Autumn refresh for GWR Class 165/166 Turbos

[Towers]

At last the end of those ghastly bright pink grab poles and handles. To be fair, the First Group refurb of 15-odd years ago was mostly OK, and has lasted quite well, but the pink was just awful.

I was a always a fan of the late-FGW era identity, but I appreciate it was a bit 'Marmite'. I do, however, wonder what visually impared users make of having the internal grab rails now painted black.

 

[YSTrains]

Can someone list what units are done as of today.

 

[DelW]

The Reading 2 cars are being done at the moment; and infact are nearly finished. I see no reason why the 3 cars won’t follow on after.

Thanks, it's almost always 3-cars I use (on the North Downs), so I'll look forward to the refurbs hopefully starting to appear there before too long.

Unless of course the 769s arrive first .

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Is there a list of completed unit I could look at please? Preferably split into Reading and Bristol

 

[jackot]

This has probably been mentioned before, but will the 165s keep their first class for routes like the North Downs?

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

This has probably been mentioned before, but will the 165s keep their first class for routes like the North Downs?

They won’t be working North Downs when the 769s finally get their act together.

 

[HamworthyGoods]

Is there a list of completed unit I could look at please? Preferably split into Reading and Bristol

The 2-car 165s are all allocated to Bristol these days, Reading solely looking after running exams. You are just as likely to see a low numbered unit in the West as you are in the Thames Valley.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

The 2-car 165s are all allocated to Bristol these days, Reading solely looking after running exams.

Oh right ta. I did know this was planned to happen, but I thought it had been postponed.

 

[Western Sunset]

Some half a dozen 166s still in First Group blue livery in service.

 

[43 302]

The 2-car 165s are all allocated to Bristol these days, Reading solely looking after running exams. You are just as likely to see a low numbered unit in the West as you are in the Thames Valley.

Well that's completely and utterly incorrect. 165101 - 165117 are the 3 car units and are all LTV allocated.* 165118 - 165127 are 2 car units LTV allocated, and 165128 - 165137 are 2 car units allocated to PM. The units occasionally swap over via 2E77, an early morning Oxford to Worcester Shrub Hill diagram.

*Until a few weeks ago when 165101 transferred over to PM, becoming the only 3 car 165 allocated to the west.

Edit: also 165115 was scrapped after being involved in the Ladbroke Grove crash.

 

[HamworthyGoods]

The units occasionally swap over via 2E77, an early morning Oxford to Worcester Shrub Hill diagram.

The units swap over daily Monday to Fridays between West and LTV at Worcester.

The incoming working from Gloucester works to Worcester Foregate Street and returns to Didcot Parkway.

The incoming working from Oxford terminates at Shrub Hill and works back towards Gloucester.

The timetable with one service at Foregate Street and one at Shrub Hill does not allow for the 2 cars turbos not to swap over. Looking at the week just gone the units swapped between West and LTV and v.v. Swapped over every day except Monday (when there was planned engineering work with buses to Moreton in Marsh)

 

[JN114]

The 2-car 165s are all allocated to Bristol these days, Reading solely looking after running exams. You are just as likely to see a low numbered unit in the West as you are in the Thames Valley.

Perhaps on paper; but in practice 118-127 are still “LTV” units and 128-137 are still “West” units; and treated separately by operations - the former being used on the RG2xx diagrams, and the latter on the PM2xx diagrams.

There is one “West” unit diagrammed on LTV work per day (over 2 days technically) - which works Gloucester - Worcester - Oxford - Reading; stables between peaks and then comes back out for PM Peak Didcot-Oxford work finishing Oxford then works Oxford - Worcester - Bristol the following morning.

Woe betide the controller who puts an LTV unit on the PMxxx diagram…

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Perhaps on paper; but in practice 118-127 are still “LTV” units and 128-137 are still “West” units; and treated separately by operations - the former being used on the RG2xx diagrams, and the latter on the PM2xx diagrams.

There is one “West” unit diagrammed on LTV work per day (over 2 days technically) - which works Gloucester - Worcester - Oxford - Reading; stables between peaks and then comes back out for PM Peak Didcot-Oxford work finishing Oxford then works Oxford - Worcester - Bristol the following morning.

Woe betide the controller who puts an LTV unit on the PMxxx diagram…

165120 is on CDF PMH today.

 

[43 302]

Woe betide the controller who puts an LTV unit on the PMxxx diagram…

Makes my turbo commute around Bristol all the more interesting though! I had 165120 up the Severn Beach this morning

 

[JN114]

Makes my turbo commute around Bristol all the more interesting though! I had 165120 up the Severn Beach this morning

It escaped last week at some point after the West unit was misbehaving.

To slightly correct your previous post - 165101 is currently “officially” West from the 3 car fleet.

From May TT change there is expected to be greater degree of inter-working of the West/LTV fleets; including 3 cars. However as it stands no instruction to the ops department that the current status quo of unit “ownership” between Reading and SPM is changing.

We’re digressing more into unit allocations than refurb details though, so perhaps we leave it there.

As it stands to my knowledge these are the Reading 2 cars currently refurbished:-


165118
165119
165120
165121
165122
165123
165124
165126

I can’t speak for which West units were done but it’s at least 2 or 4

 

[RPI]

View attachment 113536
View attachment 113537
View attachment 113538
165130 arriving in Paignton Saturday 23 April 2022.
Nice clean refurbishment but I don't think a two car train on Saturday is a good idea. Surprised it still had a big luggage rack at one end.

