Vivarail's 'D Train' - 'D' stock reborn

I do apologise, I must have overlooked that. Thanks for the video link!

Reported on another forum (WNXXforum and duly acknowledegd) that a unit connected with the Greenford project is to be inspected by GW at Bletchley next week; assume this means a battery D78 not an existing diesel 230.

Yes, cross connecting different comments on different threads on different forums, it seems 230001 (which was the obvious unit anyway; although not quoted as such when I first posted) has been at Bletchley for some time. Can't keep track of these things in these days of information overload

our own thread:
districtdavesforum.co.uk/thread/23190/stock-withdrawals-list

230011 in USA reports :

h t t p s : / / w w w . f a c e b o o k . c o m / 9 2 6 4 9 6 0 4 4 2 7 / p o s t s / 1 0 1 6 1 6 5 8 1 8 1 2 6 9 4 2 8 /

www.railwaygazette.com/vehicles/second-pop-up-metro-battery-train-arrives-in-the-usa/61460.article

Once again, issues with link posting - no time to faff with the first link that would not post, so I inserted spaces; to follow it remove all the spaces.

I've not got log-ons to read those report further; just thought I'd post the links as to my knowledge not been reported in here yet.

Not sure about "no signs of them" they're all parked up in Birkenhead North depot:



twitter.com /rincew1nd/status/1490059967226855429?t=QzU074n9rdkMRbzx7Nr4KA&s=19

Maybe a long shot, but we are trying to track down a "blue and white" gauge that was used to check positive shoe alignment on the D78s, the part number is 2674TL. If anyone can find a dimensioned drawing that would be really helpful.

Re. main line Greenford and battery trial with a battery 230, this msg appeared on WNXXforum today and duly acknowledged :

QUOTE
230001 should have been ready for main line running this past week - it wasn't....
It was then hoped that it would be available for next week (01/08) - it's not....
.... it's starting to look like a real struggle to get it in service for the December timetable!
UNQUOTE

My response was "which December ?"

I find astrological charts for planning yield a more predictable outcome. As for meetings, I might give tarot cards a try soon.

According to subsequent msgs in the same thread on WNXxforum, the fast charge kit is still in Germany, untested, and no possessions for installation.


If you do your train crew training too early before ready to start, you may trip over the 6 mo need a refresher rule. So you hold on until you get a start date. Else you end up doing it twice.

And how do you know the crew are not already trained ? The project is a pilot scheme, non permanent (at this present time) with limited duration. Maybe there will be hired in crews for the pilot period (just like charter trains except these are shuttles).

DOO / SDO / CCTV / whatever else / delete as applicable is needed has yet to be installed / relocated / again delete as applicable; and I think to do training completely that all needs to be in place.

For your BEMU to be "out and about" you need to regularly charge it. While there might be a temporary facility already somewhere, it could be too far away for practical purposes. So are you really going to install a temporary facility ? For one train ?

Gauging - perhaps drawings alone suggest the things are out of gauge already - if so, you don't actually do a physical gauging run since you WILL at least infringe kinematic envelopes if not actually hit something.

You only need one signal to have a sighting issue and needing relocating and the the whole show has to wait for that, training included. And they ain't cheap to do.

Since there are neither trains nor infrastructure ready for anything, why would safety instructions yet be issued to trains or station staff ? Would you be issuing Picc line NTFL stock instruction to station staff yet, before any train is ready ?



I can't say yea or nay if project has included or omitted any of those points, or project drift has set in, but I really do think suggesting staff instructions or training are specious comments to be making at this stage, and jumping to conclusions on other points.

Thanks : I was looking for an example earlier myself - and that is a good one.

That Scottish problem ~60 years ago was right at the leading (bleeding as some say) edge of technology of the day; and, it is often overlooked that ER had contemporary parallel issues. True neither ScR nor ER were test schemes but fleet and area conversions so had a bigger impact.

The Greenford battery trial is just as much at that edge. It is bound to throw up snags. That is the whole point of trials. Railways are damned by the armchair experts when they don't prototype and test, and damned when they do when prototypes or getting to prototype generate issues.

We all know the feeling of projects missing intermediate targets while keeping end target, and I don't disagree with that per se, but, in this case I didn't think any of the points following that were practical ones.

The other thing to bear in mind these days is the internet. In the past we'd all be in the dark until 3 mo after the event a magazine finally gets into print, there was no other source. By the time any mag got into print any so-called issues had been fixed having never been reported to the n.th level of detail, so no-one was any the wiser. Today every little faltering step is subjected to reporting and analysis ranging from uninformed trainspotter wibble or canteen gossip through to informed sources who can't reveal their level of informedness.

Good news indeed.

My thoughts turn to timeframe.

I am 62 at present, which will I see happen first - this project or my 65th birthday?

Recommend follow this thread on WNXXforum (you do need to be a member to read) [assuming I am allowed to post things like this ?]

www.wnxxforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=16&p=877541#p877541

Hint : maybe possibly expect to see something test running possibly maybe next week.

I assume the old shuttle track will remain out of use? It’s a shame really as it might add to capacity at busy times.