Ah, fair enough. It's a shame at least more capacity can't be provided to compensate.
Strictly speaking intercity can just mean travelling between two cities
Not necessary .
This is still the case now.
I’m sure this is nonsense. Most modern DMU’s have hydraulic transmissions that work perfectly well. The engine/transmission in the 180 is the same as the 185 which seems to be a well regarded unit. A few months back Ian Walmsley wrote a piece in Modern Railways on the 180’s. I haven’t got access to this at present but recall the general theme was that these are fundamentally decent units but need such as the body side fairings sorting out to improve the engine cooling.
How many 125mph units have this hydraulic transmission?
The main reason Northern got rid of them was that they were only ever intended as a temporary stop-gap while they were waiting for other trains to be cascaded in.
Makes sense. I wonder if they'd have any use providing peak time capacity on Northern routes? I understand they'd be inappropriate for certain uses as there acceleration vs regular DMUs but perhaps providing less stop services between routes to pull some people off of the main "stopper"?
Given their age and perennial reliability issues l'm unconvinced that anyone would spend the sort of money likely to potentially (no guarantees!) achieve that.
One could always go for some sort of testbed, but I am skeptical.
I suppose it depends wildly on how open access plays out within the next few years, if there's demand for them (especially seeing as theyre ETCS) I can see why the ROSCO might want to bring them up to scratch.
Only the GC units are ETCS. The EMR ones (including 110, that was at GC briefly) are not.
Very interesting, many thanks for that.
I would imagine so, however Super Voyagers already have some of the required equipment as part of the tilt system, so if could be swings and roundabouts.
Gillette disagree lol....
Anyone trying to build a new service would surely seek reliable stock though. Starting with unreliable junk could kill a new service stone-dead.
It depends if the price is right, and if they can be put onto less intense diagrams someone might be able to get them to become reliable.
Quite brave to propose this. Fire Service tells you never go to sleep leaving candles lit for a reason, you know.
I don't think they're done just yet. Maybe with a comprehensive overhaul, reliability can be improved, and they'll be more desirable. With all these open access operators, it could happen.I don't think the 180s have had their time just yet. Could they be used for an Orion style service? Diesel units might be more attractive esp if companies (say Amazon) want to push to more greener solutions e.g. rail related. Could also see Network Rail taking them on.
I could also be full of rubbish
Doubt TFW considering their experience with the 180's sister, the 175.
I think they were probably quite glad to see the back of them tbh, since they went before the HSTs did.
I think there's a better chance of it than the EMUs that have been dumped all this time, there's definitely options its just whos willing to spend a few £ to get them up to scratch. Be interesting to see what happens to the ones at Alstom.
From memory there are some parts which are common to both 175 and 180 (being based on Alstom Coradia series), so possibly could provide some spares to 175s
