Tyne and Wear Metro: Excessive heating?

[Sirasuke]

Afternoon,

I thought I’d come here to find out more about this and to see if anybody else had experienced this.

Yesterday I was travelling on the Tyne and Wear metro from Tynemouth to Monument at around 10:45 in the morning. After the train arrived I boarded like usual, but as soon as I had stepped on the metro, I was hit with a massive gush of warm air. Throughout the entire journey, it felt like an oven in there. The temperature had to be atleast 25 degrees Celsius.

What I really wanted to know was this was this on purpose? Had nexus chosen to put the temperature at such high numbers? Or was it unintentional.

Has anybody else had encounters with heating errors on the Metro?

Thanks.

 

[DanNCL]

It’s a long standing issue with the Metrocars. The heating is either on or off, there’s no temperature control beyond that, and the driver can’t switch it on or off either it has to be done in the depot.

 

[7522]

Yeah it's a big problem, hopefully something that will disappear with the new fleet. For now I tend to switch metrocars when this happens as it bothers me quite a bit, and usually one of the pair will be fine. Last week, 4006 boiling hot, but partner 4039 fine.

 

[northeast10]

Drivers have no control over it. The heat comes naturally from the train and is directed from underneath either into the saloon (winter) or away from the train (summer). I could be wrong but I’m led to believe it’s a time consuming task to change these round? I’m sure there will be a poster on here who could give a more detailed explanation. Unfortunately it’s either have a hot train turn up or no train at all. If it’s ridiculously hot then report it to the driver or metro stating which train you’ve got of.

New trains have high quality temperature control - aircon and heated floor.

 

[Sirasuke]

Drivers have no control over it. The heat comes naturally from the train and is directed from underneath either into the saloon (winter) or away from the train (summer). I could be wrong but I’m led to believe it’s a time consuming task to change these round? I’m sure there will be a poster on here who could give a more detailed explanation. Unfortunately it’s either have a hot train turn up or no train at all. If it’s ridiculously hot then report it to the driver or metro stating which train you’ve got of.

New trains have high quality temperature control - aircon and heated floor.

Thank you for your info. I think I’ve now gathered that the drivers have no control of it and it’s an ongoing problem.
Hopefully it will be better with the new trains.

 

[HfdNcl]

The heating no longer functions automatically due to obsolete parts.

 

[danielnez1]

The heating no longer functions automatically due to obsolete parts.

That makes sense. I am sure I read in some literature from the late 80s/early 90s that the heading was thermostatically controlled, not anymore of course.

 

[Volvictof]

A fan blows cold air over the trains resistor banks to cool them down, resulting in hot air that needs evacuated. Based on a thermostat, the air is directed either out underneath the train, or into the saloon. Over the years parts have broken down and cant be replaced, or are blocked up with residue such as leaf matter resulting in the vent that directs the heat beint stuck in one position, either on or off. At this point the thermostat is useless as is the circuit breaker in the (B - end?) cab.

The vent can be manually moved, but because of the design, it is buried deep inside the depths of the train and can only be done on a major service. I believe it either takes half the floor to be removed, or possibly the body to be lifted off the bogies? Somone else will know more.

Some parts of the carriage will naturally be cooler so it’s worth moving around the find a cool spot, failing that, if you feel ill, get off the train. No use fainting in an attempt to get to work on time as some people have in the past. I wouldn’t even bother reporting it as they won’t be taken out of service With things the way they are.

 

[danielnez1]

A fan blows cold air over the trains resistor banks to cool them down, resulting in hot air that needs evacuated. Based on a thermostat, the air is directed either out underneath the train, or into the saloon. Over the years parts have broken down and cant be replaced, or are blocked up with residue such as leaf matter resulting in the vent that directs the heat beint stuck in one position, either on or off. At this point the thermostat is useless as is the circuit breaker in the (B - end?) cab.

The vent can be manually moved, but because of the design, it is buried deep inside the depths of the train and can only be done on a major service. I believe it either takes half the floor to be removed, or possibly the body to be lifted off the bogies? Somone else will know more.

Some parts of the carriage will naturally be cooler so it’s worth moving around the find a cool spot, failing that, if you feel ill, get off the train. No use fainting in an attempt to get to work on time as some people have in the past. I wouldn’t even bother reporting it as they won’t be taken out of service With things the way they are.

It just goes to show that the units should have been released at least a decade ago (and perhaps longer ago still). Regardless, hopefully the new fleet will start entering squadron service next year and this issue (as well as all the others with the old fleet) will go away.