GWR Class 800

[asylumxl]

Don't know ic it's been posted, but according to Railway Gazette, the first IEP set is on its wa to Britain. Can't wait to see it moving.

 

[RichmondCommu]

If you'd have had one power car that fed a common electrical bus, the distributed traction would still be feasible.

+ves: No underfloor engines therefore, lower floor level and none of the low throbbing that irritates enthusiasts

I think you've hit the nail on the head here! In the grand scheme of things the views of enthusiasts have to be at the bottom of the pile or else the railways would become a mess. In reality none enthusiasts really couldn't care less about under floor noise.

 

[WatcherZero]

Don't know ic it's been posted, but according to Railway Gazette, the first IEP set is on its wa to Britain. Can't wait to see it moving.

Yeah its been pretty widely reported, though just seen a BBC news story where they rather uniquely claim its already arrived in Wales :roll:

 

[TheKnightWho]

When is testing due to begin? And where?

 

[swt_passenger]

Don't know ic it's been posted, but according to Railway Gazette, the first IEP set is on its wa to Britain. Can't wait to see it moving.

It was posted yesterday: http://www.railforums.co.uk/showpost.php?p=2030491&postcount=364

That's why there's been a sudden rush of IEP posts...

 

[BananaRepublic]

Don't know ic it's been posted, but according to Railway Gazette, the first IEP set is on its wa to Britain....

Yeah its been pretty widely reported...

Reported here on this very thread, 2 pages ago on page 25.

[edit: beaten to it by SWT Passenger ]

 

[sprinterguy]

When is testing due to begin? And where?

Testing will begin in April on the Old Dalby test track.

 

[BananaRepublic]

Presumably it will be dragged from Southampton Docks to Old Dalby, when it arrives in March?
That'll have the photographers buzzing.

 

[asylumxl]

Yeah its been pretty widely reported, though just seen a BBC news story where they rather uniquely claim its already arrived in Wales :roll:

Well, as the replies to my post show, this forum is not above repeating the same thing over and over :P. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[ainsworth74]

Presumably it will be dragged from Southampton Docks to Old Dalby, when it arrives in March?
That'll have the photographers buzzing.

Surely it'll go by road as there won't be gauge cleared for that route...

 

[phil beard]

Testing will begin in April on the Old Dalby test track.

I read somewhere that after Old Dalby the line between Reading and Didcot would be used first for mainline testing. Presumably, that's why electrification is progressing there almost before anywhere else on the GWML.

 

[nottsnurse]

Surely it'll go by road as there won't be gauge cleared for that route...

Is that not why the National Gauging Database is maintained?

 

[Olaf]

The first pre-series unit has now left Japan, will arrive in the UK in March.

It's left the plant, but will not leave Japan until the 22nd:
http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/...hitachi-iep-trainset-sets-off-for-the-uk.html

 

[WatcherZero]

Well set off, sailing from the plant near hiroshima to osaka is already 300km sailed.

 

[TheKnightWho]

Well set off, sailing from the plant near hiroshima to osaka is already 300km sailed.

In the wrong direction, surely? Or is it coming via the Panama canal?

 

[Murph]

In the wrong direction, surely? Or is it coming via the Panama canal?

There's obviously some reason for them calling in there before setting off on the ocean voyage. A 300km coastal hop is pretty much irrelevant compared to half way round the planet, so I wouldn't read anything into the direction of that hop. The direction will most likely be determined by what other cargo they are carrying, or need to pick up en-route.

Edit: On second thoughts, the 300km hop might well just be by barge (which appears to be what is shown in the earlier picture), or small coastal ship, to connect to the oceanic shipping hub. It's certainly not going far offshore on the barge pictured.

 

[TheKnightWho]

There's obviously some reason for them calling in there before setting off on the ocean voyage. A 300km coastal hop is pretty much irrelevant compared to half way round the planet, so I wouldn't read anything into the direction of that hop. The direction will most likely be determined by what other cargo they are carrying, or need to pick up en-route.

Edit: On second thoughts, the 300km hop might well just be by barge (which appears to be what is shown in the earlier picture), or small coastal ship, to connect to the oceanic shipping hub. It's certainly not going far offshore on the barge pictured.

Oh certainly - I just assumed it would be leaving directly from a port on Kyushu or Shikoku rather than moving further up Honshu. Of course logistics and other factors can mean that things take quite a circuitous route getting places sometimes.

 

[DownSouth]

If you look up the nautical chart for the area, the approaches to Kudamatsu look very shallow, definitely off-limits to international RoRo freighters.

In the wrong direction, surely? Or is it coming via the Panama canal?

Yes, a quick search for the details of Hitachi's previous shipping patterns and a schedule search on the Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics website reveals they are going via Panama, on a Oceania-Asia-America-Europe voyage.


VESSEL: TAMERLANE
VOYAGE: FF501-TLE

AUCKLAND NEW ZEALAND 19/12/2014 19/12/2014
BRISBANE AUSTRALIA 23/12/2014 24/12/2014
PORT KEMBLA AUSTRALIA 25/12/2014 26/12/2014
MELBOURNE AUSTRALIA 28/12/2014 30/12/2014
FREMANTLE AUSTRALIA 04/01/2015 05/01/2015
SINGAPORE SINGAPORE 11/01/2015 12/01/2015
MASAN, KOREA REPUBLIC OF KOREA 18/01/2015 18/01/2015 (next call)
NAGOYA, JAPAN JAPAN 20/01/2015 21/01/2015
KOBE, JAPAN JAPAN 22/01/2015 22/01/2015 (Hitachi SET vehicles get loaded)
YOKOHAMA, JAPAN JAPAN 23/01/2015 24/01/2015
HITACHINAKA, JAPAN JAPAN 24/01/2015 24/01/2015
TACOMA, WA U.S.A. 04/02/2015 04/02/2015
LONG BEACH, CA U.S.A. 08/02/2015 08/02/2015
LAZARO CARDENAS MEXICO 12/02/2015 12/02/2015
MANZANILLO, PA PANAMA 17/02/2015 18/02/2015
SAVANNAH, GA U.S.A. 22/02/2015 22/02/2015
NEWPORT NEWS, VA U.S.A. 24/02/2015 24/02/2015
BALTIMORE, MD U.S.A. 25/02/2015 26/02/2015
BREMERHAVEN GERMANY 08/03/2015 08/03/2015
ZEEBRUGGE BELGIUM 10/03/2015 10/03/2015
SOUTHAMPTON UNITED KINGDOM 11/03/2015 11/03/2015

