RMweb Premium Steadfast Posted February 2, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 2, 2012 Who says its the engine causing trouble? From what I've read elsewhere (written by FGW drivers) its been faults with other systems such as TPWS, AWS, brakes etc. The 645 is solid. At the moment, sure, the reliability looks poor. It's a lot more noticiable when 2 are out of service on a fleet of 4, vs a fleet of 100, they've been running well between times, and its unfortunate two have failed together, but all in all they don't put in a bad performance As a comparison, the DRS active fleet has an availability of just under 59% based on a list I've seen, not including those stored for maintenance or due to failure. DB class 60 currently at 100% in the active pools... jo Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted February 2, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 2, 2012 'Availability' is one of those things which means all things to all men - and they're often different. For example locos in store would not normally be included in assessing availability but sometimes fleet owners also exclude booked heavy maintenance or locos in shops and there have been instances of even excluding locos on lower level exams. So it does help to assess it by knowing 'available out of what' (e.g total fleet, total active fleet, etc, etc). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mophead Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 How about the nightstar generator vans? That have sat around all these years? And any loco available to haul the sleepers? Mophead Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Gwiwer Posted February 2, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 2, 2012 Nightstar stock would require 2x class 37/6 to haul (therefore four locos required per night instead of two at present, plus a shunt loco in London) as they are, I believe, the only UK locos capable of doing so. Nightstar wiring is entirely different to the existing stock as well meaning the two are incompatible without major work being done. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted February 3, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 3, 2012 How about the nightstar generator vans? That have sat around all these years? And any loco available to haul the sleepers? Mophead They are for a different voltage and completely different electrical load characteristics as well as using UIC pattern vehicle connections. Thus the trains would either have to be partially (at least) rewired (which would be the silly option) or the generator vans would need considerable alteration to provide eth output to BR specification plus re-wiring. And using them would add to the train in terms of trailing load for no advantage in capacity although I would think that should be within the haulage capacity of the Class 57s. I understand that various uses of the generator vans with BR spec stock were considered and were all rejected on the grounds of either complexity & cost of the conversion or the trailing load penalty. The suggestion above that they would require 2x37/6 is incorrect - the only reason for the loco+genvan+loco formation was to simplify marshalling and turning moves with the Nightstar services; there was no other reason for that combination and it has nothing to do with the ETH/hotel output. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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