Railcare awarded £20m class 16x refurbishment project

[northwichcat]

Angel Trains has awarded Railcare a £20 million contract to overhaul class 165 and 166 Turbo trains operated by First Great Western and Chiltern Railways.

In addition to being given an exterior repaint and door overhaul, the units will also be made compliant with Passengers of Reduced Mobility Technical Specification for Interoperability (PRSM TSI). This will be achieved via the installation of accessible toilets, call for aid buttons and passenger information systems.

The contract for the 96 trains will commence in September and continue through to April 2018.

These will be the first of Angel Trains’ fleet to be adapted to PRSM TSI standards.

http://www.rail.co/2013/02/06/railcare-wins-20m-class-165-and-166-overhaul-contract/

£20m doesn't sound like a high amount for 96 trains so I imagine the refurbishment excludes any seating replacements.

 

[andyfrommk]

£208,000 each by my (calculators) reckoning.
Where is the work being done? Wolverton?

 

[northwichcat]

£208,000 each by my (calculators) reckoning.

Remember the trains don't all have the same number of carriages so the cost will vary according to length and a 3 car refurbishment will probably not cost 50% more than a 2 car refurbishment.

 

[andyfrommk]

Indeed, I can't imagine each set would have more than 1 DDA compliant toilet.

 

[fgwrich]

Indeed, I can't imagine each set would have more than 1 DDA compliant toilet.

Should be the case. Sounds like the FGW Units will be losing their Dynamic Lines though.

 

[ainsworth74]

Should be the case. Sounds like the FGW Units will be losing their Dynamic Lines though.

In favour of what? I thought Dynamic Lines was the current First Group livery (excluding ScotRail)?

 

[fgwrich]

It is, but it isnt. It's an odd one which ifind dissapointing having liked the Dynamic Lines from the start, but the plan will involve repainting the units into First Group Gloss Blue - as per the 150/1s et all. Still a smart livery, but i think not as smart as the Dynamic Lines.

 

[IanXC]

Should be the case. Sounds like the FGW Units will be losing their Dynamic Lines though.

Presumably thats because the vinyals required for Dynamic Lines have been shown to cause significant damage to the underlying paint and metalwork?

 

[Soyyo]

£208,000 each by my (calculators) reckoning.
Where is the work being done? Wolverton?

Wolverton.

http://www.railcare.com/176/angel-trains-awards-20-million-contract-to-railcare

 

[fgwrich]

Presumably thats because the vinyals required for Dynamic Lines have been shown to cause significant damage to the underlying paint and metalwork?

In the case of the steel 150s then yes, but it's a shame that the Aluminium 165 & 166s are going the same colour aswell - I havent heard of any damage to the bodywork of the Turbo units yet caused by vinyls, and the FGW Fleet havent had a repaint since their delivery in the NSE days - Thames Trains was also another vinyl application livery.

 

[MK Tom]

Repainting the Chiltern units? Into what livery? I realise the Chiltern livery essentially still is the Network South East livery with a few tweaks (in fact it's still basically the same company it was under NSE), but it works and I can't see it changing any time soon.

 

[ainsworth74]

Repainting the Chiltern units? Into what livery?

The current one I imagine. Presumably it's time for a repaint (it's only good for so long) and whilst FGW are taking the opportunity to fix a problem with theirs I would imagine Chiltern will just be carrying out a standard repaint.

Though I stand to be corrected!

 

[Lewisham2221]

Aye, nowt wrong with simply repainting into the same livery if the powers that be think the existing paint job is starting to look a bit shabby.

 

[fgwrich]

Don't forget that the Chiltern Units have already been repainted once, during their last pretty major refurb for Chiltern. I wonder if the FGW units will gain the modified light clusters as per the Chiltern units aswel in this?

 

[starrymarkb]

In the case of the steel 150s then yes, but it's a shame that the Aluminium 165 & 166s are going the same colour aswell - I havent heard of any damage to the bodywork of the Turbo units yet caused by vinyls, and the FGW Fleet havent had a repaint since their delivery in the NSE days - Thames Trains was also another vinyl application livery.

Would it not be sensible to use the smaller vinyls that the HSTs too rather then the full height ones....

 

[sprinterguy]

So four and a half years to refurbish 96 trains (240 carriages) to be PRSM TSI compliant. If a fair number of Sprinter trains are also expected to remain in service into 2020, then Porterbrook and Angel had better get cracking at implementing some PRSM TSI compliant refurbishments for them, or we can expect quite widespread dispensation from the requirements to be needed.

 

[swt_passenger]

The SWT 455 fleet are being done starting fairly soon, and aren't they discussing 321s and similar vintage units over in the Anglia area?

 

[northwichcat]

So four and a half years to refurbish 96 trains (240 carriages) to be PRSM TSI compliant. If a fair number of Sprinter trains are also expected to remain in service into 2020, then Porterbrook and Angel had better get cracking at implementing some PRSM TSI compliant refurbishments for them, or we can expect quite widespread dispensation from the requirements to be needed.