Interestingly, Kudamatsu (the location of Hitachi's Kasado Works) is shown on the Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics website's search by port page, which would suggest that Hitachi have contracted them for a door-to-door service and not just for the international leg. No voyages are shown, however.

Massive RoRo ships like that achieve their operational efficiency by making lots of stops along the way so the ship is never empty. They appear to be quite experienced with handling rail vehicles with or without bogies attached, including the previous Hitachi Rail exports to the UK.

Oh certainly - I just assumed it would be leaving directly from a port on Kyushu or Shikoku rather than moving further up Honshu. Of course logistics and other factors can mean that things take quite a circuitous route getting places sometimes.

There is no international port on Shikoku, and not enough major industry on Kyushu to justify regular calls by huge RoRo ships at the only international port of Hikata (Fukuoka Prefecture). Smaller ports are served by trans-shipments, a bit like passengers making connections from a long-distance express train onto local trains or buses.

The inconvenience of making the coastal trans-shipment journey about 100nm longer is easily offset by the convenience of the big RoRo vessel being able to avoid going 50nm out of its way to make an extra call at Hikata. A ship is incredibly efficient once it gets going, it's the stopping and starting which is costly.

They might go with a call at Hikata if Hitachi were exporting a full ship's worth of trains overseas at once, but the chance of that happening is next to none - it would be inefficient on Hitachi's part to have such a stockpile of completed trains sitting around at their factory waiting to be exported instead of getting them loaded onto regular ships as soon as possible.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

I read somewhere that after Old Dalby the line between Reading and Didcot would be used first for mainline testing. Presumably, that's why electrification is progressing there almost before anywhere else on the GWML.

Initial main line testing (after Old Dalby) is on the ECML not the GWML.
I think it will be the production versions that get tested between Reading and Didcot.

Let's hope the import ship manages to avoid the sandbanks in the Solent...

 

[D6975]

My brain doesn't like those maps in #408.
It just won't accept that the dark blue is land, not sea. I really have to concentrate to flip the land/sea over.

 

[Techniquest]

My brain doesn't like those maps in #408.
It just won't accept that the dark blue is land, not sea. I really have to concentrate to flip the land/sea over.

Aye I was rather confused the first time I looked at them too!

 

[Murph]

My brain doesn't like those maps in #408.
It just won't accept that the dark blue is land, not sea. I really have to concentrate to flip the land/sea over.

Speaking as someone familiar with nautical charts, I had no problem processing them. Probably because light blue is deeper water than dark blue on them (white > light blue > dark blue > green > yellow is the progression for standard Admiralty charts, deepest to shallowest/land).

 

[jon0844]

They should have wavy lines and shark fins to make it clearer.

 

[samuelmorris]

I was going to say I had no issue, but that just sounded rude
I suppose it highlights considerations I wouldn't otherwise have thought of when designing graphics though...

 

[DownSouth]

Given they are maps provided for potential customers and not for the general public (let alone rail enthusiasts who are generally clueless about shipping - see the posts on the previous page assuming a ship would take the five Hitachi cars directly to Britain without passing go and collecting $200), maybe it is used to help weed out who is serious and who is not. If you are a serious potential customer, you'll have a general grasp of basic geography (which won't be shaken by blue coloured land) and an idea of where your stuff is coming from and going to.

There are other issues with the maps provided too, the Masan-Kobe leg is taken through the Kanmon Strait instead of around Kyushu and they don't show the Great Circle routes which the ships will take on the Hitachinaka-Tacoma and Baltimore-Bremerhaven legs. They probably learned these nasty habits from the Tube Map - I'm sure if I went to London I would quickly find that the Underground is not comprised of perfect straight lines and crisp 45° or 90° corners!

 

[sprinterguy]

They should have wavy lines and shark fins to make it clearer.

A few sea monsters and three-masted sailing ships sketched in here and there always helps.

 

[DownSouth]

A few sea monsters ... sketched in here and there always helps.

That could just give the impression that they only ship stuff to Scotland.

 

[The Ham]

A few sea monsters and three-masted sailing ships sketched in here and there always helps.

Maybe a few "here be dragons" as well.

 

[patstonuk]

The final Class 395 delivery ran carrying a commemorative headboard showing the sea route and naming Wallenius Wilhelmsen as the shipper.

 

[Stats]

A training carriage for Hitachi Rail Europe's Newton Aycliffe plant has arrived at the Port of Tyne.

http://www.thejournal.co.uk/business/business-news/first-hitachi-training-carriage-arrives-8475673

A training carriage for the Hitachi Rail Europe plant has arrived in the North East.

The carriage rolled off the 229 metre long vehicle carrier Höegh London and into the port, having been constructed at the manufacturing giant’s factory in Kobe.

The part assembled train carriage, which will become the Newton Aycliffe Hitachi plant’s training unit, was transported from Kobe Japan, travelling 52 days and 12,880 nautical miles to reach the Port of Tyne’s Höegh Northern Terminal.