Agreed, however, I'd sooner have a 2 car turbo than a 2 car 150 as there is more capacity

 

[jackot]

They won’t be working North Downs when the 769s finally get their act together.

Good point, the 769s are taking so long I almost forgot about them

 

[FGW_DID]

Is there a list of completed unit I could look at please? Preferably split into Reading and Bristol

12 done / in progress (8 RG / 4 SPM)

In order of work carried out:

LTV (RG): 122,123,126, 118, 119, 121, 120, 124 (current Wolverton set)

West (SPM): 130, 129, 132, 128 (current Wolverton set)

They won’t be working North Downs when the 769s finally get their act together.

Now there’s an optimist!

 

[fgwrich]

They won’t be working North Downs when the 769s finally get their act together.

Good point, the 769s are taking so long I almost forgot about them

I cant see the First Class compartment being removed on the 3 cars (already removed on the 2 cars), 769s do also have First Class but it'll still be a while it seems before we see that (same moquette, different seats, bit of carpet but no internal divider).

 

[Dougal2345]

The one I travelled in yesterday needed scrapping not refreshing. In addition to the pictures, an internal door was sticking, and the noise inside was like sitting with a malfunctioning vacuum cleaner next to your head.

To add insult to injury, on arrival at Portsmouth Harbour I had to queue up next to it in full cry (and full stink) for 15 minutes in the queue for Wight link. My tinnitus is still bad this morning.

Did we used to poke fun at the state of Albanian trains?

 

[AviationFR]

Have seen one of the refurbished 165/166s running the Greenford shuttle yesterday

 

[fgwrich]

The one I travelled in yesterday needed scrapping not refreshing. In addition to the pictures, an internal door was sticking, and the noise inside was like sitting with a malfunctioning vacuum cleaner next to your head.

To add insult to injury, on arrival at Portsmouth Harbour I had to queue up next to it in full cry (and full stink) for 15 minutes in the queue for Wight link. My tinnitus is still bad this morning.

Did we used to poke fun at the state of Albanian trains?

I’m not sure what causes it, but I can’t stand that whining fan in the FC Compartment ends. On some units, it used to be so bad that it would give you a headache - not so good when you’ve just come off a block of night shifts and you just want to get some sleep.

That table and arm rest isn’t the worst I’ve seen them though, you could often tell which units had been out late into the night when they were pushed out onto some of the early turn services.

 

[387star]

The one I travelled in yesterday needed scrapping not refreshing. In addition to the pictures, an internal door was sticking, and the noise inside was like sitting with a malfunctioning vacuum cleaner next to your head.

To add insult to injury, on arrival at Portsmouth Harbour I had to queue up next to it in full cry (and full stink) for 15 minutes in the queue for Wight link. My tinnitus is still bad this morning.

Did we used to poke fun at the state of Albanian trains?

Wait in till you hear compressor speed up...

 

[Parallel]

The one I travelled in yesterday needed scrapping not refreshing. In addition to the pictures, an internal door was sticking, and the noise inside was like sitting with a malfunctioning vacuum cleaner next to your head.

To add insult to injury, on arrival at Portsmouth Harbour I had to queue up next to it in full cry (and full stink) for 15 minutes in the queue for Wight link. My tinnitus is still bad this morning.

Did we used to poke fun at the state of Albanian trains?

Dare I say it, that’s a good example from the pictures you’ve shared!

I was on a 166 a couple of weeks ago that had one of the four tables missing out of the ex-first class section!

 

[Snow1964]

There are still plenty of blue 3car sets passing through Bradford-on-Avon, complete with First logos

Not sure when GWR introduced the green livery (seems like years ago), but must be quite lowish priority to repaint and refurbish them as not yet all in green livery, but as there are regular short formations currently presumably they cannot be spared to do the work.

 

[nw12398]

There doesn't seem to be any 165/166s running from Exeter throughout the day today and more 158's than usual - all Barnstaple services (not too rare) and 2 running on Exmouth-Paignton services (one 3 car and one 2 car coupled to a 150) - any idea why?

Edit: moved to a more appropriate thread.

 

[CR165022]

There are still plenty of blue 3car sets passing through Bradford-on-Avon, complete with First logos

Not sure when GWR introduced the green livery (seems like years ago), but must be quite lowish priority to repaint and refurbish them as not yet all in green livery, but as there are regular short formations currently presumably they cannot be spared to do the work.

the blue ones were repainted just before the livery was changed to green, therefore meaning that they didnt need to be repainted again, they will get repainted into green when they go for interior work

 

[158747]

Not sure when GWR introduced the green livery (seems like years ago)

It was a few years ago, September 2015.

 

[387star]

Dare I say it, that’s a good example from the picture’s you’ve shared!

I was on a 166 a couple of weeks ago that had one of the four tables missing out of the ex-first class section!

Been like that for years

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Dare I say it, that’s a good example from the picture’s you’ve shared!

I was on a 166 a couple of weeks ago that had one of the four tables missing out of the ex-first class section!

The 165/1s seem to have all of the cup holder/mini tables removed, and those sections are actually still used as First Class! Having said that, they were all falling off anyway. The lights overhead also generally do not work.