Depends if anyone else has a use for them. If there's no big desire to get them back by the TOC then they might extend the lease at least. Have *any* 158s gone yet? Or is it all just 175s, 150s and 153s?
No, no 158s have left yet. The 197e units won't be entering service on the Cambrian until September or Autumn 2026.
Any supposed rollout date for the 398s needs to be taken with several buckets of salt. In February, the rollout date was "later this spring". As I predicted at the time, that has now changed to "later this summer"..........
Canton maintain 158s. If/when 150's go they could cover a number of routes in the South.
Not just those classes are going/gone; TfW have of course also withdrawn their mark 2 & mark 3 coaches, 170s, 769s, 143s and 142s. Also, I've been led to believe that the two 158s damaged in the collision 2 years ago won't be coming back.
Isn't some 158 maintenance also done at Crewe? If so, would Crewe and Canton between them be able to take over the 158s entirely when the 197s move into Machynlleth, or do they have similar lack of capacity for more units to CAF at Chester and TfW at Machynlleth?
Machynlleth depot can only hold about 10 units. Though all 22 (previously 24) Transport for Wales 158s are allocated to Machynlleth as their home depot, more than half of them at a time are stabled at the other stabling locations. This will of course continue with the 21 197/0e units.
I think the point that was being made is keeping the 158s as additional units. So any stabling used for 197e are replacing the 158s. Any kept 158s are additional spaces required across the network.
None. They occasionally come to Canton for heavy maintenance but eventually find their way back North
According to post #1759, they will be around until at least April 2029.
Hopefully plenty of time to get one then!
From 8-12th June I recorded :
I think this leaves the following unaccounted for:
Those four have all been disposed of at Unimetals, Newport. 150213 9/25, 150235 & 150255 10/25 and 150250 at an unknown date in 2025
Many thanks
Yes; although my question is specifically about actually maintaining the fleet (ie. not just overnight stabling in places like Pwllheli, where I assume repairs/exams/overhauls would not normally take place). TfW's fleet appears to be stretched rather thin, even without their proposed future Bristol services etc. it's been reported that many (if not all) the planned summer 4-car workings on the Cambrian Coast have been short-formed. They clearly need a larger fleet, but at the same time I've read on this forum that Machynlleth wouldn't realistically be big enough to keep both the 22x class 158s and the 21x ETCS-fitted class 197s (a total of 43 units!) in good working order, and Chester (built for the much-smaller class 175 fleet) wouldn't be able to take on all 77 class 197s by itself.
As far as I know, class 197s are still expected to enter passenger service under ETCS on the Cambrian lines in September 2026. Unless the depots involved have the capacity to maintain both fleets, I fear that 'April 2029' date is more-likely to refer to a period of hand-back work somewhere like Landore than significant TfW passenger use for the class 158s in 2027 and 2028.
The Cambrian is moving to 197s. There will not be mixed fleet usage on that line. So Machynlleth Depot is out if the equation for 158s.
Do you mean taking on other fleets handed down from other TOCs? Why would TFW do that when they've just about replaced most of their fleet? They want to standardise, not add more types.
Yes, that's pretty much my understanding from what I've read on this forum (I'm not railway staff so this forum is my main source of info). Thus, I'm wondering if the 158 work that is currently done at Machynlleth could move to Crewe when the 197s take over at Machynlleth. With regard to Crewe, I seem to recall that there are (or was) at least two depots, once known as 'Crewe Electric' and another as 'Crewe Diesel'; is 'DB Crewe' an umbrella term covering both, or is just that's the only one that TfW make any use of?
Yes. I'd better leave it there now since this isn't the speculative section.
Agree Craigy. In fact 170s occasionally visit from XC, Northern and Scotrail; too IIRC for big exams.
any links or indications of which ones?
153333 and 153935
