Filthy Northern Stock

[strange6]

How often do TOC's put their stock through a wash? Most of Northern's stock, and in particular the 156's, are absolutely filthy. They're so bad that it's very hard to see out of the window. I travel about in the Wigan - Manchester area and I haven't seen one clean Northern train these past few weeks. The only other TOC who operate around my area is First Transpennine and their trains are ALWAYS spotless. I don't know what Northern management are playing at but it doesn't put Northern in a very good light does it?

 

[ANorthernGuard]

How often do TOC's put their stock through a wash? Most of Northern's stock, and in particular the 156's, are absolutely filthy. They're so bad that it's very hard to see out of the window. I travel about in the Wigan - Manchester area and I haven't seen one clean Northern train these past few weeks. The only other TOC who operate around my area is First Transpennine and their trains are ALWAYS spotless. I don't know what Northern management are playing at but it doesn't put Northern in a very good light does it?

from what I can gather alot of the Washes have been damaged due to the severe weather over this winter, TPE however at least at Ardwick have a brand spanking new wash which is not as easily damaged (or so I've heard)

 

[Lampshade]

The 323s are always clean but considering one of them always seems to be out of service it's to be expected really.

 

[strange6]

from what I can gather alot of the Washes have been damaged due to the severe weather over this winter, TPE however at least at Ardwick have a brand spanking new wash which is not as easily damaged (or so I've heard)

That explains it. I passed the Northern's depot near Manchester Victoria (from Rochdale0 and notice a gang handwashing a 142. Now there's progress I thought! Bet it was hell of a job for them though with all that brown grime built in!
Other than that, I think you Northern Guards are great - very polite and friendly so I have no beef with you lot! I just pity you working on those filthy units!

 

[ANorthernGuard]

That explains it. I passed the Northern's depot near Manchester Victoria (from Rochdale0 and notice a gang handwashing a 142. Now there's progress I thought! Bet it was hell of a job for them though with all that brown grime built in!
Other than that, I think you Northern Guards are great - very polite and friendly so I have no beef with you lot! I just pity you working on those filthy units!

Thankyou very much for the compliment it is very much appreciated

323's are stabled at Longsight thats why they are usually clean!

 

[strange6]

Thankyou very much for the compliment it is very much appreciated

323's are stabled at Longsight thats why they are usually clean!

Do you know where the stock at Wigan Wallgate comes from? (Southport and Kirkby - Manchester and Rochdale)

 

[ANorthernGuard]

Do you know where the stock at Wigan Wallgate comes from? (Southport and Kirkby - Manchester and Rochdale)

I'm Picc based but I presume they would come from Newton Heath I know some are at least stabled at Edge Hill but I can't say for a fact

 

[ChrisTheRef]

Surely any stock at Edge Hill would serve North Western instead of Wallgate?

 

[ANorthernGuard]

Surely any stock at Edge Hill would serve North Western instead of Wallgate?

I'm not sure to be honest, not my neck of the woods so to speak

 

[driver9000]

Units are stabled in a variety of locations and not always in relation to their first working. Trains coming from Edge Hill can access Wallgate from Wigan North Western. Wigan Wallgate has a small number of units stabled in the carriage sidings overnight, others enter the Kirkby/Southport circuit from other services (one being the set that comes off Blackpool sidings to work 06:19 Manchester Victoria which then goes onto Kirkby at 08:03).

 

[WatcherZero]

The annoying thing is Northern wheel out the excuse of frost damage to washing equipment every year, it was wheeled out last Christmas too which was fair enough, but they used the same excuse the year before as well when it wasnt a particularly bad winter. In fact as far back as I remember Diesel Northern stock is always dirty in Winter while EMU/TPE stock are always clean.

 

[driver9000]

I'm not sure how many wash plants Northern have in the North West. The ones I know of are Newton Heath (1), Longsight, Edge Hill and Blackpool North (1). I think there is one at Barrow but I'm not sure if Workington has one. The wash at Blackpool is currently out of use and is due for replacement soon.

 

[ANorthernGuard]

The annoying thing is Northern wheel out the excuse of frost damage to washing equipment every year, it was wheeled out last Christmas too which was fair enough, but they used the same excuse the year before as well when it wasnt a particularly bad winter. In fact as far back as I remember Diesel Northern stock is always dirty in Winter while EMU/TPE stock are always clean.

Longsight is not owned by Northern, Newton Heath's wash is getting dated, yes they do always seem to have problems during winter, I'm sure they want to pay extra wages out to the cleaners to hand wash them *sigh, I have never seen Sheffields in operation, basically Northerns Network is like its trains out of date and needs replacing but where does the money come from???? they can't even pay us a reasonable wage on a bank holiday (that no agreement existed on)

 

[strange6]

Longsight is not owned by Northern, Newton Heath's wash is getting dated, yes they do always seem to have problems during winter, I'm sure they want to pay extra wages out to the cleaners to hand wash them *sigh, I have never seen Sheffields in operation, basically Northerns Network is like its trains out of date and needs replacing but where does the money come from???? they can't even pay us a reasonable wage on a bank holiday (that no agreement existed on)

Dirty looking trains is not good business practice! The quality of your rolling stock and the way in whick it's kept tells you a lot about a business . I bet if those were Richard Branson's or Eddie Stobarts trains , they would have sacked a few senior management by now and done something about it.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Dirty looking trains is not good business practice! The quality of your rolling stock and the way in whick it's kept tells you a lot about a business . I bet if those were Richard Branson's or Eddie Stobarts trains , they would have sacked a few senior management by now and done something about it.

