Class 390s with London Overground armrests

[bluerun46]

It appears that some proportion of Avanti West Coast’s refurbished Class 390 seats’ armrests have, underneath their faux-leather cover, London Overground moquette. This is rather unusual.

What’s the story? Was this moquette taken from a scrap train and used as padding, or was more material from old armrests salvaged?

 

[FOH]

Is this a wind up?!

 

[transportphoto]

Is this a wind up?!

No.

 

[stadler]

Not the first time i have seen something like this. There was a 458 going around for a while with full First Great Western moquette on one of the seats and this was back in South West Trains days. Perhaps both Arriva Rail London and Avanti West Coast use the same moquette supplier. Maybe they ordered spares and they accidentally sent them the wrong one and they decided to use it anyone.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

How utterly bizarre.

 

[bosleyrog]

It just creates a soft padded feel underneath the E-leather material.
The manufacturer will have used any moquette they have in stock for this.

 

[Bletchleyite]

It just creates a soft padded feel underneath the E-leather material.
The manufacturer will have used any moquette they have in stock for this.

And unfortunately the e-leather was of such poor quality that it's all falling off (the one problem with what I think is a very good seat design), thus exposing what is underneath.

 

[DarloRich]

Is this a wind up?!

no - i have seen them also. I just assumed the armrest needed patching quickly and that was the only spare fabric to hand

 

[800001]

This is similar to when I've seen GWR green hand rests and GWR seats on LNER trains.
It will be the only available thing in stock and better than having no seat/armrest etc

 

[WirralLine]

Weren't the 390 refurbishments undertaken at the same Alstom facility the London Overground units (no idea which class) are currently undergoing work at in south Liverpool?

 

[MCR247]

Weren't the 390 refurbishments undertaken at the same Alstom facility the London Overground units (no idea which class) are currently undergoing work at in south Liverpool?

And it looks like the old moquette that’s in the process of getting removed

 

[AJDesiro]

This is similar to when I've seen GWR green hand rests and GWR seats on LNER trains.
It will be the only available thing in stock and better than having no seat/armrest etc

From what I can gather it's just what's underneath the slightly "squishy" pleather armrest, where the cover is so thin that it seems to rip off very easily. A solution is needed, since it's even starting to wear away on the 80x, which have been in service for 2 years less than the first refurbished 390s. I reckon a new plastic top to the armrest, a bit like what they did on the 378s, or like the grammer E3000 (among many, many others) seats would be a good idea