Class 210

[route:oxford]

Was reading about the Class 210 earlier today.

Can anyone remember what they were like to travel on?

I can imagine that sitting in the "EMU" coaches were really quiet, but what about sitting next to a 1000hp engine at passenger level? Was it as bad as I'd expect it to be?

It looks as if it has end-connections (at both ends) which would suggest that passengers could walk through the entire length of a double-set no matter which end the engines were.

There is an image of the stock at the train testing site...

http://www.traintesting.com/images/210-oxford Bill Wilson.jpg

(Which is also interesting as Oxford appears not to have had a footbridge at the time - was it an underpass like Diddyland and is it still Extant?)

 

[Crossforth]

We're some of these converted to 455 coaches?

 

[dk1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NIR_450_Class

Very similar to these. Whenever travelling to Derry it had to be in the engine car .

 

[fgwrich]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NIR_450_Class

Very similar to these. Whenever travelling to Derry it had to be in the engine car .

Very similar indeed - really the noise level should only about the same as travelling in a 'normal' southern region thumper - but as for the corridors on the motor end, not sure about that one considering the layout of the vent grills / NIR 450s, my only guess is that they were intended for staff use only if the two sets were coupled up...

Speaking of thumpers - better head back over to NI - Those 450s won't be around for much longer.

In fact, 210001 makes several appearances in the Bronski Beats-Small Townboy video, along with a couple of shots of Paddington and a station ticket office which i guess is either maidenhead or slough?

 

[dk1]

Speaking of thumpers - better head back over to NI - Those 450s won't be around for much longer.

:cry:
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

In fact, 210001 makes several appearances in the Bronski Beats-Small Townboy video, along with a couple of shots of Paddington and a station ticket office which i guess is either maidenhead or slough?

Sort of remember & will have to download. Cheers for that mate.

 

[mumrar]

I remember catching one when it trialled on a Redditch-New St service. My only consideration, after being bamboozled by power doors, was to sit in the motor vehicle. It sounded fantastic, like a thumper with a sports exhaust and filter fitted to it, and it thrashed wonderfully well. The climb out of Alvechurch was a highlight for me.

 

[The Planner]

(Which is also interesting as Oxford appears not to have had a footbridge at the time - was it an underpass like Diddyland and is it still Extant?)

Yes it was an underpass, it probably is extant under the tracks but the entrances are both covered up. If I recall correctly they were near the Didcot end of the platforms.

 

[Bastiaan]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NIR_450_Class

Very similar to these. Whenever travelling to Derry it had to be in the engine car .

The BR Class 210 was an entirely Mk3-based unit with either an MTU 12V396 TC11 or a Paxman 6RP200L engine fitted. The NIR 450 Class has new Mk3 bodyshells built on an original Mk1 underframe, with the original EE engine and electrical equipment from 1966 maintained. They look similar indeed because they are both DEMUs with Mk3 bodyshells, but apart from that I doubt there are any other similarities between both classes.

We're some of these converted to 455 coaches?

According to this page indeed one Class 455 contains an original Class 210 TSO. Sadly, the rest of the cars are scrapped.

 

[jopsuk]

I'd reckon that any connection at the motor end would have been staff-only- though with the one at the driving trailer end available for passenger use. Maybe if they'd been in full fleet use efforts would have been made to couple them with the engines outwards? Would inevitably have gone "wrong" frequently of course.

 

[O L Leigh]

Riding the Cl210 would be exactly like riding a Cl317 because all the vehicles were identical with the exception of the DMSO. I believe that the through gangway would have been available for use by the passengers as well as staff, as the traction equipment was offset to allow space for this.

As for the surviving cars, the TSO from the 3 car 210002 (formerly numbered 60400 but now 67400) has been formed up in Cl455 unit 5912 and is still out there getting mainline use. There are a number of telltale signs you can look out for to help identify the vehicle, including low door windows, the bodyside and bogie fixing points for the yaw dampers and brackets that enabled it to operate at speeds over 75mph, and the plated-over vent grille at one end.

Together with the surviving Cl210 driving trailers and TSO 60401 from 210001, this coach formed the Cl457 DC Networker Testbed unit, though it was swapped out for the PTSO from 313034 (71246) to form the Cl316 AC Networker Testbed unit.

It was probably this displacement that saved this vehicle from scrapping. Two Cl455 TSO's (71731 and 71732) had been taken out of service and modified to have plug doors in place of the normal sliding doors in connection with the Crossrail project, running test with units 5912 (71731) and 5918 (71732). Unfortunately it was found that the experimental doors weakened the structure of the vehicle. 71732 was strengthened and modified back with standard sliding doors and placed back into unit 5918. However, 71731 was removed from service and placed spare when unit 5912 went for overhaul and it's place was taken by former Cl210 TSO 67400.

In addition to the surviving TSO in 5912 only two other Cl210 vehicles survive in any form. Both DMSO's were scrapped along with the TCOL from the 4 car 210001 leaving only the two DTSO's converted into DMSO's for the Networker Testbed. 67300 (formerly 60300 from 210001) is preserved at the Coventry Railway Centre while 67301 (formerly 60301 from 210002) is stored by HSBC Rail as a spare bodyshell.

Just to complete the picture, 71731 became a parts donor and was later scrapped. It appears that it donated it's hopper-vent windows to 67400 as there is a picture of 71731 on the Southern Electric website just prior to scrapping where it has the Cl210's unique windows with glazed slit vents.

O L Leigh

 

[route:oxford]

In fact, 210001 makes several appearances in the Bronski Beats-Small Townboy video, along with a couple of shots of Paddington and a station ticket office which i guess is either maidenhead or slough?

Took a look at the the video, if it hadn't been for the mini-hopper windows, I would have been convinced that it had been filmed inside an HST.

There is a part of me that thinks that a 2+7 E-DEMU version of this would have complimented HSTs on the XC network in the 80s.

They'd probably still be in service now.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I rode both 210s and yes it was pretty much the same as a 317 in the trailers; in the motor vehicles there was some engine nouse but it was far, far, quieter than an SR Thumper.

A really good moment was when, upon leaving Reading for Newbury on one run and was taking an obvious interest in the design, the guard nipped forward to have a word with the driver and I got invited "up front", so I am one of only a very, very, few people to have had a cab ride in a 210.