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INFORMED SOURCES January 2001

New trains – unhappy new year

Will 2001 see a train operator hand back a train fleet as not fit for purpose?

Overshadowed by the Hatfield accident was the announcement by c2c (LTS Rail) on 20 October that it had ‘rejected' its Adtranz Class 357 Electrostar fleet. Actually ‘rejected' was a bit strong. In reality, the 12 four car electric multiple units that had been accepted were to be restricted to off peak services and no more of the 34 units in store will be accepted.

Given that the fleet should have been in service in November 1999, c2c's ire was understandable. It's bad enough not having your sprauncy new trains, but when the few you do have are recording a reported 1500 miles per casualty vexed is not in it.

As Andrew Chivers, c2c Managing Director out it, the ‘unacceptable 12month delay' to the Class 357 fleet had already caused ‘considerable' operating difficulties.

Meanwhile, the Electrostar fleet would re-enter peak service only when c2c was ‘fully satisfied that the units are fit for purpose and has full confidence in the their operational performance'.

Tripping along

So what went wrong, given that c2c is has recent resignalling and only three types of largely interference resistant track circuits?

Well, all three phase drives have some form of protection which intervenes if the inverter misbehaves and puts out potentially nasty frequencies which could affect signalling. On the Class 357, this is known as the Line Interference Monitor, or LIM.

Obviously, the stronger your safety case, the more laid back the LIM can be. But if your safety case is a bit marginal and the LIM a bit hair trigger, even though the drive is working as advertised, the scruffy electricity the drive is getting from Railtrack can cause problems.

Remember how the Eurostar DC Interference Current Monitoring Unit (ICMU) was close to the limit with the train standing still. This was because when the AC power supply from the grid was rectified to the 750V DC for the third rail some AC ‘ripple' remained at the frequency of Southern Region track circuits.

Remember the Class 323 which was shut down by its safety software the first time the pantograph encountered frost on the overhead line? All the arcing and sparking produced electrical ‘white noise' which contained forbidden frequencies.

Thus in the case of the Class 357's drive, a major cause of ‘failure' has been the sensitivity of the LIM when running parallel with London Underground lines. Interference from LU trains caused spurious shut downs. Presumably the LIM had to be this sensitivity to obtain the train's safety case.

And, unfortunately, the Class 357 safety software works on a three-trips-and-out basis. After you have rebooted twice, the next trip shuts down the train.

When I visited Adtranz at Derby on 28 November the safety case team was at the Railtrack Electrical System Review Panel going for an extension of the Class 357 safety case to 14 x eight car formations in service. This was expected to be endorsed by the Rolling Stock Acceptance Board (RSAB) on 12 December

What I wasn't told during the visit that all the transformers were having to go back to Adtranz in Switzerland for safety modifications. It never rains but it pours.

More power

It even rains on the Turbostar diesel multiple units. By current delivery standards, these have been a succes

fou after initial manufacturing and supply chain problems were sorted out. The interior trim passes the ‘fist of quality' test with flying colours and in general the finish, such as the composite mouldings, is exceptional.

Having supplied the initial burst of post privatisation orders the Turbostar line at Derby is being mothballed. Meanwhile, the engines are now playing up.

As you know, the columnar philosophy on engine power can be summarised as ‘too much is nearly enough'. And ever since Adtranz went in-house to MTU for Turbostar's diesel power Captain Deltic has been muttering about ‘girly engines'

While the Turbostar diesel bears the renowned MTU name its core is a Mercedes truck and bus engine and it is only 12 litres. This contrasts with 14 litres for the Cummins under the Class 175 Coradia.

DMU engines

As the table shows, despite giving less power the MUT has to work harder in terms of power per litre. Now, the cylinder heads and their joints and gaskets have begun to suffer from cracking or leakage. MTU attribute the problem to the turbo-charger over-pressuring the heads and have a modification in hand.

Meanwhile, since MTU is no longer the ‘in-house' engine supplier following Adtranz sale to Bombardier (subject to the European Commission's approval) Adtranz has turned to another German TLA to power future Turbostars.

However, the MAN 2876 is an evolution of the existing MTU. What happened was that MTU and MAN had a common plant converting the original Mercedes engine for traction and industrial use.

MAN's version was called the 2866 and the new nomenclature reflects the fact that it has had the stroke increased to increase the capacity and thus power: but it is still working harder than the Cummins which itself is available for traction at 37hp/litre (518hp) with electronic control.

