1999 - Intercity Rolling Stock
An earlier Intercity CrossCountry service at Manchester Piccadilly.
With the planned introduction of Pullman services to Scotland - notably Edinburgh and Glasgow, the Intercity network was in for some significant reorganisation; the Pullman network had taken over most major destinations from the previous main lines & geographic sectors of Intercity. The need for a re-organisation of Intercity was abundantly clear, and would result in fewer but more efficient subsectors.
- Pullman. This sector would operate all Pullman services on the express network, as well as services which were at least mostly on the express tracks - allowing for future expansion if so wished.
- CrossCountry. This sector, inheriting much of the "Cinderella" SouthWest/North Intercity network which bypassed London, would take over the lions share of other Intercity services. With Birmingham remaining off the Pullman network, at least currently, several Intercity services would run via Birmingham to retain it's connections - although Network South East were clamouring to reintroduce London-Birmingham commuter services run by NSE using parts of the Pullman route. The low travel time would place this generally as a commuter service, but this was a good source of ticket revenue for Intercity. (*1)
- Western. This sector was largely unchanged, and would take over the vast majority of Great Western Route Intercity services from London Paddington to Western England and South Wales.
- Eastern. This sector was roughly an "others" sector, and would operate the Midland Main Route to the East Midlands and the East Coast Route to (non-Pullman) Yorkshire & North East. It would also later inherit the Anglian Route from London to Norwich as part of a deal allowing NSE to service the London-Birmingham commuter route.
Earlier test trains, most notably the P300 for Pullman (*2), had achieved significantly faster speeds, but this was not in itself particularly practical on the legacy network. It had however pushed forward the development of new lightweight structures, aerodynamics, and electrical technologies - things which would be highly useful no matter which division of British Rail was interested in it.
The CrossCountry network, centred on Birmingham, had always been the "black sheep of the family" - it crossed multiple British Rail regions, causing difficulties in timetabling. The network was also the last to inherit trains, in the normal "cascading stock" strategy of British Rail - as the top gets better trains, it releases its trains to the next level below it, which releases theirs down, and so on. However, this strategy had always ensured that the CrossCountry network had the worse trains - and now with the economy booming, increasing road congestion, complaints were flooding in to British Rail about the age and comfort of much of it's rolling stock (*3).
Some of this would be addressed anyway; the new trains planned for Pullman would allow refurbishment of it's current Pullman-1 trains, which could then be transferred to work on the electrified Great Western Route. The Pullman-1 trains had DC motor bogies anyway (*4), which dated back to the 1970s, and so the electrical systems could be adjusted with less difficulty to work on the 1.5kV DC system of the Great Western. This would introduce thoroughly refurbished, more comfortable, and faster trains to the area - and not least longer trains, considering the congestion at the London end. In the mean time, the route pottered on with the Intercity non-powered multiple units and Class 47 locomotives. This would have been a delight however for the CrossCountry network, who still made widespread use of Mark 2 coaches, backed up by Mark 1 dating from the early 1960s in some places, and a ragtag army of locomotives; Class 47s, Class 37s, and several smaller fleets. None were inherently unreliable, but all were old, showing their age and becoming more prone to breakdowns as time went on.
The cramped station at Birmingham New Street served as the central point for the CrossCountry network.
Scotrail's experience with diesel-electric / hybrid multiple units had been interesting for much of British Rail, and some other sectors had procured identical stock for some of their routes; most notably Network South East now operated hybrid units from London Waterloo to Exeter and Plymouth (via Basingstoke), with electric operation currently possible only between Woking and Basingstoke, but NSE was mooting conversion of the electrical systems from Woking all the way in to London Waterloo, as well as extending west to Salisbury. Intercity decided the time was right to bring forth a new train for CrossCountry, opening up the enhanced network to new destinations with the removal of London express trains from parts of the West Coast Route. Considering the large national spread of the intended network, with a large mesh of electrified and unelectrified areas, a hybrid train, able to use electric power where available would be ideal. It would also eliminate much of the older stock which was becoming a maintenance nightmare for depot workers and reduce overcrowding on many services. Lastly - the train could act as a testbed for many of the new intended technologies aimed at the Pullman-2 train; any issues with reliability would still surely be an improvement on the current poor state of affairs on the CrossCountry network!