Presumably with the 156s and 158s being split across more operators it will be easier to do more at once without causing too much disruption. Each operator could send 2 x 158s for refurbishment at a time and then there would be 12 done simultaneously. For the same to happen with 16xs Chiltern and FGW would need to send 6 trains at a time.

 

[tbtc]

Chiltern trains in plan DB red anyone?

Hmm, it'll take four and a half years to convert the hundred-ish 16*s? So the fivehundred-ish 15*s are going to struggle to all be upgraded this decade... (not to mention Pacers)

(sorry - just seen the second page and sprinterguy has beaten me to it!)

 

[Eng274]

A class 321 is sitting in wabtec at the moment undergoing experimental overhaul, which is expected to include PRM-TSI mods, using the same toilet module as is fitted to class 320s. The resultant work if the whole 321 fleet is sent for overhaul will keep wabtec busy for a fair few years!

 

[jopsuk]

As well as more 15xs being able to be sent at once, I'd guess that with suitable enough "investment" the tiime per carriage can be brought down considerably.

 

[swt_passenger]

The overhaul firms aren't necessarily constrained by capacity at their main sites either, as seen when Wabtec set up at Eastleigh Works for a short time to do something to one of SWT's 158/159 sub fleets, I forget exactly which units were involved.

Then as we know SWT's 455s are being done in-house at a newly fitted out facility at Bournemouth - so presumably that option exists for other Roscos and TOCs if it's practical somewhere else?

So

 

[Eng274]

As well as more 15xs being able to be sent at once, I'd guess that with suitable enough "investment" the tiime per carriage can be brought down considerably.

That could well be the case, but if the rosco's want to do just enough to keep them 2020-proof and no more (which may well be the case depending on the timing in relation to the C exam cycle), then a frugal overhaul spec will help the unit downtime much more than paying overhaulers to have more staff on the job.

 

[jimm]

So four and a half years to refurbish 96 trains (240 carriages) to be PRSM TSI compliant.

The pace of the work on the Turbos is not being dictated by workshop capacity to carry out the updates, it is being dictated by the fact that both the FGW and Chiltern fleets are effectively at full stretch, with next to no slack in either, so the fewer trains that are away at any one time, the better, hence the long period being allowed to work through them all.

You could say much the same about pretty much every other operator as well. Electrification is likely to help free up some spare capacity in various places, which will likely allow more dmus to be away at the same time in coming years to speed things up across the 15x family and other train fleets.

 

[fgwrich]

The overhaul firms aren't necessarily constrained by capacity at their main sites either, as seen when Wabtec set up at Eastleigh Works for a short time to do something to one of SWT's 158/159 sub fleets, I forget exactly which units were involved.

Then as we know SWT's 455s are being done in-house at a newly fitted out facility at Bournemouth - so presumably that option exists for other Roscos and TOCs if it's practical somewhere else?

So

I don't think any of SWTs 158s & 159s came into Eastleigh in the end, only the FGW 143s & 153s for refurbishment, and FGWs 158s for the fitment of CCTV. Wabtec, having gone after the LM 153 refresh contract finished in 2010 have returned to Eastleigh Works however, and now operate out of the former Van Shop repainting and overhauling Southerns 455 Fleet. But as you say firms aren't necessarily constrained by capacity at their main sites either, as Eastleigh Works also hosts a small Siemens depot - responsible for overhauling the SWTDesiro fleet with staff outsourced from Northam depot, and for a while the van shop also played host to Electro-Motive, at the time overhauling GBRFs 66s.

 

[swt_passenger]

I don't think any of SWTs 158s & 159s came into Eastleigh in the end...

That's not how Porterbrook explain the project, they reckon that most of the SWT fleet had their CCTV and PIS fitted at Eastleigh, under the heading 'retrofit phase' in this report:

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rc...4tdPZkxOgN6PIg6TJcF1tFg&bvm=bv.42080656,d.d2k

 

[fgwrich]

That's bizarre - i was there from 2009 till 2012 and don't remember those units coming in. Perhaps they did and never saw any of the pictures of them, but i thaught they had all the PA & CCTV Fitment work done during their refurb at Wabtec Doncaster. Hmmmm!

Having looked at that - obviously some did come in then! Not sure if they were all down in Eastleigh though.

 

[D365]

Railcare will also be doing the C6X for the 365 Networker Express.

 

[Blindtraveler]

a few thoughts - with FGW potentiall no longer being FGW soon is provision there to change the paint job part the way through?
O/T Onto the 321s etc its to be hoped the toilet and other work goes better than the 320s!

 

[TEW]

a few thoughts - with FGW potentiall no longer being FGW soon is provision there to change the paint job part the way through?

If the chosen livery is the current Plain Blue and Pink Doors livery it probably wouldn't be a bad base livery for any operators, the doors could be vinyled over to quite easily given a different impression without too much expense.