WI/PC. An Electric version of the Class 43 (Inter City 125)

WILDGEESE

Gone Fishin'
For all you train buffs out there.

Despite being around since the mid 70's the Class 43 power cars ( Inter City 125) are only now slowly being retired and with a lick of paint I personally think they still look the business even today.

I was thinking.

Was there any serious attempt to create an electric powered version using the same body shell and running gear to run on UK electric lines?

And if so, how well would they work and would they be able to be sold to other oversea's rail networks in the same way as the Class 43 was built for Australia?

Regards filers
 
I think the closest would have been the Badger, the class 89 but eventually they went for the Class 90 instead. Meanwhile the APT debacle morphed into the Class 91 and so the need for a high speed electric train was filled at that point.
I think though that the HSTs strength was its diesel engine which meant that it could do the western route and the ECML before electrification.
 
The APT morphed in to the much sucessful X2000 Swedish EMU which like the HST has a seperate power car, so perhaps they could be descrabed as an electric tilting (though not the power car) HST.
 

Devvy

Donor
For all you train buffs out there.

Despite being around since the mid 70's the Class 43 power cars ( Inter City 125) are only now slowly being retired and with a lick of paint I personally think they still look the business even today.

I was thinking.

Was there any serious attempt to create an electric powered version using the same body shell and running gear to run on UK electric lines?

And if so, how well would they work and would they be able to be sold to other oversea's rail networks in the same way as the Class 43 was built for Australia?

Regards filers

Warning; brain dump incoming....

Kind of; look at the Intercity 225.

Basically, the APT came first. It was to be a revolutionary design; 2 central power cars with motors in the middle, flanked on either side by a rake of coaches and a driving van trailer (to non-rail buffs, this is just a coach with a drivers cab and no motors in it - it remotely controls the motors/engines elsewhere on the train). There were a host of other new and modern technologies that were being implemented for the first time in a new train, and the result was a train that was amazing in principle, but was beset by issues and as such the popularity of the train dropped rapidly before it was dropped as a project.

While the APT was in development, some BR engineers were sceptical of the new design and team behind it (it had significant input from non-train engineers as a fresh set of eyes), and went for a updated but "traditional" approach; a rake of coaches, with a massive engine and drivers cab on either end. This then became the Intercity 125.

After the APT was cancelled, the East Coast Main Line was modernised and electrified, which called for a new electric train. The result was a meld of some of the APT technologies, which were now better understood and engineered, and the successful Intercity 125.

So, the electric version of the Intercity 125 can be either the (cancelled) APT, the (successful) Intercity 225, or some of the post-privatisation trains such as the Meridian (ie. Class 222) depending on how you see things. Alternatively, the Class 90 electric locomotive, with a driving van trailer at the other end, actually hauls almost the same coaching stock as the Intercity 125, so you could call that an "electric 125", although it only has an engine at one end.

A bigger problem then making a different/new electric version of the Intercity 125, is finding the route to run it on; electrification of rail routes in GB happens slower then snail's pace.
 
Was there any serious attempt to create an electric powered version using the same body shell and running gear to run on UK electric lines?
I've heard rumours of a 'Class 88' electric locomotive that would have been an electric version of the HST power car, but never actually seen anything definite. As Devvy says, the Class 90 more or less filled this role - actually, the Class 87 did, and the Class 90 was an improved Class 87.

Give the Class 87 or 90 an HST-like bodyshell, gear it for 125 mph, and have the Mark 3 DVT match the Class 43 nose profile, and you're done. Giving it a point, though, requires much more main line electrification. To be fair, the British rail industry had been crying out for electrification for about fifty years at that point.
 
Top