What lead cl. 373 NOL from not having a long time in service?

[signed]

GNER used to operate 3 North of London class 373 (in absolutely beautiful livery).

Is there a known reason why they weren't kept by GNER and just sent back after their 5 year lease expired?

Is this purely because of the gauge issues north of Newcastle?

 

[yorksrob]

I was quite surprised to hear that GNER ran NOL's !

 

[Darandio]

They were leased as cover whilst the Class 91/Mk4 fleet was refurbished.

 

[Sultan1056]

I thought NR funded them following the Selby & Hatfield accidents and they became redundant following the release of more HSTs from MML.

 

[norbitonflyer]

Their use was heavily restricted because of their huge power demands. As I recall, they could not be used south of Peterborough until after the morning peak.

 

[hexagon789]

Their use was heavily restricted because of their huge power demands. As I recall, they could not be used south of Peterborough until after the morning peak.

That was resolved by isolating various unnecessary items during GNER service, though they remained restricted to one set max at a time on the Hertford Loop and not permitted Leeds/Bradford due to the limited power supply on that section.

The initial blanket restriction to 110mph max was also partly eased on some sections after a period.

The length of them of course also presented problems, hence the restriction to working King's Cross to Leeds/York only and even then the outer two trailers had the doors locked out at certain stations.

 

[Magdalia]

The length of them of course also presented problems

At Kings Cross the Eurostar sets could only use platforms 1 and 6.

 

[LMS 4F]

On their introduction there was a promotional offer of £10 return fare to KX from Doncaster which I took up more than once.I last saw one of the sets stabled in Brussels a few years ago.

 

[urpert]

For completeness it’s worth adding that SNCF also used some NoL sets (partly reliveried) on domestic LGV Nord services. I once had one on a Lille-Paris shuttle - of course they retained the orange and grey interiors after the Three Capitals fleet had its first refurb.

 

[edwin_m]

I believe it was alleged that the pantographs, which were optimised for French high speed catenary, caused some deterioration in the ECML OLE and may have been part of the reason for there being so many dewirements later on.