Do some DMUs have a specific smell?

[Alanko]

Maybe an odd question, but bear with me!

I was in Glasgow Queen Street today, and there was a 158 ticking over in platform 5. I noticed it had a distinct smell.

I noticed the same smell from the 158s that took me on the Kyle line earlier this year. Alongside the common diesel fume smell (per our HSTs up here) there is an odd chemical odour that isn't entirely unlike celery of all things.

Is this an additive in the fuel, some parts of the train getting hot or something else? Should I be seeing a doctor?!

I don't recall 158s smelling like this in the '90s. I'm also not around 156s or 170s enough to smell them!

 

[Revilo]

153s definitely have/had a very distinctive damp burnt smell.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Can I be the first to suggest that Voyagers have a particular aroma?

 

[dazzler]

Can I be the first to suggest that Voyagers have a particular aroma?

Ah yes! Eau d'Elsan! It stays with you...


...sometimes for years!

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Can I be the first to suggest that Voyagers have a particular aroma?

How malodorous!

For how long has this been the case? Got to be 20 years or so now.

 

[hexagon789]

It's modified celery juice, they add it to the diesel to make it burn cleaner. The enzymes in the celery improve the pyrene bioacessibility of the diesel, reducing unburnt hydrcarbon chains and also saves an average of 21 gallons of fuel per day per engine.

 

[lxfe_mxtterz]

GWR Class 165s (the ones without carpets) certainly have a distinctive smell onboard. Strangely the Class 166s (the ones with carpets) don't have the smell.

SWR Class 158s and 159s also have a rather pleasant onboard smell, I've found.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Not quite what the thread is asking for, but the MS vehicle of 144023 had a bit of a smoky smell for the last few years in traffic after it suffered a minor fire near Rochdale.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 4 Aug 2022 ==

Ah yes! Eau d'Elsan! It stays with you...


...sometimes for years!

I'd have called it Eau de toilet...

 

[anamyd]

Maybe an odd question, but bear with me!

I was in Glasgow Queen Street today, and there was a 158 ticking over in platform 5. I noticed it had a distinct smell.

I noticed the same smell from the 158s that took me on the Kyle line earlier this year. Alongside the common diesel fume smell (per our HSTs up here) there is an odd chemical odour that isn't entirely unlike celery of all things.

Is this an additive in the fuel, some parts of the train getting hot or something else? Should I be seeing a doctor?!

I don't recall 158s smelling like this in the '90s. I'm also not around 156s or 170s enough to smell them!

Maybe toilet tanks? They were required to be retrofitted to all non-fitted trains by 2020. A 158 that called at a station I was at on the 3/8/22 had the worst "they need to be emptied" smell I had ever come across, and it was very "vegetably".

 

[Geeves]

158s inside (to me) have always had a smell of stale coffee!

 

[RichJF]

171s used to smell oily & dusty during the summer when I used to use them in a previous job.

 

[Alanko]

158s inside (to me) have always had a smell of stale coffee!

I think I know what you mean. A slight potato peeling earthiness?

My mystery celery smell is apparent both inside and outside, so it can't just be dirty carpets etc.

 

[Bletchleyite]

153s definitely have/had a very distinctive damp burnt smell.

I understand this is something to do with the insulation on the exhaust, which unlike other 15x runs through the passenger compartment.

 

[thelongestroad]

GWR Class 165s (the ones without carpets) certainly have a distinctive smell onboard. Strangely the Class 166s (the ones with carpets) don't have the smell.

If the 165s are cleaned/or have spent some time at Reading they use some sort of sweet smelling air freshener/fabric freshener spray. As some 165s rotate out of Reading you can get the ones that smell very strongly of this product. They don't use this product out of the depot in Bristol so you don't get it on 166s or the 165s that haven't been to Reading for a while.

153s just smell of wet dog or cannabis.