Diesel fumes

[ainsworth74]

No, you roast to death on ScR 158s in Summer

Oh, well then Scotrail might want to get on that then.

 

[NIMBUS]

The newest DMU with opening windows I can think of are the Networker Turbo 165s, but yes generally it's the older seventies and eighties units (Pacers and Sprinter classes up to 156) that have opening windows.

165s were (to be very pedantic) actually called Network Turbos. Networker was the name given to the electric versions.

Only the scruffy, unloved fGW 165/1s have hopper windows. The Chiltern 165/0s had the windows replaced by fixed panes at refurbishment seven or eight years ago, when air cooling was fitted.

 

[Trog]

Try a 12 hour shift in Brockholes Tunnel on the Penistone Line with a clapped out 31 spewing its foul smoke at you for half a day.
Then they came and put parafin heaters on the foot plate to keep us warm.
If one fume did not get you the other fumes would, including BO from smelly bob., tobbaco smoke from a pipe/cigar/roll up driver called Owen not to mention the smell from the chicken farm accross from the tunnel.
All in a days work .

Once did a 12 hour shift working on the track in a dry mile long tunnel, with four class 31's, six 1960's vintage bulldozers, and a diesel lighting generator in every refuge. The fume and dust levels were so high that in the morning the light coming in the tunnel end looked a brownish red, and when you walked out of the end of the tunnel it looked like an exhaust pipe as the fumes billowed out. We all had sore eyes and a throat like sandpaper the following day.

 

[9K43]

Once did a 12 hour shift working on the track in a dry mile long tunnel, with four class 31's, six 1960's vintage bulldozers, and a diesel lighting generator in every refuge. The fume and dust levels were so high that in the morning the light coming in the tunnel end looked a brownish red, and when you walked out of the end of the tunnel it looked like an exhaust pipe as the fumes billowed out. We all had sore eyes and a throat like sandpaper the following day.

As HM was a ballast depot we were out ballasting through the week and at the weekend. This could be anywhere in the north of England.
We had the job of relaying the up road in Standedge Tunnel about a mile inside.
This was a muti engine job with class 56's all over the place.
These engines were one of worst engines for working BT's.
You could not sleep on the seats, the doors fitted whee they touched and the fumes were really over the top, and coming out of the tunnel at Elland they always grounded on the springs (up L and Y)
So much so we were issued with face masks when on these jobs.
56's at the best of times were like a mobile smog invasion on a good day, on a bad day in confined spaces it was absolute murder.
I see some people like to see clag from and engine, for myself I wonder what planet they are on.

 

[Trog]

These engines were one of worst engines for working BT's.
You could not sleep on the seats, the doors fitted where they touched and the fumes were really over the top,

My heart bleeds for you, it was almost as bad as that out on the track.


I remember one job unloading ballast and then lifting and packing in a tunnel. Where we eventually emerged into the fresh air, coughing up fumes and ballast dust, only to be told by the siggy that the ballast train crew had screwed the train down in the nearest siding and booked off sick three hours before.

 

[9K43]

My heart bleeds for you, it was almost as bad as that out on the track.


I remember one job unloading ballast and then lifting and packing in a tunnel. Where we eventually emerged into the fresh air, coughing up fumes and ballast dust, only to be told by the siggy that the ballast train crew had screwed the train down in the nearest siding and booked off sick three hours before.

I cannot blame the traincrew for screwing the engine down, as particulate traces of diesel fuel is bad for your lungs, also the same with balllast dust.
If it was so bad in a tunnel, we would hook off and either go out of the tunnel or park the engine under a ventilation shaft.
I did not get paid enough to be gassed on a regular basis, it was upto management provide a safe working environment for me to work in.
I had no objection if the PW lads got on the engine for natter and get warm, but any engine I got on was a NO SMOKING ENVIRONMENT.

 

[Drsatan]

No, you roast to death on ScR 158s in Summer

Wessex Trains' 158s suffered from the same problem: because their air conditioning was disabled because it relied on CFC based gases, they would become extremely hot. FGW's 158s seem to have no aircon related problems though since I'm assuming their aircon systems were replaced during refurbishment.

The issue of non functioning aircon poses an interesting question. If a passenger suffered heatstroke due to being stuck on a 158 (or any unit) with non functioning aircon on a warm day, would he or she be able to sue the offending TOC for negligence?