If MML electrification is ever completed, could 810s be cascaded

[duffield]

Moderator note: split from

MML Electrification: progress updates

There's an article about NR's plans in Rail this week (#765 p54). It seems that work on site will start in April 2015, the contractor being Carillion Powerlines. They will be using road-rail vehicles for the work, not a high-output system. The 125mph design isn't explicitly named but seems...

www.railforums.co.uk

I wouldn't be surprised, but those are 1000HP diesel engines. Range extenders for 100mph BEMUs would only need to be a tenth of that size.


I think it's a fair assumption that the wires will get all the way to Sheffield - eventually. Despite the rotten economics, which only deliver a financial return if the OHLE is used also for recharging BEMUs on other services.

(And rather makes four 1000HP diesel engines on an 810 a bit of overkill, especially given all the extra costs incurred redesigning the underfloor layout to accommodate four engines in a space planned for three.)

Could the 810's be cascaded (maybe to Cross Country?) and replaced with pure EMUs if electrification is completed part way through their life?

Then maybe the "overkill" engines wouldn't be wasted? Or is this a daft idea?

 

[zwk500]

Could the 810's be cascaded (maybe to Cross Country?) and replaced with pure EMUs if electrification is completed part way through their life? Then maybe the "overkill" engines wouldn't be wasted? Or is this a daft idea?

That would probably be my plan, although the 810s may have been designed to allow the diesel gensets to be easily removed (at least some of the other IET derived trains have this feature) to convert to a pure EMU and then stay on the MML.

 

[Killingworth]

Could the 810's be cascaded (maybe to Cross Country?) and replaced with pure EMUs if electrification is completed part way through their life? Then maybe the "overkill" engines wouldn't be wasted? Or is this a daft idea?

Certainly not daft given that at the current rate of progress it will be another 10+ years before Sheffield will be fully connected to make anything available. But by then opinions of bi-mode capability and progress on other routes may have changed preferred options.

 

[baz962]

Aren't the engines also for when there might be problems with the OLE and also for the Manton diversion.

 

[DDB]

I think all the "pure electric" have one gen set per train for emergencies and shunting.

I also belive the gen sets have shorter lifespans than the trains so having a larger number that you can swap in and out is also useful.

 

[Eskimo]

Aren't the engines also for when there might be problems with the OLE and also for the Manton diversion.

Pretty much. If only the ‘core’ MML is electrified then the diesel gensets will remain indefinitely. The Erewash, Barrow Hill and Manton lines would all need wires before any cascading happens, you’d expect.