Could GWR procure more 802s or lengthen existing ones?

[Thunderer]

With the 'GWR procured' class 802 via Eversholt (Not part of the IEP), does the operator have the ability (should it want or need to) to procure more class 802's or to lengthen the existing 5 car 802's? I guess it would be a lot more difficult to do that with the IEP procured class 800's (should it be required in the future)?

 

[swt_passenger]

With the 'GWR procured' class 802 via Eversholt (Not part of the IEP), does the operator have the ability (should it want or need to) to procure more class 802's or to lengthen the existing 5 car 802's? I guess it would be a lot more difficult to do that with the IEP procured class 800's (should it be required in the future)?

The original IEP ITT and eventual contract did allow for train lengthening, and conversion between bi-mode and full electric, and it had to be straightforward to do, even if unlikely in the short term.

It’s all been mentioned before unsurprisingly, but is probably also off-topic for a Class 800 reliability discussion anyway...

 

[CptCharlee]

I have always wondered about the possibility of increasing 5 cars to 9 cars and whether it would be feasible. I mean could you theoretically go for 7 cars? Maybe 8? Or does it have to be 9?

 

[tbtc]

I have always wondered about the possibility of increasing 5 cars to 9 cars and whether it would be feasible. I mean could you theoretically go for 7 cars? Maybe 8? Or does it have to be 9?

My understanding is that it could be a number between five and nine, but introducing a seven coach length (or six/eight etc) would mean non-standard train capacity...

(given that, in the grand scheme of things, a nine coach has double the capacity of a five coach, so it's simple to allocate trains)

...so, whilst there are obviously some services that require more than five without a full nine coaches, any "seven" coach length would be in the "neither nowt nor summat" category (and can't double them up) - and it's probably easier to have all longer trains as nine coaches than to go through the complication of having a tiny number of "medium" sized trains

i.e. it's perfectly possible but it'd be a lot of hassle/ expense to do it for the sake of a small number of trains - only really worth doing if you were going to have a big fleet of them (and, if you have a lot of "medium" trains then that means no option to double them up, so a capacity reduction at the London end (since you couldn't run nine coaches or "5+5")

 

[swt_passenger]

The original ITT train technical spec required that the design allowed for the possibility of up to 12 car units, so up to 312m long.

No idea if that still stands, and if it ever happened how the necessary platforms would ever be provided...

 

[tgrb]

Do they need to be odd number formations to balance engines etc?

 

[swt_passenger]

Do they need to be odd number formations to balance engines etc?

I don’t see anything obvious in the published specs defining that sort of thing. The number of generator units for the so called “self power mode” wasn’t specified by DfT, everything is explained in terms of overall performance, rather than exactly how it is provided.