DMU Cascades

[Chrisgr31]

The Class 170>171 conversion was more expensive/time-consuming than first imagined, which Southern weren't happy about

Although it is actually fairly unclear as to how much works they needed, and why so many works were actually done.

Some stories suggest all the wiring was stripped out but in that case why do they still have the wifi transmitters in them?

They were out of service for at least 15 months for all these works, which apparently included corrosion works and a major overhaul. In the meantime the rest of the Scotrail fleet is apparently happily in service day in day out.

The converted Southern units also appear to be incredibly unreliable if rumour is to be believed, giving rise to most of the unit failures. Again oddly the Scotrail ones seem far better.

It's a mystery!

However Southern have confirmed to me they are not planning on taking any more 170s.

 

[Mordac]

Although it is actually fairly unclear as to how much works they needed, and why so many works were actually done.

Some stories suggest all the wiring was stripped out but in that case why do they still have the wifi transmitters in them?

They were out of service for at least 15 months for all these works, which apparently included corrosion works and a major overhaul. In the meantime the rest of the Scotrail fleet is apparently happily in service day in day out.

The converted Southern units also appear to be incredibly unreliable if rumour is to be believed, giving rise to most of the unit failures. Again oddly the Scotrail ones seem far better.

It's a mystery!

However Southern have confirmed to me they are not planning on taking any more 170s.

Maybe Scotrail got to pick which units would be going down South, if you get my drift?

 

[northwichcat]

Maybe Scotrail got to pick which units would be going down South, if you get my drift?

The deal was agreed between Govia and Eversholt and Eversholt only have 9 x 170s, the others are owned by Porterbrook.

 

[DarloRich]

Correct on the LM150s to Northern, but the info was that the incoming 153s to LM were not going to be ex-Northern. Angel Trains units from GWR was the suggestion, but given the cascade issues there, who knows just now!

i had been told it was a straight 2-4-1 swap to enable everyone to claim that the number of coaches per franchise remained the same

 

[Clarence Yard]

i had been told it was a straight 2-4-1 swap to enable everyone to claim that the number of coaches per franchise remained the same

It was supposed to be 6 of the 9 surplus Angel cl.153 go from GWR to LM and their 3 cl.150/1 would then go to Northern.

There are on going discussions between the DfT/LM/GWR at the moment to resolve this. It is very likely that the 3 LM cl.150 will stay with LM and that GWR will release 3 cl.150/1 during 2017 (via C6) to "replace" the LM units.

By retaining all the 14 cl.153 units in GWR until early 2018 when only the 5 Porterbrook ones are likely to be retained, together with the 8 cl.143 units, GWR will be able to cope until the Newbury electrification releases more Turbos and the remaining cl.143/153 & the last 2 cl.150/1 units can finally be dispensed with.

The remaining 12 cl.150/1 units that were due to transfer in 2017 are likely to go to Northern in January 2018, after Maidenhead to Didcot is fully electrified and the Turbos have been modified for use in the Bristol area.