The Sleeper's Blog

John Grant   21/03/2017 at 11:50

Still with the LU whistle, I notice. (On the sound track of the video.)

J, Leicester   21/03/2017 at 13:11

Nice to see. Any idea what the range on these units is likely to be between charges? Battery technology seems like a logical "green" area to develop, but it's always been hamstrung by a lack of capacity, restricting production vehicles to shunters and the like.

Mark D Jameson   21/03/2017 at 18:19

Why are so many so negative? We have to recycle materials to re-use so why not the trains. The no-hope's are probably those who send their rubbish to landfill, run diesel cars, etc. At least here is an idea to reuse perfectly good bodies refitted, reworked on lines where the footfall is less and the revenue less. Very few branch lines have speeds over 40 let alone 60. Best of luck to Adrian Shooter - its about time in a difficult financial era more careful thought AND practice was given to these units. Also, if Northern line is have a new units for the Battersea extension, why not add more for use on the Piccadilly so some of their narrow door units can be sent to the Isle of wight.

SWB   21/03/2017 at 19:38

Good for Vivarail and its forward-thinking CEO. These types of innovative ideas need to be supported as much as possible. Too bad the folks at NUCKLE couldn't have seen further down the road instead of withdrawing after one incident.

Jerry Alderson   21/03/2017 at 20:19

I'm a great fan of Adrian Shooter and Vivarail. I also support using batteries where appropriate. Am I alone in sensing the irony of Rail Technology Magazine writing an article about technology that provides no insight into the technology whatsoever? J of Leicester is right to ask about battery range. My question is actually about how the batteries get charged. Is it done at either end, which presumably invovles a long layover time (problem if running late) or getting a quicky burst when it calls at stations, which would require extra infrastructure and several stations. Would it use a pantogragh, collector shoe or cable? Or, would the batteries be lifted out and replaced with fully charged ones (and then charging them up in a cabinet at a station)? The latter is a cost-effective way of doing it as minimal infrastucture would be needed, and it would be fairly quicky.

J, Leicester   22/03/2017 at 09:04

Jerry Alderson, I think the batteries are mounted in the underfloor modules in the same way as the diesel units are set up - which would make changing batteries pretty easy. That's a big selling point of the 230 - the on-the-fly maintenance. In a weird way, the fire incident has proven the point - they were able to not only run it back to Coventry Yard under its own power, but have the problem identified and new parts put in place within weeks.The turnaround in replacing the genset and getting it back out on the test track after what has been a pretty major incident is impressive. Again, the practicality of battery traction will depend entirely on their capacity. Ideally, you'd want something that could run for a number of days without recharging at a minimum - though with modular parts, you could feasibly have 2 batteries spare, one in use and one charging and change them "on-the-fly" at the end of an operating day.

Andrew Gwilt   22/03/2017 at 12:58

I still think its a brilliant idea to use batteries on the Class 230's for shorter distances and to operate on small branch lines in South Wales and in England.

Steve Rose   24/03/2017 at 14:12

If these bodies were any good to reuse then why were they not refurbished and kept in London? Why build new units to operate on tube and then try and coble together a way of making this old stock work on the rest of the network? It never seems to be explained in any of the articles.

Tarkaman   24/03/2017 at 20:45

At least one bidder is proposing to use the 230's on the Marston Vale Line :)

Bill Xpress   24/03/2017 at 20:59

Is there nothing new on the face of the earth. Don't I remember a battery twin railcar operating for some years - successfully so far as I know - between Aberdeen and Ballater?

Emily   11/04/2017 at 11:37

What about hydrogen trains? https://www.smartrailworld.com/an-asian-first-as-china-will-deliver-the-first-hydrogen-train