IETs into passenger service from 16 Oct 2017 and subsequent performance issues

[whole diary]

[stuving]

I too am surprised to hear that two engines have to be run overnight.

Two engines don't have to run overnight, that's just the standard number that run when 'turnaround' mode is selected.  Turnaround is specifically designed for cutting emissions when there are long layovers at places like Paddington, Hereford and Oxford and is invoked by pressing a button the TMS.  A bit like shutting the one engine down on a HST^▸ (High Speed Train).  I should imagine the systems would all be adequately provided for with one engine running, but as well as the insurance I mentioned in my previous post I expect it's much easier just to leave it in turnaround mode than mess about than shutting down all engines then locally starting one of them back up.

Ah - I think there's a terminology thing here. I was using "layover" in the sense the TARA^▸ (Train Availability and Reliability Agreement) does: being out of service overnight but not at a depot, and typically for 5 or 6 hours. "Turnaround" as the name of a mode sounds to me like the time between services at platform or possibly in a siding, but rarely for over an hour. It appears that, whatever Hitachi's original intention, the preferred solution for overnight layovers is a shore supply. (Of course that does not preclude Hitachi objecting to a particular site's supply on technical grounds.) If that's right, I can see that Turnover mode would be the obvious method of overnighting without a shore supply, certainly as a stop-gap.

A couple of other questions have occurred to me about auxiliary power, which I can't really answer. The limited information on this isn't really very technical, and is about bimodes. So if it says that all auxiliary power comes from a 240 kW APS with each engine, is that true of an 801/2 with 9 cars and one engine? Wouldn't it have a higher power APS or another one fed from 25 kV (and so needing an AC/DC^▸ (Direct Current) convertor)? As I say, getting too detailed for the available sources.

[didcotdean]

IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train) are not so Dawlish proof.
2 have been hit by waves in succession and have had engines shut down  (1A90 3 of 5 knocked out and 1A88 5 of 6 knocked out)

Wrong kind of wave?

[bobm]

At least it appears both trains kept going and didn't block the line along the seawall.

[stuving]

A couple of other questions have occurred to me about auxiliary power, which I can't really answer. The limited information on this isn't really very technical, and is about bimodes. So if it says that all auxiliary power comes from a 240 kW APS with each engine, is that true of an 801/2 with 9 cars and one engine? Wouldn't it have a higher power APS or another one fed from 25 kV (and so needing an AC/DC^▸ (Direct Current) convertor)? As I say, getting too detailed for the available sources.

Oops - should've though a bit before posting that, since I do know half of the answer. Every motor coach has a traction/APS electronics package, it just doesn't have an engine. The thing I'm not quite sure about is whether the 50 Hz MV out of the transformers goes to one of these and is converted to DC there, or is converted in (or under) the pantograph coach and sent along the train as DC. So there are always plenty of APSs when fed from OLE^▸ (Overhead Line Equipment, more often "OHLE") - whether only one is in use on an 801/2 off-wire is still not clear.

[old original]

At least it appears both trains kept going and didn't block the line along the seawall.

I don't know if it's one of them but the 12.04 PNZ PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) terminated at Exeter....

[bobm]

It was - what I meant was it didn't come to a halt in the way Cross Country services had a habit of doing.   It is much easier to deal with a failed train, both in terms of fixing the unit and helping passengers at a station than out on the seawall.  Also less disruptive to other services.

[grahame]

Sea Wall at Dawlish -- video from Devon Live / CrossCountry not running through

Bit of topic drift (I can split if need be) ... but are those really people on the sea wall in the video?  Are they being a bit silly being there?

[Adrian]

Usual selection of half length services today BTW^▸ (by the way).

One of those being the 0629 Swansea to Paddington, which runs a few minutes ahead of the 0730 Cardiff to Portsmouth - which today was cancelled between Cardiff and Bristol.  Meaning 5 coaches instead of 15 for the peak half hour of the morning commute from S Wales to Bristol.

Fortunately I was in time to catch the XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) service that runs half an hour before what must have been a miserable crush.

[1st fan]

Sea Wall at Dawlish -- video from Devon Live / CrossCountry not running through

Bit of topic drift (I can split if need be) ... but are those really people on the sea wall in the video?  Are they being a bit silly being there?

When I lived in Devon many years ago I met a lifeboatman. He told me that if you get a bit of a blow and the waves get up, people go and look. The bigger the waves the more people who go and watch

[Surrey 455]

I'm disappointed to hear that the IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train) also run their diesel engines when not in use in the same way as the HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train). Why? I thought all this nonsense would have finished with the new trains. Surely modern technology doesn't require a running engine several hours before the train is about to move?

The 165/166 units were often switched off at Paddington when I boarded and turned on just before leaving. Has diesel technology gone backwards?

[eightonedee]

The 165/166 units were often switched off at Paddington when I boarded and turned on just before leaving. Has diesel technology gone backwards?

Sadly not the case at Reading Station- we often had several Turbos all with engines running awaiting movements off to the depot, supplemented by XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) Voyagers doing the same during their extended stops filling the air with fumes, and when the wind was in certain directions they filled the airspace in the new overbridge too! One enormous improvement since electrification is that this nuisance has reduced considerably.

[metalrail]

The 165/166 units were often switched off at Paddington when I boarded and turned on just before leaving. Has diesel technology gone backwards?

It's like a major step backwards around 60 years, when engines had to be kept 'in steam'!

[TaplowGreen]

Today's IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) shortforms (so far) 5 instead of 9 or 10;

05:59 Swansea to London Paddington due 08:59
06:23 Weston-Super-Mare to London Paddington due 08:44
06:29 Swansea to London Paddington due 09:30
06:59 Swansea to London Paddington due 10:01
07:30 London Paddington to Penzance due 13:15
08:03 London Paddington to Exeter St Davids due 10:39
09:22 London Paddington to Worcester Foregate Street due 11:47
09:30 London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads due 11:15
10:00 London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads due 11:39
10:30 London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads due 12:14
12:00 Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington due 13:38
12:01 Exeter St Davids to London Paddington due 14:38
12:30 Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington due 14:14
13:00 Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington due 14:41
14:00 London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads due 15:41
14:00 Penzance to London Paddington due 19:22
14:52 London Paddington to Oxford due 15:50
15:03 London Paddington to Penzance due 20:34
15:30 London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads due 17:15
16:30 Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington due 18:14
17:02 Oxford to London Paddington due 18:00
18:00 Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington due 19:37
18:22 London Paddington to Hereford due 21:35
18:29 Swansea to London Paddington due 21:29
18:45 London Paddington to Swansea due 21:43
20:00 London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads due 21:44
20:03 London Paddington to Plymouth due 23:45

[grahame]

Today's IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) shortforms (so far) 5 instead of 9 or 10

Silly question - how do the economics of this work? Does the represent a significant cost saving for the train operator in terms of train hire costs from Hitachi, track access charges, electricity / diesel and (where 10 cars is reduced to 5) staffing.

[IndustryInsider]

Rather curiously these five from that list (diagram NP108) are on Journeycheck as a 5-car, but according to the allocations on internal system Genius are in fact 9-car, 800306.

1L24   Swansea   06:29   Padton   09:30         
1C09   Padton   10:00   BrstlTM   11:39         
1A17   BrstlTM   12:30   Padton   14:14         
1B46   Padton   14:45   Swansea   17:43         
1L92   Swansea   18:29   Padton   21:29   

If anyone is out and about and can confirm then it would be intestesting to know which system is wrong.