Refurbs

Have you ever been to Victoria in an Electrostar? They have what might be described as a little door trouble.

Too true, this is what Im thinking, I suspect quite a lot of the current stock will be around for quite a while yet....

Really? Then whats the point in tarting up life expired stock with useless prettifaction when the money could have been invested in a brand new build and given far more people jobs for a few years? If they started to build the 'S' stock now your precious 'D' stock muck-up would be rendered unecessary.

Many of the features of the D stock refurb were long overdue. The door alarms are much needed for Health & Safety reasons, the external passenger information displays are very useful (especially for Warwick Rd entrance users of Earl's Ct!). I'm sure many members of the public also appreciate the internal information displays, auto announcements, and the much improved internal appearance. Not forgetting the drivers, who probably appreciate the moved off-side door buttons. It should also be remembered that like it or not, corporate image is very important these days, and the refurbed D stocks will help LUL achieve this.

That's quite a good point, particularly as I believe Bombardier in the UK are now heading into a quieter period than compared to recent activity.

I think they needed a refurb desperately. The un-refurbs look awful inside and, wether its just the ones I've been on, BUZZ a lot! The only downside to refurbs, IMO, is the useless dot-matrix screens, which if you are sitting down you need to strain your neck or eyes to see, depending on where you sit, and the announcements which don't actually seem to tell you anything of any use! But then again, it may seem like that to me because I know where interchanges are

"Tourists in mind" I think are the words to use for the refurbs.

Anway, how many are there now as I saw 3, rode 1, in the space of 20 minutes!?

The audible announcements are very useful for those who have poor eyesight, tourists, unregular tube users, and those who are half asleep.

The dot matrix displays are very useful to the deaf, tourists, unregular tube users, and non-english speakers.

Just because they are not useful to you, doesn't mean that they are not useful to others!

And so I should think Especially as I had the misfortune to work it today - and what a piece of rubbish it is (at the moment anyway )
Motor not working on 8104, draughts from all round the M door and the CIS was defective on both ends. On 7061, the GPS wasn't working, but at least that isn't too bad. However, the CIS on 7104 was quite interesting, and it also allows me to answer some of TOKs questions about the CIS ;D
It seems that, for some reason, on 7104 the CIS link to the wheel counter isn't working. As a result it relies purely on the GPS signals for the announcements. This means that there are NO announcements in the tunnel sections, unless the driver keeps on setting the position manually. HOWEVER - what was interesting is that, as soon as it came into an open section and picked up a GPS signal, it made the last inter-station announcement that should have been made . In other words, as I came out of the tunnel towards Whitechapel, the CIS suddenly announced 'The next station is Whitechapel....' This, despite the fact that under normal circumstances the system wouldn't be able to receive the GPS signal when that announcement should be made! It seems there is a little AI programmed into the system to allow for some of these problems!
So to summarise, the GPS is usually the thing that determines where/when the announcements are made, and the wheel counter is a back-up for when the GPs is unavailable. But even without the wheel counter, the GPS can make allowances for missed announcements and make them if appropriate.

I was a passenger on it this evening - he was unsuccessful cos it's still broke

Been a rough week eh? ;D ;D ;D

Yes, it most certainly is!

I had it only yesterday as Train 61.

On a point of interest I was chatting with DStock7080 at work the other day and we were speculating as to the future of this unit, bearing in mind that though it obviously has similarities with the 'production' refurbs, there are many thinks that do differ.

We have a feeling that 7008 will be left until well towards the end of the program and that it will always end up being at least a little unique. Time will tell!

If you look back up the thread, there might be a slight clue

For an approximation of the likelyhood of getting on one, divide the number of total D stocks by the number of refurbished D stocks.

I like the way the old 'open door' buttons have just been crudely plated over. And that panel in the window where the cab doors slide into.

To be honest, yes, I do like the refurbs, but attention to detail is lacking. I also notice there's one or two subtle differences between prototype and production, notably, in the prototype, theres a green stripe on the seat dividers, on the production unit [the one I went on, 7108], its plain white.

Refurb train10 7098+7037 was arriving at Ealing Common about lunchtime today.

This should be the first one with the additional internal dot-matrix displays back-to-back over the centre transverse seats, making them easier to read than looking to the far ends. Trains1>9 will be retrofitted at Ealing from Jan onwards.

From train20>on will have an additional long handrail, inside the doors by the wheelchair space- there is only 1 at present- on one side.