Northern's contract as a TOC was based on their being 0% growth in travel, in some places it's well above 50% (the 0% is the reasomn they have no new stock, it's nothing to do with management at TOC level).

 

[wbbminerals]

I know what you mean, I went on a NR 321 the other week and the windows were full of that brown muck. What causes it?

 

[jonesy3001]

It depends on what type of wash they have, some have temperature gauges and when it goes below freezing they shut themselves down until it gets warm to save the water.

 

[37372]

I've found that Northern Sprinters always seem to be caked in brown dirt, yet the pacers are usually quite clean. Quite odd really. Sheffield seem to send units through the wash fairly often.

 

[185]

I think Newton Heath and Neville Hill depots should have a double / 2road wash on the approach to their depots, and ensure that all drivers bringing units into the depot are responsible for closing windows. A lot more would get done that way as both depots have a lot more trains to cope with than Ardwicks mere 25ish a night

 

[142094]

Simple fact is that in some cases it might not be possible to put all units through a wash for a few days at least - plus then all the time needed for internal cleaning, being away from depots, maintenance and other things. Plus in winter weather they are likely to get dirty very quickly due to the conditions - just look at how quick a car gets dirty in the winter months.

Yes it may look unsightly but I'd be more worried if inside was unclean.

 

[yorksrob]

Simple fact is that in some cases it might not be possible to put all units through a wash for a few days at least - plus then all the time needed for internal cleaning, being away from depots, maintenance and other things. Plus in winter weather they are likely to get dirty very quickly due to the conditions - just look at how quick a car gets dirty in the winter months.

Yes it may look unsightly but I'd be more worried if inside was unclean.

Here here, I'm far more concerned on the odd mornings when I turn up and the loos haven't been refilled.

When I lived in Kent in the nineties we seemed to have a permanent hosepipe ban so I'm fortunately quite used to soupy yellow windows

 

[strange6]

Simple fact is that in some cases it might not be possible to put all units through a wash for a few days at least - plus then all the time needed for internal cleaning, being away from depots, maintenance and other things. Plus in winter weather they are likely to get dirty very quickly due to the conditions - just look at how quick a car gets dirty in the winter months.

Yes it may look unsightly but I'd be more worried if inside was unclean.

I appreciate your point, but the cold spell has been over for 2 weeks now and most 156's are still a disgrace. If other TOC's can keep their stock clean, then so can Northern. The pleasure of riding on a train for me is being able to look out of the window to look at the view; you simply can't can't do this on Northern 156's

 

[142094]

In that case I'd write a letter to Northern to tell them your views. I haven't been over to Merseyside in a few months and was on Northern units all day in the Leeds area and most of them were fine regarding cleanliness.

 

[strange6]

In that case I'd write a letter to Northern to tell them your views. I haven't been over to Merseyside in a few months and was on Northern units all day in the Leeds area and most of them were fine regarding cleanliness.

Take a trip to the Wigan area and you'll see what i mean!

 

[WatcherZero]

I did last year, all I got was an official letter saying there has been problems with washing equipment for several weeks due to the cold weather and they would start cleaning them again eventually and cleanliness wasnt a operational issue affecting reliability. Very non specific both on how long problems had been going on and when they would be sorted. The whole letter had the attitude of 'its not our fault our cleaning equipment doesnt work, dirty trains are your problem at least they arent late, deal with it, we will fix it when we can be bothered'.

 

[jonesy3001]

They had job vacances for both barrow and newton heath depots on the website last week for train cleaning and unsure if they have been filled yet as i am one that has gone for one.

 

[142094]

Take a trip to the Wigan area and you'll see what i mean!

£20.60 is a lot of money just to look at the cleanliness of trains! They'll get round to washing them eventually, otherwise you might need to take a cloth and some Windolene with you (I've actually seen someone doing this as well, which was rather weird).

 

[strange6]

They had job vacances for both barrow and newton heath depots on the website last week for train cleaning and unsure if they have been filled yet as i am one that has gone for one.

Just contacted Northern about this as I write. As a Business man myself, the presentation of your product is crucial to that business' reputation and seeing your rivals' trains riding about Manchester spotlessly clean whilst your trains are like a *****house on wheels is not good.
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£20.60 is a lot of money just to look at the cleanliness of trains! They'll get round to washing them eventually, otherwise you might need to take a cloth and some Windolene with you (I've actually seen someone doing this as well, which was rather weird).

LOL You know something? I was actually thinking about doing that myself the other morning!

 

[NSE]

It's also something that the NXEA Sprinters suffer from, at least last year. I was on a 153 and couldn't see out of the window one bit.

 

[strange6]

I'm not anti-Northern, overall I think they do a good job; their staff are a credit to them on the whole. The only areas I think they need to address is cleanliness and train maintenance.