Great Western Coffee Shop

Couple of pictures of 172001 at Old Dalby test track last week here

http://www.old-dalby.com/present.htm

Looks like 220/222 bogies?

Funny place to put the exhaust too, right above the rear bogie.

Correct. I think it has been done to make them lighter and improve acceleration.

That's going to be a nice hazard for maintenance staff!!

Think it's probably to help the maintenance staff, since the exhaust will presumably be rather more easily accessible than in other trains.

As a maintenance staff member myself(!), to be honest from the looks of it, the exhaust will be more of a hinderance than a help. Exhaust systems barely need to be touched in comparison to the components requiring regular maintenance/inspection that the exhaust pipe shown covers.

It was probably a last minute thought/edition to the design, as often occurs, and i should imagine that it will not only pose a major burn risk to a staff, but also be more velnerable to impact damge etc than other DMU vehciles where it is safely routed underneath.

I'll take your word for it but it seems odd that a firm which maintains trains as well as builds them would not have talked to people from the maintenance side to get their view on putting the exhaust there.

Just that it looked to me as though it was all part of the move to being able to more quickly reach, remove and replace underfloor equipment, such as using engine rafts and the like.

The exhaust normaly runs over the bogie on Sprinters etc, but they have traditional external framed bogies. AIUI the new bogies have internal frames like 220s so there may be no option but to go outside the wheels. I believe on both types of Voyager the exhaust runs internally through the carriage, somewhere around the bulkhead between the saloon and vestibule - it certinly isn't visible on the carriage ends. Possibly in 221s, with external frames, the tilt gear prevents the exhaust running over the bogie.

Paul

172s rumoured to be delayed until Summer 2011 due to various problems with the first few units that need sorting - most notably I suspect is the fact that exhaust gases were getting into the air con systems.

Many more months of loco hauled services it is then!

Is that date the start or end of the roll out?

Date of start, as the 172s have been returned to Derby for rectification works. Presumably something is being done to the exhaust. Not to mention the fact that they are apparently not able to reach 100mph!

I wonder if that will scupper the planned start dates of Dec '10 and May '11 for the Evergreen 3 Phase 1 timetable?

the 170's could not prise 100mph from the MTU lumps on original release,resulted in bigger turbos followed by engine rework as they did not like the increased boost initially.
several mtu engines went pop well before the 400k change mileage,i think 70k was more realistic at the time.

amazing they are having similar problems with what is essentially a tarted up 170?