I rode on one of the new Class 379 trains on Friday. It was the standard Bombardier UK product and looks and feels just like all their other "Electrostar" type units. The seats were rather hard. I had a numb bum after 40 minutes sitting on one.
It transpires that they are having a few problems with their Auxiliary Converter Modules (ACMs). The same problems first surfaced with the same company's S Stock being delivered to the London Underground. They had an embarrassingly long "sit down" with one of them a few weeks ago. Apparently, the problems are due to the software.
Monday, 28 March 2011
Sunday, 27 March 2011
357 Corrosion
In the April 2011 edition of the magazine Modern Railways, a report on the refurbishment of the Class 357 Stock used on the c2c services running east of London to Tilbury, Southend and Shoeburyness, mentioned a problem with corrosion where steel bolts had been used to secure external aluminium panels. It seems extraordinary to me that 50 years after reports of corrosion caused by using steel rivets in the construction of aluminium-bodied freight wagons, people are still having trouble mixing aluminium and steel in the same construction. Doesn't anyone do any research any more? Doesn't anyone study basic metallurgy any more?
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