Trimode cl 769 to operate Reading to Oxford and Gatwick.

[whole diary]

[CyclingSid]

a trip from Reading Train Care Depot onto the mainline on Wednesday 24th March

Did it happen, and how far did they get?

[stuving]

a trip from Reading Train Care Depot onto the mainline on Wednesday 24th March

Did it happen, and how far did they get?

No. But there is now what looks very like a 769 path booked (as FRGT^▸ (FReiGhT)) for Monday 29th! Nothing too strenuous mind, just Reading TD-DID^▸ (Didcot Parkway)-MAI^▸ (Maidenhead station)-Reading TD, so it won't even need to turn the engines on. There are also paths to and from Long Marston, but they are standard preallocations and almost always get cancelled.

[eightonedee]

so it won't even need to turn the engines on

Bearing in mind the routes they are currently (no pun intended!) apparently ear-marked for working (North Downs and Reading-Basingstoke) have respectively no and only a short stretch of OHL^▸ (Over-Head Line) it seems a bit daft not to do so!

[didcotdean]

Well it did run. (link to GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) twitter_)

Maybe of note that this was publicised after the event when it had completed the run and not before or during

[eightonedee]

...and if the photo on Twitter is up-to-date, they have not yet applied the grey diagonal stripe and GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) logos yet. Are they hedging their bets if they do not pass their tests?

The rippled carriage sides show well, too.

[RichT54]

I've just been reading elsewhere that all 3 GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) 769s are out of action today (7/4/21). It was mentioned that if there was only one that was serviceable, then it wouldn't be able to go out because there wouldn't be another 769 to rescue it if it broke down. It makes me wonder that, if they are that unreliable, what is the probability that a rescue 769 would also fail and cause even more disruption?

[IndustryInsider]

Probably quite a small chance, but given having no or very limited rescue capacity should one fail is probably taking an unnecessary risk.

[eightf48544]

Another example of the stupid lack of a standard auto coupling.

[RichT54]

There are comments on railforums saying that one of the 769 test runs today had to be abandoned:

The original set sustained some damage in the Slough area, reportedly shoegear impacting trackside furniture, which caused other complications so set limped back to Maidenhead where it was rescued back to Reading by another 769.

[Electric train]

There are comments on railforums saying that one of the 769 test runs today had to be abandoned:

The original set sustained some damage in the Slough area, reportedly shoegear impacting trackside furniture, which caused other complications so set limped back to Maidenhead where it was rescued back to Reading by another 769.

Would seem someone had not completed gauge clearance for a third rail unit with non retractable shoe gear, wonder if someone assumed that because 387 run on the GWML^▸ (Great Western Main Line) that other third rail stock can 

387's have retractable shoe gear; 769's aka 319's have fixed shoe gear

[RichT54]

I read on railforums that one of the 769s did some testing on the third rail at Reading platform 6 today (25/5). So one small step closer to doing some test runs on the North Downs line, perhaps?

[stuving]

Wedding pictures? Certainly this is both something old and something new, and the drivers at lest are borrowed. And we had loads of something blue yesterday, didn't we?

Two of the 769s at Reading were out last night in Guildford, checking gauging (at the bridge over the Wey west of Shalford, I think). I didn't go out to wave as they passed Wokingham last night (it was midnight), but I certainly heard and saw both of them from the house. None of this third rail nonsense on this trip!

The plan was for one to do a few shuttles from P3 to Shalford while the other one sat in P8 offering moral support and encouragement. But what happened was a bit different: there were at least three trips from P6 and one unit ended up in P8. That left P6 free for the Redhill trains, terminating here as the line to Blackwater was closed until 12:30. 

The return path (597Y) was rather gently paced, and included an hour stopped in Wokingham P2, for some reason. I wondered if they felt he need to gauge check the new siding ... or play with using third rail back to Reading. There was no second path, so the other unit vanished without trace - I guess its path back to Reading never even got into the VSTP.

In the end, 769943 set off back home on time, despite the maps showing the line as still blocked! It got to Wokingham a bit early, and had to wait for the junction. While it was hardly quiet, it wasn't as loud as 165104 accelerating towards Crowthorne, and nowhere near what else it was waiting for - something yellow running as 354K.

[RichT54]

I got some photos as it passed between Blackwater and Sandhurst.

https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:K63553/2021-05-30/detailed

[RichT54]

Interesting comment by the knowledgable "Clarence Yard" on RailUKforums (https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/gwr-class-319-769-information-discussion.174866/post-5159106)

It is the Wey bridge. Although the units were officially cleared through the bridge, using the usual model against the NR^» (Network Rail - home page) database, NR were a little embarrassed to find out that there was a guard rail structure on the bridge that wasn’t on their database. Neither did it conform to current NR standards.

So NR had to do some work on it (it wasn’t in great condition either) and as the clearances from shoe beams to the guard rails were a bit suspect, a physical exercise was thought to be the best way of getting it cleared.

This was the last significant item that remained to be done by the (now disbanded) small NR/GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) DMU^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit) task force that has, over the past few years, successfully (and quietly) dealt with all the other GWR 16x and 769 clearance locations.

[stuving]

The running-in trials are still going on, using the line from Swindon to Maidenhead. Today for the first time I've seen them on RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) "Pathed as Class 769 EMU^▸ (Electric Multiple Unit); Planned for 100mph max". Today's paths are a bit of a muddle, some shown as GW^» (Great Western - used as an abbreviation for the area / lines under the Great Western franchise, as opposed to FGW which includes "First", the company operating them too. For tickets - about) and some as ZZ, and the single outing "Pathed as Diesel locomotive; Planned for 75mph max" curtailed and replaced by single-leg ones for a 769. But at least they are clocking up the miles.