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SWT will be ankle deep in Desiros come January
Can I recommend that readers in SWT land photo-copy the following and keep it safe until Christmas. Because as an heroic delivery programme it has to be the most ambitious yet.
During the visit to see 450 001 on April 24 I asked Stagecoach's Project Director for 350/444 Alison Ingram for details of the delivery schedules for the two fleets. As readers will know, flamboyant hostages to fortune are the staple diet of this column.
And this is what is going to happen. The first six Class 450s will be arriving in this country between the first week of July and mid August. July as in next month. They will be delivered by rail from Siemens Wildenrath test track and commissioning centre where the coaches from the two factories in Germany and Austria come together for formation into units, commissioning and test running.
For transit each unit will be marshalled with a rake of six barrier vehicles at each and loco hauled. Ideally this train will run direct to Strawberry Hill where the first static and running tests will be based. However it may be necessary to go via Wembley Internal Freight Terminal.
Static testing is scheduled to start on August 5 followed by ‘wheels free' running under possession on the Shepperton branch. Six units are needed for trials because later in the acceptance programme high speed passing tests with two 12 car formations are specified.
Assuming that no major problems are found, these initial units will be used for driver training at Strawberry Hill depot and initially allocated to driver training. ‘Shadow running' follows, carrying what are termed ‘volunteer customers' with the aim of achieving 10 000 miles of fault free running. SWT's VEPs are currently averaging 60,000 miles/casualty and the CEPs recently reached 100 000 during a recent week. But that's with English Electric traction equipment which is an unfair advantage.
Siemens expects to obtain the Interim Passenger acceptance certificate for the Class 450 by the beginning of November. All being well, the first train will enter passenger service on November 8.
A week before, the first series production unit No 450 007 should have arrived in the UK (1/2 November). SWT's Take Over Certificate (TOC) acceptance process for this set should be completed by November 25.
But at the end of April, Unit No 010 was already in final assembly. And by October the Siemens factories will have been building up into full production which delivers one coach a day from each plant to Wildenrath.
At this rate you can build a lot of trains in six months. So, deep breath. By the end of November a total of 12 Class 450s will be in the UK . But in December another 20 four car units are scheduled to be delivered. And another 18 arrive in January, bringing the total fleet to 50.
That clears the initial backlog and delivery will then stabilise at two units every two weeks. At the end of May next year 66 Class 450s should be operating from Siemens' new Southampton maintenance depot.
But from mid-June the 23m Class 444 outer suburban five car Desiros start arriving and production of the two designs runs in parallel.
Each of Siemens two plants at, Uerdingen in Germany and Vienna will then be producing one coach a day – equivalent to 10 units a month.
Impressed, I asked the obvious question, what happens if there is a technical show stopper just as the accumulated trains start to be delivered in December say. ‘We've thought of that' Siemens tell me. Storage space has been reserved on a precautionary basis at the Ministry of Defence Bicester facility. Now that really is German efficiency.
But also at Wildenrath on 24 April was bustlin' Bob Breakwell, the retiring MD of First Great Eastern, (retiring as in stepping down after a long and distinguished career, not shy and retiring. He has 21 four car Desiros on order. Where do they fit in?
Class 360 001 is currently in final assembly. Delivery is expected to start in October, with six four car units ready for testing in the UK by the end of November. The remaining 18 four car units will be delivered between mid-February and the end of March next year and the fleet is expected to enter passenger service in April.
Remember the old saying, a product can be cheap, good and delivered quickly, but you can only have two out of three? If Siemens succeed it will have been proved wrong
First driveDesiro from the cab
As 450 001 kept on circulating the Wildenrath test track, the national press and VIPs drifted away to lunch, the railway photters went to do their trackside thang and I went on taking notes and photographing the interior. And while I was absorbed by some arcane piece of detail a voice murmured in my ear ‘would you like a drive'? A rhetorical question of course and before minds could be changed I was in the drivers seat and ready to go. There is a single power/brake controller for the left hand, pull back for traction, push forward for braking. In traction there are four notches while braking is notchless. At the forward limit of the braking mode a detent takes you into full emergency. On the panel, the main instruments are the brake pressure gauges, speedometer and the traction/braking indicator. The later has zero at 12 o'clock and percentages showing the effort demanded – braking in the left hand semicircle (needle anticlockwise) and traction clockwise. Starting with the controller fully forward and the train stationary, you push in a thumb button on the Tee handle, pull back and down until you come to the ‘neutral' detent. Back two notches more, the needle on the traction/ brake indicator rises to 50% and the pull away is very smooth. Notch back to full power and the acceleration is strong up to the test track's maximum of 70mile/h. Experimenting with controller settings, I find that 50% power will hold the speed at 70mile/h. Interestingly, with the three phase drive, when a slight change in gradient tends to increase the speed, the needle swings from traction to braking, the rheostatic braking effect coming in automatically. A 40mile/h speed restriction through the platform erected for access to the train which gives a chance to try the brakes at the end of the first lap. Every driver I have met on the new generation EMUs has rated the Westinghouse brake highly. I am handling the controls tentatively and as the controller goes forward, the braking effort builds up gently but progressively. Once through the station there is one more lap to get serious. Power straight back to 100% and while no train leaps forward, acceleration is near immediate. Once again speed is maintained at 50% power, but this time at the end of the lap, the Driver Trainer encourages me to make a positive brake application. As a result of my research into the adverse effects of defensive driving I have been talking to a number of drivers about their braking techniques. Now I can put their wisdom to the test. To a mental count of one, two, three I push the controller forward. Conscious of the feeble detent between full service brake and emergency I probably hold back slightly but the response to a firm application is fast and impressively progressive. Having set up a high brake rate I wait for the instructor to identify the desired stopping point, then gradually feather off the brake effort and, amazingly, we not only stop and the right place but without a perceptible jerk. Now I should warn that years ago, I pulled off just such a stop during a press demonstration of the Networker simulator, to the applause of my peers. I then stayed behind for an hour of private practice and every stop was out by yards. So it may have been luck, but I can now see why the professionals rate the brake so highly. If it makes me look competent, think what an expert can do with it. Whether drivers will like the cab is a different matter. To be blunt, the ergonomics are poor. I have already mentioned the feeble detent between full service and emergency brake. It is so feeble that when I first sat in the seat and put my hand on the controller it clicked forward. Similarly, it is very hard to see from the controller how much brake has been applied. There is a marking on the desk, a widening triangle, but the indicator is unclear. I assume that you are expected to use the traction/brake meter, but this has few markings. Ditto the speedometer which is the same size and style as the traction/brake meter and beside it. Worse, it is calibrated in even 10s. If you are used to the large BR style speedometer this is a strange arrangement. One other less than ideal piece of design was noted. In most new generation trains the screen for the Train Management System (TMS), on which status and fault messages are displayed and which the driver can use to interrogate the train's systems and fault find, is placed at seated eye level in the panel beside the driver's desk. This means that the driver can use the TMS and also use the controls without getting up. On the Desiro the screen is at standing eye level to the right of the desk, well above the radio and PA equipment. This seems less than ideal, although the SWT driver instructor took the view that TMS screens should be locked in a cupboard to be used only as a last resort. Having been impressed by the way drivers are using the TMS to enhance their skills and the performance of their train I can't agree. So, at the moment the overall verdict on Desiro is ace interior, top traction and braking performance – but shame about the cab ergonomics.
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