ATW 158 engine overheating

[Gareth Marston]

Was on 1530 Aberystwyth to BHM Intl today engines overheated on Talerddig bank and train came to stand still a couple of times till they cooled down enough. Are other operators having this problem with their 158's in this hot weather?

 

[BHXDMT]

Was on 1530 Aberystwyth to BHM Intl today engines overheated on Talerddig bank and train came to stand still a couple of times till they cooled down enough. Are other operators having this problem with their 158's in this hot weather?

Funnily enough, so was I, in the front portion from Pwllheli. A lot of people weren't amused by the Guard's explanation! I chuckled when an older lady exclaimed that they should "bring back the Steam engines!"...

It's the first time I've heard this, but other than Northern I've never really ventured onto 158s much!

 

[AlexS]

Every summer that I had anything to do with ATW their 158s seemed to expire on a regular basis as soon as it got a bit warm. I was glad to move away!

 

[Gareth Marston]

Summer 2007 was ap palling on cambrian too, back then it only seemed ATW 158's were ailing in that way, pollen ingestion around the radiators was blamed then, though ATW,s maintainence regime improved once the new Machynlleth depot opened that year.

 

[scotraildriver]

I've never had a (Scotrail) 158 overheat on me. However a modification this year to the 156 fleet which has seen the removal of parts of the aftercooler bypass system has caused mayhem with overheating.

 

[TDK]

Every summer that I had anything to do with ATW their 158s seemed to expire on a regular basis as soon as it got a bit warm. I was glad to move away!

The problem 158's face is the radiator position, the problem is that pollen gets on to the face of the radiator and this in turn causes them to overheat. When the engine overheats the engine will revert to idle. This was a huge problem a few years back and ATW then created a plan to fix it by jet washing the radiators whenever the train was stabled in a maintenance depot. This 158 you are talking about was probably due back in Mac that night and had not been to a maintenance depot for a couple of days hence the problem. It is inconvenient for the travelling public but this does not happen no where near as often as it used too.