I was looking for a picture of a 158 or 165/6 underframe. Googled 158 underframe and this thread came up and I couldn't resist

Thanks for the welcome
I was looking for something on the'net and stumbled across this thread. I bought back some memories. I used to work for BREL^▸ (British Rail Engineering Ltd) and one of my first jobs when I joined was as a junior member of the team that was tasked with re-designing the alternator raft and VDP drive assembly. Lots of structural issues compunded by a torsional vibration problem that just accelerated the problem. I became very familiar with the hydro system !

It sounds as if the mods have been a success, and strange others are carrying on with the original design, but I guess different owners, different TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company), different franchise lengths etc.......

Can't have been a cheap mod as it looks as though a complete new raft has been designed and I guess there was a fair bit of vehicle re-wiring ?

Cheers

Oh yes  I worked on these many moons ago. Interesting to see that the split air/con has gone, from the pictures (great by the way) it seems that the original alternator is still used, so I guess the new alternator only supplies the air/con? Do they still use the original hydrostatic pump of the back of the engine or has that been replaced with something more modern - I remember the trouble they caused at the time, and mucking around setting up and adjusting the control block on the alternator motors to ensure they didn't trip !

Cheers for the photos !