London Midland Class 150s

[IanPooleTrains]

Decided on a day out to Birmingham to cover Snow Hill, Moor Street and New Street (job's a good 'un!) and while at Snow Hill, noticed that there seemed to be a few problems with the 150s, specifically the Dorridge trains.

All of them were arriving late and as soon as they did, they were cancelling the trains at Snow Hill citing a 'train failure'

Not that this wouldn't sound doubtful but you can then imagine my shock when, a couple of hours later at Moor Street, one of the filed units passed me, going back to Dorridge but never passing me back towards Stourbridge!

Anyone wanna offer any ideas?

 

[Old Hill Bank]

Try commuting on the line, short formed is common place, so is stop skipping following "an earlier train fault"
Look on LM's web site for this near daily event!!

 

[duffman82]

I was on a short formed LM service from cradley Heath to Smethwick GB today, back two coaches where closed off on 4 car service.

 

[DavidSmith]

When the displays say its due to a train failure, it does not always actually mean THAT train has failed. E.g If a train fails at Rowley and blocks the line, subsequent trains might be altered, they will often simply put "due to train failure" for simplicity.

Therefore the train you saw coming back may not have been failed, but may have been cancelled for being too late. Trains can also be repaired at Snow Hill where they would return to service heading towards Stourbridge.

On the 27th mid morning there was in deed two Dorridge trains cancelled at BSW within a short space of time as they required fitters.

Hope that helps.

 

[rhubarbrhubarb]

I recall reading of problems with frozen diesel / engines, during the recent 'big freeze', but we're not exactly in a 'big freeze' at the moment, though.

 

[DavidSmith]

I recall reading of problems with frozen diesel / engines, during the recent 'big freeze',

+Frozen doors!

but we're not exactly in a 'big freeze' at the moment, though.

Things can break down when its not cold too.

 

[Mojo]

Could also have been a failure when a train can operate but not in passenger service, such as door interlock not being received by the Train Operator meaning it has to be isolated to allow the train to operate. Obviously passengers have to be detrained, but the train can still run empty.

 

[Old Hill Bank]

Trouble is they fail any time the wind changes direction:cry::roll:

 

[Scud]

After a bit of research I've managed to find out that there were a few 150 failures on the morning of the 27th which is actually quite rare to have so many. In the grand scheme of things 150s don't do too badly most of the time but they do have bad days.

150001 failed & went to Tyseley at about 10:45 & replaced by 150010 from Tyseley at around 11:40.

150009 (with 153334) had a defect fixed at Snow Hill about 11:00 but the units went to Tyseley & back to absorb the late running.

The one you saw a while later passing towards Dorridge but not coming back was likely 150003 which had failed approx 11:40 but there were no available drivers to take it to Tyseley until around 16:00ish. It sat in Snow Hill sidings until then. It's diagram was covered by other means (splitting 2 x 150/2 at snow Hill) hence nothing running back from Tyseley direction.
Evening peak seemed to have everything in order.

 

[sprinterguy]

There was a fair bit of bother at the Hawthorns yesterday evening relating to a 150: The technical assessment in the office is that “the prop shaft exploded” on one of the Stourbridge bound trains at about 18:20 (EDIT: Turns out it was actually a seized axle, and about half an hour earlier: The full story is in another thread), blocking the line for the remainder of the evening until a wheel skate could be summoned from Crewe.

At least one train coming into Snow Hill in the peak this morning has been short formed. I wonder if London Midland are cutting down on maintenance of the 150s now that arrival of the 172s is imminent (No disrespect meant to Tyseley fitters)?