'S' Stock build commences

I heard a bizarre story today that the first car of S Stock was damaged during strain gauge tests (dropped) and has been written off as beyond repair!!! Now it's only a report and I don't want to spread exaggerated sensationalist rumours but further info on this incident - if indeed anything of the sort occurred - would be welcome. Long live the A, C & D Stock eh?

Guys, I go away on leave for a week and look what happens!

All I can confirm at this stage is that there has been an incident. Once I have permission I will post something else here to give you some more information. I don't mean to be all 'secret squirrel' but I do not want to post info of this nature without prior permission.

I want to start this post by clearly stating that the strain gauge car of 'S' Stock has now completed it's testing and has passed with very few issues. The strain gauge car remains complete and will be used as part of the main 'S' Stock fleet as planned.

However, there was an incident last week involving the first driving motor car on the production line (this is not the strain gauge car). As a result of this incident the first driving motor car of 'S' Stock has, in all likelihood, been written off. This means that the strain gauge car will now be used to form the first driving motor car (it was planned to be introduced to the fleet a little later) and an additional driving motor (DM) car will need to be built. This additional DM car will be introduced around train 7.

The incident itself, which I am not going to discuss in great detail, involved the cab end of the DM car being dropped from it's supporting jacks and impacting with the ground. The damage caused was minimal but Bombardier will probably take the decision to remove this car from the fleet. Bombardier have taken all the necessary steps to prevent another incident of this type occurring again and have been open and honest throughout the process.

There will be some delay to the program but I suspect this will mainly affect the testing stages. Incidents do occur from time to time during major projects and unfortunately on this occasion the hand of fate has intervened in our project! I would also like to stress for the record that I consider Bombardier Transportation staff to be extremely professional and, having visited their factory many times (I will be there tomorrow), also consider there working practices to be safe and beyond reproach. The main thing to note is that nobody was injured as a result of this incident and this is purely as a result of the high standard of safety that Bombardier maintain.

I was wondering if the car that had the incident could yield spare parts for the future? It would be handy if it was repairable and available as a spare should, not when, an incident occur in service to a DM car.

Down here in Southampton in the Swaythling Ford Transit factory we are used to seeing bodyshells of brand new Transits that have had an incident on the line...they stay outside all painted up and then get sent off to be crushed. In the past new cars have been known to fall of production lines and either repaired or crushed. These things happen.

Blimey! Great to see the old class 86 back in there!!

I'm sure things will be sorted out soon...

Just to update you guys, we now have five cars on the production line and the first driving motor car is now on it's bogies. I am visiting the factory tomorrow and will update you further after that.

Slightly OT: Do they really pronounce it Bom-bard-ee-ay, and do you go along with this nonsense?

No mate, I am LU all the way!

I work in upgrades (after a reasonably lengthy life in operations) and am responsible for ensuring that the design meets end user requirements.

In case anyone sees May Modern Railways there's a short section on page 6 with out of date info about S stock. It's wrong and production is full steam (well, electricity) ahead!

Just to update you all, again! There are now all eight cars of train 1 in production and two cars of train 2 also in the early stages of construction.

As I previously posted I thought the S7 project on the Circle & Hammersmith was a stupid idea due to the trains not fitting in most platforms and sidings on the line. Now hopefully someone has seen sense and shelved the idea.

I don't like the S stock design, the window in the end door is too low, and couldn't they put the grey across the door? (And also on the 09TS).

The Circle/Hammersmith & City needs the trains more than the Met. With the signalling delayed the Met doesn't want fewer seats in the short/med term!

It could be, but the District would need more drivers, all drivers would need road training on the north side of the Circle and the H&C to Hammersmith as most trains end up at Hammersmith Depot, all drivers would need C stock training (currently, East end drivers don't work C stock). All this costs money.