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Not sure of the details of the original incident but there was quite substantial damage to bogies and other underframe equipment. The damage assessment and determining whether to repair or replace equipment can be lengthy processes particularly when insurers are involved. The good news is the...

It is 334017 en route to Brodies at Kilmarnock for incident damage repairs. It has been out of service since October 2018 when it was involved in a collision with cattle. It has been at Alstom Polmadie for most of the time since then.

Don't forget that modern electric trains are already regenerating significant amounts of power back into the supply. This reduces the net loading on the National Grid where there are other trains in the same electrical section to consume the regenerated energy. On 25kV networks the regenerated...

A few photos of Class 350s and Class 390s on diverted services at Clifton this afternoon. All of the services I saw that would normally be worked by 319s were operated by DMUs, possibly to limit the loading on the power supply with the additional electric services operating?

The highest mileage Pendolino is 390122 with a reading of 4,576,165 miles at the start of today. The Fleet Planners do a good job at balancing the miles across the fleet with 28 trains at more than 4.4 million miles and all the original build trains with more than 4.2 million miles on the...

The Network Rail Summary of Rolling Stock / Infrastructure Compatibility certificate for Class 323 operation on the Bolton route was signed off on 8th February. "Class 323 vehicles are compatible for interim service operation, in both directions, on the following routes: MVE1 Deal Street Jn -...

The first Virgin Class 390 empty stock movement (electric-powered) via Bolton operated earlier this afternoon, 5P93 Longsight to Blackpool North. http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/O86944/2019/02/28/advanced Not the best of days for photographs unfortunately. Operated by 11-car 390115.

I presume the feeder will be from Willow Park (Parkside) along the Chat Moss route into Manchester then via Ordsall Lane up to Euxton, as it was for the test runs before Christmas. The extension lead isn't plugged in yet.

Class 323 and Class 390 have both been signed off for interim service operation on the Bolton route today, subject to a maximum speed restriction of 75mph. I would assume that Class 319 and 350 will have received similar authorisation but I haven't seen the documentation. Electric trains and...

The Class 373 Eurostars were a truly international project. The TMST (Trans Manche Super Train) consortium involved multi-disciplinary teams from several rolling stock companies in the UK, France and Belgium. GEC Traction were heavily involved at their Trafford Park and Preston factories and...

Most of the Trafford Park design teams moved to Preston in 1993. Power electronics and control electronics remained in Manchester until around 1999 when Trafford Park closed and the work was transferred to Preston or France. The Alstom bid for the Channel Tunnel High Speed trains (subsequently...

The Onix Traction systems on the 1995 Northern Line Tube Stock, Class 458 and Class 334 Juniper EMUs and the Class 390 Pendolinos are UK designs that make use of component parts manufactured at Alstom sites either in the UK or France. All make use of variants of the Agate Traction control...

One of the challenges for the WCP franchise will be maintaining capacity on the route once the classic-compatible HS2 trains enter service. HS2 is unlikely to extend beyond Crewe until well into the 2030's. The new trains will be non-tilt and are planned to be 200m long so will need to find...

SPZ = Signalling Protected Zone. The test train is the only train allowed to operate in the test zone; other trains are blocked from entering the zone by restrictive signalling aspects. If the testing involves electromagnetic compatibility tests then the SPZ will normally be defined to cover the...

The next stage of testing (in January) will be with a Class 319 operating at the new line speed limits (up to 100mph) with the existing feeder arrangement. Once the Heyrod feeder is connected the Pendolino tests will be repeated. These tests verify the performance of the power supply when...

Yes that's correct, and there is an additional benefit as the lower current means the voltage induced in any parallel lineside cables is also much lower. The Pendolino operates at unity power factor when drawing more than 500kW so can be considered a resistive load. The voltage drop when...

This week's testing has all been in autotransformer mode fed from Willow Park via Ordsall. There were no issues with the Pendolino drawing in excess of 7MW when accelerating. This is the equivalent of 3 Class 319s accelerating simultaneously.

Trains equipped with regenerative braking (such as Class 390 or Class 350) are only allowed to regenerate up to a maximum voltage of 27.5kV. This is to avoid the situation where older Traction units may shut down on overvoltage as in the past the maximum voltage was defined as 27.5kV (the latest...

All testing was performed with the 69504 car (only) pantograph raised. It is not possible to raise both pantographs simultaneously in normal conditions. Both pantographs were illuminated by floodlights which may have given the impression they were both raised.

Successful night's testing completed with 390104, Alstom Pendolino, on the Preston - Bolton - Manchester route. The first round trip was performed at 40mph followed by a second round trip at line speed (75mph maximum). This included running through the new Platform 5 at Bolton. Line voltage...