ROLLING STOCK & TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT
As part of the main C6, the carriages are being recarpeted and getting new dado panelling. The seating is going to be dry-cleaned and re-covered and will “look like new”, Mitchell promised. The Super Sprinters were built in 1987-89 at Washwood Heath, and Mitchell told us: “They’re looking tired in places, so the new carpets and cleaning will give them a bit of a boost: that’s similar to what we’ve done with the 153s, they have had that as part of their C6 and it’s made a good difference.”
The luggage racks have not worn well, Mitchell said. “We’ve locally procured some covers that need to be fi tted and the ideal opportunity to fi t them is during the C6, so we’re hoping those luggage racks will neaten up as part of the process as well.”
Each unit will also be repainted in Greater Anglia’s red and white livery.
Unit 156402 was delivered to Railcare at Wolverton on the Monday after the Olympics fi nished. It is due out towards the end of November.
Mitchell told us: “That fi rst one is predicted to take longer, because it is such a major change that they’re looking to do, which they haven’t done on other units yet. The subsequent units should take less time: by the time we get to the
third one, there will be a more normal eight- week turnaround time.”
The whole refurbishment programme should be complete in late 2013.
The 156s run on routes such as Marks Tey – Sudbury, Ipswich – Cambridge, Ipswich – Lowestoft, Norwich – Great Yarmouth and Norwich – Sheringham.
Asked about the effect on service patterns, Mitchell said: “There’s absolutely no doubt that that’s always a struggle but we have looked at our service patterns and worked with our train planning department to minimise the effect and we have a further change in the timetable.
“When the 153 went away, we juggled the services to effectively throw up a ‘spare’ 153 to cover the one that was away. At the moment that’s not much good because it means unfortunately we’re regularly running a 153 instead of a 156 in certain diagrams. In December we correct that: we have to hire in another 158 for one round trip a day, from East Midlands Trains, which we already do in the morning on the diagram anyway, but that does throw up a spare 156 to mitigate the loss of the 156 which is away being worked on.
“We operate on very small margins anyway because we haven’t got a massive diesel fl eet. At the best of times there are only two or three units which we would have out of traffi c at any
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moment of time. That includes doing regular, planned, level four maintenance. To try to mitigate the effect of one being away, we have made timetable changes and we have done so, so far, without actually affecting the number of services. Some of them have been about re- utilising stock that was standing spare during the day at stations and things like that.”
One engineer at Crown Point is basically dedicated to the project, working with Porterbrook on heavy maintenance and visiting Wolverton regularly. Mitchell said: “He is a single point of contact – he’s a lynchpin in that regard – and that works quite well for us. People in the depot always know who to go to if they’ve got a query.”
The dedicated engineer also looked after 156417 after its well-publicised collision with a slurry tanker at a level crossing near Sudbury in August 2010.
That unit was out of service for a year for repairs, and Mitchell said: “He worked very closely with Wolverton, with the same people, to get that vehicle back in traffi c, which was quite a challenge.”
Steve Mitchell
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rail technology magazine Oct/Nov 12 | 35
© Gerry Balding, profi le at:
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