Mark III refurbishment

[ccos]

http://www.railwaygazette.com/nc/new...o-service.html

Railway gazette 31 May 2012

UK: On May 28 Chiltern Railways put into service the first of four rakes of Mk III coaches that are being heavily refurbished and equipped with sliding plug doors.

Deployed on London Marylebone - Birmingham Moor Street services, the Mk IIIs are marshalled between a Class 67 locomotive and a Driving Van Trailer equipped with an auxiliary generator.

Next to each DVT is a GFW car inherited from the Wrexham & Shropshire fleet which has 30 seats in 1+2 formation. This is the 'Business Zone' with a small buffet counter, and a supplement is collected on board for use of these seats. The other four cars have 2+2 seating but with 72 seats in the two TSO cars and only 69 seats in the two TSOL cars equipped with an accessible lavatory.

DB Regio awarded a contract to Wabtec Rail Ltd of Doncaster to comprehensively refurbish a total of 20 Mk III cars. The aim is to have all four rakes in service by December.

Perhaps the most difficult task was to install the powered doors, with both ends of each car body removed and rebuilt to produce a larger vestibule with tracks for the sliding plug doors. Rail Door Solutions supplied the door systems, similar to those installed in the Siemens Class 444 Desiro EMUs for South West Trains.

Retention toilets compliant with the Persons with Reduced Mobility TSI have been installed. LED interior lighting has been installed throughout the TSOL cars and in all the vestibules, and there is a power socket available at each seat.

'This really does prove that you can deliver a first class service utilising older rolling stock', said Chiltern Engineering Director Kate Marjoribanks. 'The new power doors and additional features allow us to increase capacity and at the same time meet the needs of our passengers'.

Railway Gazette International was told that the next steps were likely to be adding a sixth car to each rake, and then producing a fifth rake to provide heavy maintenance cover.

[Mark Gleeson]

The mainline sets are very impressive, cost per coach is upwards of 400,000 EUR. The dynamics of the UK market make such expenditure worthwhile. They basically have turned a Mk3 into an Irish Rail Mk4.

[Inniskeen]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

The mainline sets are very impressive, cost per coach is upwards of 400,000 EUR. The dynamics of the UK market make such expenditure worthwhile. They basically have turned a Mk3 into an Irish Rail Mk4.

They wouldn't be that regessive surely ? !

[Mark Gleeson]

Inside the coaches are very similar to the Irish Rail Mk4, the disability access regulations mean the layout more or less has to be the same.

At 250-300,000 EUR per coach IE's overhaul was deemed uneconomic so ICR's were got instead as the cost per km was almost 50% less.

[Inniskeen]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

Inside the coaches are very similar to the Irish Rail Mk4, the disability access regulations mean the layout more or less has to be the same.

At 250-300,000 EUR per coach IE's overhaul was deemed uneconomic so ICR's were got instead as the cost per km was almost 50% less.

What cost are you referring to ? Fuel cost ?, maintainance cost ? staffing cost ? Track costs ? Over what equipment life-cycle ?

Not sure, for instance, that the cost of operating a six-car railcar from Dublin to Galway would be cheaper than a six-car Mk3 push/pull.

Mind you it is fairly academic now as we have a railcar railway with virtually no freight. Not that long ago it was possible to occupy locomotives on an almost 24 hour basis (with obvious operational efficiencies) but there is very little opportunity to gainfully employ railcars between about 2200 and 0600.

The current ICR fleet is to a considerable extent a product of the Celtic Tiger era and a fair portion of it was purchased using funds that the NRA couldn't burn up quickly enough. Had the normal rules of economics applied I somehow suspect that Mk3s would still be in traffic, refurbished, and with a good ten to fifteen years of life remaining.

I hope the ICRs last the pace and deliver the economies you suggest because it is likely to be a long time before capital is available for replacements.

[Mark Gleeson]

Its cheaper to operate an ICR, 3, 6 or 9 coaches all good for 100mph, no need for a guard and the fuel consumption per mile is less.

ICR reliability is running at about twice Mk3+201.

While the refurbishment looks cheaper, the projected cost to overhaul the Mk3 push pull fleet came to over 25million!

[Thomas Ralph]

This Chiltern HSTs were being held back by the dwell times caused by slam-doors. This will be an improvement.

[Destructix]

Sadly I can only see the carriages ending up been scrapped. Unless Iarnród Éireann uses them on the Dublin to Belfast service (and quickly before they rot away any more) they have no future on their network. If money and capacity wasn't an issue I would love to see the push/pull service on the Limerick to Limerick junction shuttle service and GAA/football/rugby specials (least it wouldn’t really matter if the drunken fans urinate in their pants whilst seated, yes I seen it happen few times on the mk4’s). 2700/2800s could then be scrapped/sold

[Thomas J Stamp]

given the state of the economy and the ongoing cuts in IE the mark3 are history, IE have a surplus of ICR's as it is and from what we are hearing in the media about the cuts in workers we are going to see them worked a lot more.