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Recliner[_3_] · April 20th 17, 12:44 AM posted to uk.transport.london

wrote:
In article
-september
.org, (Recliner) wrote:

wrote:
In article , d () wrote:

On Tue, 18 Apr 2017 22:45:50 -0000 (UTC)
Recliner wrote:
wrote:
On 18/04/2017 21:22, Recliner wrote:
Apparently this Frday (21st) will be the last for the D-stock in
normal service in London. I believe there will be a farewell tour
on 7 May.

After that, of course, there may be opportnities to travel on them
on new routes, with an unfamiliar diesel rumble under the floor.

What are their further prospects for conversion to DMUs and eventual
entrance into revenue service, especially after the fire?

Adrian Shooter seems optimistic that more orders are in the pipeline.
The EMT trial would not, in any case, have led to a significant order,
even without the fire. In a way, the fire was a good thing, as it
uncovered a number of weaknesses that might not otherwise have come to
light till much later.

IMO the main weakness is using van engines at all. Safety issues aside
long term reliabilty is going to be a serious issue as these engines
were never designed to be worked at max power for hours on end then
spend another few hours idling almost 365 days a year. Their capacity
is small meaning the max power rpm will be much higher than normal
railway diesels and hence increased wear and tear. I'm sure the company
would point to the ability to swap out the engines but really, who is
going to want to spend the time and money replacing knackered engines
every few years?

I thought they'd managed to get diesels that don't need to be left
idling all the time these days?

Yes. Though I suppose one of the four power packs may need to be left
running at a terminus. And the D-train's duties certainly won't involve
running at "max power for hours on end".

It must be noted from the reports on the fire that there are genuine issues
with making the power packs compatible with a rail traction environment.
Fascinating.

Yes, and they'd clearly not put enough effort into the task. Vivarail seem
to have tried to simply outsource the whole power pack to a local firm,
which obviously bodged it. The proven Ford engine may be up to the job, but
how it's mounted in the power pack (plumbing, wiring, fire-proofing, etc)
is at least as important.