Much of the CrossCountry network served regional towns and cities, providing links between many areas of the country which did not have a link to London. Services covered the entire length of Great Britain, overlapping not just other Intercity services, but also many local and urban rail operations, providing services often for communities rather than business travellers who often travelled to or from London. This means that often journeys would be undertaken by families with children, daily journeys to school college and people travelling to see friends and family. Commuters frequently used the services to access regional centres such as Oxford, Sheffield, Edinburgh, Bristol and Birmingham especially (*5). Thus, in many areas of the country, CrossCountry trains were overcrowded and congested - a situation hardly helped by the use of old rolling stock which could often be withdrawn for emergency maintenance with no notice.
Accordingly, it was little surprise when a tender was awarded to GMC (GEC-Metro Cammell) for the construction of a fleet of new Intercity vehicles. The new train advocated by GMC would be a 10 car multiple unit, marking a clean break from the previous locomotive & unpowered multiple unit strategy (*6). Whilst effective in earlier decades, these had subsequently proven more complicated to maintain, with a replicated sets of driving equipment at both ends of the multiple unit and both ends of the locomotive, whilst also concentrating all weight on the locomotive. The prime idea behind the multiple unit - allowing frequent locomotive changes was rapidly declining; stock was usually semi-permanently joined in practise anyway, and the diesel-electric hybrid nature of the new train would eliminate the need for locomotive changes as routes became more electrified anyway.
New lightweight bogies with inside axles bearings were to be used - easily observed since the entire outer wheel is visible (*7) - would be used, whilst the entire train would be sat on articulated bogies, further reducing weight. This was only possible now with a much longer trainset, which allowed the weight to be spread out across the longer length, allowing the fewer axles to carry less weight each, in contrast to the earlier Scotrail hybrid diesel/electric train which only had 3 coaches. The first "coach" of the train, usually at the northern end of the train as it passes through Birmingham, housed the diesel engine; an EMD diesel engine producing just over 2MW of power (*8). Having the diesel engine situated in the end coach avoided any need to allow passenger movements through it (although a cramped passageway was retained for staff (*9) ), but also meant that the higher weight of the engine could be carried on 3 axles instead of just 2. Although all of the rest of the 18 metre coaches followed this engine coach, coaches B and D had underslung fuel tanks in order to spread the weight along the train, whilst coach F contained the main inverter under the carriage body. This would convert the 1.5kV DC either from overhead power or from the diesel engines to three phase AC power, in order to power the new 3-phase asynchronous motors along the train. The outer 3 bogies towards either end of the train were trailers, but the inner 5 sets of bogies would all be powered by the new 425kW motors (*10).
A later Eastern Voyager heads towards Kings Cross; the later darker Intercity livery is evident here.
New body-mounted motors would sit in the bogie area, powering the axles via cardan shafts - this would reduce the unsprung weight on the track (*11), further reducing wear and maintenance requirements over the top of the lighter weight. On electric power, this would result in 4.25MW of power available, however on diesel, the engines would supply only half of that power. Braking would be regenerative whilst on electric power, and rheostatic whilst on diesel power, with resistor banks mounted on the roofs of several coaches, although all bogies had disc brakes also equipped for low-speed and emergency braking.
Trailer Bogie
Motor carriage, with 2MW diesel engine and driving cab
Trailer Bogie
Coach A, with 52 standard class seats
Trailer Bogie
Coach B, with 52 standard class seats and underslung fuel tanks
Motor Bogie
Coach C, with 52 standard class seats
Motor Bogie
Coach D, with 52 standard class seats and underslung fuel tanks
Motor Bogie
Coach E, with 52 standard class seats
Motor Bogie
Coach F, with 52 standard class seats and underslung inverter
Motor Bogie
Coach G, with 9 standard class seats and 2 wheelchair spots, onboard shop area and guard/staff area, room for 6 bicycles.