So, the good news for Adtranz is that MAN gives them more power from an interchangeable engine. The not so good news is that customers are already saying why not a Cummins.

Connex moving

What else on the Adtranz front? Well on Connex South Eastern, an eight car Class 375 with full instrumentation is now allowed to make test runs without needing possessions, but only during ‘engineering hours', that is, when service trains aren't running. The instrumentation backs up the LIM and catches any naughtiness in the traction return current.

Early in 2001, a semi-instrumented eight car should start running in engineering hours and as the safety case is developed, running out of possessions on the operational railway will start.

So it looks like a DC safety case for Electrostar 18 months or so after Alstom's Juniper got its I Passenger Certificate. Not that Alstom has exploited that success.

Alstom ever hopeful

Andred has been keeping you up to date on the glacial progress with the Classes 456 and 460. There has been tension between SWT and its supplier on the 458 pretty well since the train got its Interim Passenger (I)certificate.

SWT have been saying they won't accept the train until it is spot-on, Alstom say nothing is perfect, the Class 458 is getting better and have wondered, darkly, whether SWT might not be trying to avoid the rental costs which more Junipers would incur.

Obviously this is a shades-of-grey thing, but I was surprised when the HSE told me early in December that SWT had not advised them that the Class 458 gangways had been modified (see Moving Wheels). This modification was required by the HSE and until it has been approved the gangways between units in multiple are only to be used by passengers in an emergency.

‘HSE has no idea when SWT are to undertake the modification.  The only unit HSE has examined was not modified' said an HSE spokesperson. Pending apoproval Class 458s are effectively non-gangwayed units.

That doesn't sound like an operator keen to get new trains into service, although I now fully expect a stroppy phone call from SWT saying that the Class 458s are naff and that I am a tool of the Anglo-French conspiracy.

But at that RSAB sitting on 12 December Alstom was expecting to extend its I Certificate for the Class 458 to 12 cars, which is really something. And despite the ride and water leaks the Junipers are surprisingly reliable, given the very limited running, with 25,000miles/casualty quoted.

Siemens progress

Also at the 12 December RSAB (blimey!) was expecting to get the I Passenger for Northern Spirit's Class 333 electric multiple units. ‘Our confidence is supported by Railtrack' Siemens Transportation's Director & General Manager David Wilson had told me at Railtex on 25 November.

Wilson expects the Class 333 fleet of electric multiple units for Northern Spirit to enter service in ‘early January'. That said regular readers will know that when Mr Managing Editor Abbott reported on the Class 333 project in July the Company was saying that the I certificate was on target for early October with the first trains entering passenger service later that month.

Fleet service with all 16 units was then scheduled for February, two months after the Northern Spirit franchise commitment of ‘by December 2000'. This still holds.

So even with experience of Heathrow Express, Siemens and AEA Technology, the safety case uber-geeks, have not found the Class 333 easy.

Orders of difficulty

Of course no safety case is easy, but some are much more difficult than others

Heathrow Express, for example was about as least difficult as you could get. Newly electrified 25kV AC with lots of return cables, newly resignalled with traction current interference in mind, known infrastructure. no other electric trains around except the adjacent Underground and only 12 miles long.

At the other extreme was the Class 323. Network-wide AC 25kV, any other trains, any track circuits, up to four pantographs up. Acceptance process at bottom of learning curve.

In between I rank the order of difficulty as:

Class 458/375 - Weird mix of track circuits, massive electrical noise from menagerie of other trains, largely unknown infrastructure.

Class 334 - any trains, route specific, some wonky old infrastructure three pans up.

Class 357 – known signalling, three pans up, some other trains

So where does Class 333 rank? To my surprise David Wilson told me that the safety case will be for single unit operation only. ‘Northern Spirit has no intention of running the Class 333s in multiple' he explained. Odd, because our feature in July said that the maximum formation is three units/12 cars.

Now one pan up means resonance and transformer inrush problems are greatly reduced – just ask Adtranz and Alstom. So, what with route specifity and relatively recent electrification, the Class 333 comes between Heathrow Express and the Class 357.

So lots of work to do in 2001. And the big worry is that when Adtranz, Alstom and Siemens have spent the tens of millions learning the hard lessons, a newcomer will buy the expertise from their consultants and make it look easy.

Of course, easy is relative, but Father Ford the Railway Chaplain recommends Mathew Chapter 20 verses 1-16 for his train building parishioners' Christmas reading.

Oh yes, a happy Christmas to all readers and best wishes for a boringly ordinary new year.