Class 345 Testing and Introduction

I've now uploaded the best of my 290 or so images to my Flickr site, which can be found....

HERE

Enjoy

What the baby 345 is brave enough

I know pics catch people at their worst, but I did have to chuckle at a few...
#6717 - is that a very smartly-dressed female trainspotter noting the car numbers as it rolls in
#6734 - is he doing a zombie impression or just reaching out to grab the train

Anyway, nice pics, and exciting times for trains.

345s will, once at full length, be about 40 metres long than a formation of 2 x 4 car 315s, which come in c.160m.

The platform dispatch cameras are in that position, I believe.

If there isn't a stopping mark that matches the number of carriages on your train then you stop at the first stopping mark with a bigger number - for hopefully obvious reasons.

Presumably because LO hasn't got enough units to make all its trains 8-car?

The new trains for the Euston-Watford service will be 4 car and the same trains will operate on the Gospel Oak-Barking/Barking Riverside line.

The 378s were delivered as 4 cars but an an extra car was added to all of them. Several stations (Canada Water etc) can't take any more and there are technical issues with the train consist that prevent it happening.

The 35 new trains for the West Anglia routes will also be 4 cars but will probably run as pairs.

The 345s have been set up to allow extra cars to be added.

I assume the question was referring to the LO trains out of Liverpool Street, which are indeed all 4-car or 8-car, as they are made up of 4-car sets. As to why LO often runs short trains and TfL Rail rarely do so, this is down to rolling stock management - whether scheduled or not, LO don't have the rolling stock available to run all trains as eight cars.

Early 378s for the NLL were delivered as 3-car, then extended to 4, then to 5, with corresponding platform lengthening - twice over.

The 'next train' information displays said that it was a 7 car train. This confirmed it for me that the train would be a 345 - and not a 315!

I understand that the same timings will be used by a Class 345 train on most weekdays (Mon-Fri) but with a very important caveat, this being that the train might be cancelled at short notice. Being an extra this should not adversely affect any other services.

This type of preview service applied to the S8 trains on the Metropolitan Line, when they were brand new.

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I just about managed to travel on the train on Thursday. I only discovered that it was running when using the computer at 11am, by when it was already too late to catch the train on its way to Shenfield. But after a hurried walk I managed to get to Ilford station in time for its return journey.

Alas however social engagements meant that I was out on both Thursday and Friday afternoons, so it took longer than I would have liked to cobble-together some video clips for YouTube. Oh and yes, you do see a Class 306 at Liverpool Street at the end, although as my super 8 camera was silent the sound in this film came from a Heathrow Connect Class 360 negotiating complicated pointwork at Paddington!



Simon

You don't give up do you? Despite lengthy debates elsewhere you are still sticking to your "if only it was like the 1980s then everything would be fine" line for the GEML local service. Do you ever accept that other people have valid arguments?

As for the Adventras do you imagine anyone will notice the difference? Crossrail has a lot of new infrastructure and fairly limited stops which allows the service spec to be "high performance" as you put it. I dare say if someone was designing the local West Anglia line and the GOBLIN and NLL afresh for today's standards they would be designed to allow full separation from freight, with fewer stops and higher running speed. I dare say the same arguments would apply to brand new tube lines if such were being considered today. I really don't think you are making a fair comparison. All I suspect passengers want is to actually squash inside a train in the rush hour and have a reliable and safe services that is no slower than today. Beyond that I think we stray into the "micro indulgences" of enthusiasts who have palpitations about seat designs, alignment with windows, yellow fronts and other such things. The initial "vox pop" reaction to the 345 from the few "normals" who were interviewed on Thursday seemed reasonably positive. TfL, MTR and Bombardier now have to get them into service without them conking out and screwing the service.

TfL's spec for the Overground is modest in terms of high running speeds with a far, far greater emphasis placed on reliability (hence the padded timetables) and frequency (freight trains permitting). Also there is no need for the LO Adventras to achieve a high maximum speed unlike the 345s which have to cope with the GWML where speeds are higher. I rather suspect that the LO Adventras will have a reasonable pace of acceleration but there is no parallel investment from Network Rail to raise running speeds (other than on several bits of the GOBLIN). We may see some inter station run time improvements with the Adventras but I can't see Arriva chucking away recovery time given the very tight performance regime they are signed up to.

snoggle / spsmiler

Gentlemen... as the King of Swamp Castle said in Monty Python's Holy Grail...


SOURCE

I think our community can share reminiscences of the past as well as challenges of today and in the future....

Sometimes the old timer's have seen it all before

Ducks as he waits for a toy to be thrown in his general direction

First/MTR have also ordered Aventras to replace the Desiro Cities (Class 707) ordered by Stagecoach for the SouthWestern. Inevitably there will be a period when both types are operating side by side - now that WILL be an interesting comparison.

(I recall the disparaging remarks made about the 455s when they replaced the then almost-new 508s on the same route)