Trailer Bogie
Coach H, with 36 1st class seats and mounted pantograph overhead
Trailer Bogie
Coach J, with 18 1st class seats and driving cab
Trailer Bogie
This would result in only 54 1st class seats, and 321 standard class seats, reflecting the far lower usage of 1st class seating on these non-London services - in the long run, over 2/3 of passengers turned out to be on non-business/work related matters, vindicating the decision. The Labour administration pressing for new trains at a cheaper price, pushed British Rail in to a lease agreement (*12) rather then outright purchase - the 30 year lease covers non-routine & significant maintenance by GEC, with British Rail covering routine smaller maintenance requirements. The trainset was marketed as the new "Intercity Voyager" train, and was triumphantly announced by the Secretary of State for Transport (amongst other briefs) John Prescott in a ceremony at Birmingham.
The sea wall railway at Dawlish caused issues early on in the Voyager life.
Introduction in 2003 was far from ideal; several units shutdown at Dawlish in rough weather - resistor banks on the tops of the coaches becoming drenched in spray water causing short circuits (*13). Some early units overshot stations when regenerative/rheostatic braking failed to function correctly. Problems transitioning from diesel to electric power and vice versa were semi-frequent. However, within 12-18 months, the vast majority of problems were resolved. Experience after the first 2 years of bug fixing was then good. New stock rolled out and gradually took over from existing trainsets, which were duly sent for scrapping, and a new Birmingham-centred CrossCountry network evolved, with better frequency of service and new destinations transferred from other sectors of British Rail. Within 5 years, passenger usage had risen by almost 2/3 (64%); general feedback on the train seemed rather positive from passengers, although the conversion of the previous buffet and hot-food options in to a shop with sandwiches for sale attracted the most criticism (*14). After 15 years, passenger numbers had risen by over 150%! The nationwide railcard stirred further significant usage of the network, given that Pullman trains were not covered by it, and led to further usage outside of peak windows.
By 2007, the success of the new trainset was evident. Intercity placed an order to replace their locomotive hauled stock in the Eastern Division with the same trains; this meant seeing Voyager trains operating on the East Coast Route out of London Kings Cross where electric power is available as far north as Peterborough, and the Anglian Route from London Liverpool Street to Norwich - although these sets usually operate with empty fuel tanks and the diesel engine disabled for weight and maintenance reasons given that the entire route is electrified (*15). The trains are otherwise the same, and this allows a great deal of flexibility and economics of scale in both maintenance but also crewing with driver certification and staff familiarity with a single train type; the 2007 economic recession eating away significantly at the amount of 1st class travellers, with many opting for standard class instead.
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(*1) With Pullman taking over London services from Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, Nottingham, it takes away many of the Intercity services from the OTL WCML, MML, ECML routes. Newcastle, Edinburgh, Glasgow will also transfer to Pullman soon....
(*2) As written about in an earlier chapter.
(*3) Much as happened in OTL, with Virgin CrossCountry purchasing (Super-)Voyager trains. Sounds a bit familar...
(*4) Same as TGV Sud-Est trains. High speed train, but DC motors.
(*5) OTL Information.
(*6) And the transition from locomotive to multiple unit begins. Once you have diesel/electric hybrid trains, I can't really see the need for loco and unpowered multiple units as has been used by BR in this TL to this point.
(*7) Same as OTL Class 220 bogies.
(*8) Similar to Class 66 locomotive, built at similar time; diesel engine weighs approx 25 tonnes.
(*9) Shades of the OTL APT power cars.
(*10) 425kW motors, same as used on Class 390 Pendolinos, built at roughly same time. 3-phase asynchronous motors also used in Class 373 Eurostar trains from earlier in 1990s.
(*11) Cardan shafts used on Intercity 225 from 1990ish.
(*12) Lease agreement seems far more "New Labour" style then purchase, given the PFI disasters, and was also mentioned in 1992 manifesto.
(*13) As happened in OTL to Voyager units.
(*14) Most of the OTL criticisms of the Voyager units comes from the much shorter length, which is duly addressed here because BR can see the rapid increases in passenger usage in the 1990s.
(*15) Given the singular British Rail rather then the myriad of private train companies in OTL, only seems logical that successful train types will be used in multiple areas to save on development costs.
