at Acton again!

I guess this overhaul is more akin to the refurbishments carried out in the 90s, when the trains were sent away to Bombardier/Tickford etc for their major mid life refurbishments

 

[birchesgreen]

Is the fitment of AC traction considered more economical than full fleet replacement at this point, or is the overhaul forced because of delays to the Deep Tube Programme?

Well i think there are higher priorities as far as fleet replacement is concerned, in an ideal world they would probably prefer to replace them but the 1970s built stock needs to be done first.

 

[Techniquest]

I only just found this thread, I too didn't know 92 stock was getting work done on it. I guess it shouldn't be overly surprising as they must be rather old now.

Sure will be interesting to see what they sound like following the work, if it's anything like 323s they'll be a lot quieter...

 

[Nym]

There's also the HOPL programme going through at the moment...

http://content.tfl.gov.uk/rup-20150212-part-1-item10-central-line-overhaul.pdf
http://content.tfl.gov.uk/fpc-20150311-part-1-item16-central-line-overhaul.pdf

 

[bramling]

Well i think there are higher priorities as far as fleet replacement is concerned, in an ideal world they would probably prefer to replace them but the 1970s built stock needs to be done first.

The issue with the 92 stock is that remedial work needs to be done *now*.

Pick any day at random and look the list of incidents for the Central Line, and it's pretty much guaranteed to be a long list of rolling stock delays and failures, massively more so than any other line. One does have to ask the question as to why LU/TFL has allowed things to get this bad over time when the issues with this fleet have been well known for many years, but things are where they are, and if nothing is done then things will only get worse over the next few years.

The problem with the stock is three-fold. Firstly, the condition of the bodyshells. Some remedial work has already been done on this. Secondly, obsolete 1990s electronics which is becoming increasingly difficult to keep going, in particular the traction system and DTS, thusfar the strategy has been 'patch & mend' on this. Finally, the stock is by no means accessibility compliant, and this must be completed by 2020.

The development and construction of new stock would take the best part of 5 to 10 years, during which time the existing stock *has* to be kept working. Meanwhile there is currently no plan in place for what LU's future signalling systems will look like once the sub-surface lines are completed. The likelihood is it will probably be more of the same, but this isn't quite a given as no one wants to be in the position of Thales being able to name any price. Finally, this all assumes there will be funding available. A lot of unknowns for one to be launching a fleet replacement programme. And of course this is all against a climate where the Central Line is already delivering an intense service, to be further relieved by Crossrail, whereas the Piccadilly Line struggles to reliably deliver its comparatively mediocre timetable (although to be fair this is more to do with signalling and other issues rather than rolling stock).

The 92 stock suffers from being designed and built at a time of rapidly advancing technology, and as such pioneered a little too much. Whilst they're probably never going to be as reliable as the more 'mature' 96 and, especially, 95 stocks, I think the replacement traction package will cure the worst of the fleet's problems.

From a passenger experience point of view, the 92 stock isn't that bad. They're spacious inside, more so than some other LU stocks actually, and when working properly they run well. For all their faults, they're still running one of the most intense services on LU, and for that they deserve credit.