Goldfish62
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And it is indeed on that service.
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Class 701 'Aventra' trains for South Western Railway: progress updates
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FusionZenFlame
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Well hopefully this forum updates on units entering. Only thing I could find.
mansonlo49
Member
thank you, useful info
Flange Squeal
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A friend at Farnham tells me that training of drivers there began this month and that they have booked diagrams starting in the next batch of amendments, with more booked work showing in December's diagrams.
FusionZenFlame
Member
701020 is in passenger service, seen it yesterday.
norbitonflyer
Established Member
First day in service for 701020 was October 8th
Also 701005 (August 27th)
701053 (August 26th)
701057 (August 13th)
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
The quoted list was lasted updated on September 3rd
But see this (only gives dates of enetering service, not earlier developments)
701 operation
Now that 701s have been in service for a whole year (well, one of them has.........) I thought it timely to transfer the record of which units have run, and when, to a new thread instead of having it hidden halfway down the 701 thread in the "traction" area. I little thought when I started...
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FusionZenFlame
Member
Yep, did that one on its yesterday without knowing it was it's 2nd day.
WWTownEnth
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I’ve done my best to update it again but please let me know if anything else is wrong / out of date.First day in service for 701020 was October 8th
Also 701005 (August 27th)
701053 (August 26th)
701057 (August 13th)
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
The quoted list was lasted updated on September 3rd
But see this (only gives dates of enetering service, not earlier developments)
701 operation
Now that 701s have been in service for a whole year (well, one of them has.........) I thought it timely to transfer the record of which units have run, and when, to a new thread instead of having it hidden halfway down the 701 thread in the "traction" area. I little thought when I started...
norbitonflyer
Established Member
Duly running with 701042 this morning.
Only 21 were running this morning, and two of those have been stood down as the entire Shepperton service has been cancelled because of the problems at Fulwell this morning (the rostered units were two 701s, a 2x458 and a 2x455, the latter being the train that had the pyrotechnics).
Three other regular 701 digrams are being operated by 455s this morning
Goldfish62
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Plus a multitude of cancellations due to staff shortages.
The new(ish) MD must be wondering if he should have stayed over at NR Anglia!
WWTownEnth
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They keep introducing new 701 diagrams only for more and more existing 701 diagrams seemingly to revert to 455s…..
mansonlo49
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isn’t some 701s been towed out from storage already?
WWTownEnth
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That wasn’t my point
Peter Mugridge
Veteran Member
701 503 + 701 504 were shunting out and back in at Clapham Yard on Thursday last week. Into the same road from the looks of it...
...but shouldn't we be putting this on the 701 thread?
It was a few weeks ago, 506 I think? Maybe it's happened again since, will try find the photo I remember seeing.
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
Just did some looking, 23rd september, Clapham Yard - Waterloo - Waterloo (hounslow loop via hounslow), then Clapham Yard, turns out it was 701 503 (RTT even had the unit displayed for one of the services!)
Here's the video I was thinking of: https://x.com/Champs707007/status/1970427855806054502
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mansonlo49
Member
then what’s you going to say
WWTownEnth
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Apologies but I really don’t understand the question.
mansonlo49
Member
This shouldn’t be happening as more 701 been toeing out of storage locations gradually
D365
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There are always units being moved in and out of storage.
Thanks useful information, though does make harder to see how enough drivers will be trained by December. Looking at the FOI quoted elsewhere, that states 330 drivers trained on a response dated 14th October. That doesn't seem the biggest problem with current fleet availability anyway.
The number of 701s out at once has held broadly steady, but the unplanned 455s on 701 diagrams has increased with the new 701 diagrams.
Once out of storage units take a while to be passed for service. The main issue has been the reduced availability of the passenger service ready fleet, the size only allows 1 to be out of service to cover all the diagrams. 4 weren't in service today resulting in 3 diagrams short. Ideally would have more passed as well as 24 in use from 25 units will always be a challenge.
Goldfish62
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Compare the 24 from 25 units that the 701s are currently expected to achieve with the first few years of the 458s when it was 24 units from a total of 30!
All new trains experience poor reliability initially so it's little wonder that trying to operate with only one spare doesn't work. My hunch though is that SWR are expecting that and that spare 455s are effectively currently acting as surrogate spare 701s. To finally withdraw all 455s the number of spare 701s will first need to be built up before moving on to withdrawing the 458s. That's my theory anyway.
Nogoohwell
Member
Leaf fall season always knocks out a large number of units with wheel flats. So you need plenty if spare operational units.
When you add in that just about half of the drivers are trained and the current round of two COVID variants, staff availability cant be great either.
Trouble is, people are expecting a linear progression, but you are dealing with several external factors that are, to be frank, beyond control, you just have to thankful that there are still 455’s around to pick up the slack
When you add in that just about half of the drivers are trained and the current round of two COVID variants, staff availability cant be great either.
Trouble is, people are expecting a linear progression, but you are dealing with several external factors that are, to be frank, beyond control, you just have to thankful that there are still 455’s around to pick up the slack
Snow1964
Established Member
Are units still going to storage ?
I know some are occasionally moving from storage to SWR or in and out of Eastleigh for modifications/updates
The 701s seem rather resistant to locking a wheel and sliding however hard you brake. Can't say I've heard a single one with flats... yet.
Peter Sarf
Established Member
There has generally been a slight build up of 701s on SWR. As in fewer going to store than coming out of store. At the moment the increase in 701s does not seem to be matched by an increase in use. BUT the two factors are not simply linked. Furthermore SWR are diagraming 701s with only one spare - very ambitious. Also I can imagine there will be times when a whole block of services switch over to 701s when a critical mass of drivers at any one depot/service-group is reached.
If one of the drivers rostered to drive part of a 701s diagram for the day is not passed to drive 701s then there is a risk the whole diagram has to be covered by something more familiar - 455s.
Units with defects could easily be simple things like wheelflats. It is the leaf fall season after all and this always adversely affects unit availability. There are not enough wheel lathes to get units back quickly at this time of year. But as @Bigfoot says - not really much evidence of 701s suffering wheelflats.
It was a taken out of service due to reporting a hot axle box.
Thanks - yes, I spotted that on RTT today - I was on the train that failed at Earlsfield on 9th Oct - the driver did manage to edge it forwards a few metres (if that) but then had to give up - given how many people boarded the train during its lengthy sojourn at Earlsfield, a lot of people had to de-train once the unit was failed!
FusionZenFlame
Member
Good to know.