Posting this here on behalf of a colleague, would be very grateful if you could take a few minutes to your time to read it:


Any information that you have would be well received by us, and also this is a request for all FGW Passengers/Customers/Train Crew to keep an eye out whilst travelling/on duty and report anything suspicious immediately to the BTP^▸ (British Transport Police) (Although I appreciate for most this will probably go without saying!)

Many thanks,

Tom
FGW Maintenance Engineer
SPM T&RSMD, Best in the West!

Oh, and sorry for the DP, but:

Another 3-car has been reformed today. 158951 has regained its now repaired 3rd vehicle and should have left SPM^▸ (St Philip's Marsh (Bristol depot)) this afternoon.

Leaves only one 'odd' 158 vehicle IIRC^▸ (if I recall/remember/read correctly), which is awaiting materials.

143612 stopped for an engine change, 150246 stopped with an enonmous list of deferred Door faults (and various other minor bookings) that were on concession which has now expried. 142 awaiting materials. Part from Bxs, that is our only signicicant stoppers so far this week.

As will said, it will probably be a change of operational practices rather than a physical modification to the units, unless they choose to fit them with Local door controls when they are refurb'ed/refreshed (as they did previously on the 150s). Depends how tehnically challanging it is.

Due to vandalism/excessive weight being put on them which bends the stops. Should be rectified on the sets next C/D exam.

That would have been an ex-MML^» (Midland Main Line. - about) 'Project Rio' 408** buffet car.

Combination of the two IMO^▸ (in my opinion).

No depot (or exam/maintenance regime for that matter!) is perfect , but SPM^▸ (St Philip's Marsh (Bristol depot)) are pretty much 'on it' in terms of maintaining the west fleet, especially in areas of fault finding/repair and also 'Level 5' work such as engine/transmission/wheel set changes. All of the new staff who were recruited to do overnight B exams are settling in nicely and although there are still lots of irritating corporate/political hurdles to get over, the exams are being done and the fleet is being kept together. Issues and trends are being identified and action is constantly being taken to tackle repeat failures with fleet campaigns. We also did our first full 'in house' Bogie change the other week, which was a great success. There as been talk and planning towards bringing all West fleet C4/C6 overhaul work on the DMUs^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit) in house, but with the electrification announcement, plans and priorities may well have changed.

I look at it this way, when the Shed is empty in the morning with 1 or 2 units knocking around for As/FPXs or C4 work and we struggle to find jobs for the shift to do, we are doing our job properly. If the shed is packed to the rafters with units and people are running around like headless chickens trying to clear the backlog of jobs, something is very wrong! EX is also staying on top of its Donkey fleet (142/143) and since the allocation re-shuffle of units, ie. 143s swapped for the 150s and their MPC^▸ (Miles Per Casualty) is staying High.

However, despite our relatively good availability of late, some still mange to slip through the net occasionally, often due to either an oversight or by the mounting pressure of maintaining fleet availability, causing referrals of non-safety critical work. Last week i carried out an engine Half-Life (250k Miles) exam on a 153, which was....50,000 miles overdue!!!!!! The poor thing was rough to say the least, and whilst not safety critical, the engine is obviously a vital component that can be costly in terms of fuel/oil/coolant consumption, plus keeping time and the increased potential for failure. After half a days TLC^▸ (three letter code ) she was running sweat as a nut again, with a full top end/tappet set-up, brand new Injectors, Water Pump, Compressor Head etc, good for another 200K miles before its change-out time.

We do seem to go through 'duffy' batches of re-manufactured units that have suffer from the same problems. For example, the Cummins NT855 R1 (158) or R5 (153/150) engines are re-manufactured by LH Group, who are usually pretty spot on with workmanship but often seem to be let down by using what would appear to be inferior/badly manufactured aftermarket components. We have done employee exchange programmes with LH Group in the past, to show each companies employees what happens on the opposite end of the component life cycle and the work involved. Also, at the end of last year, a big Apprentice exchange program was being set up between FGW and LH although this has unfortunately been knocked on the head for the time being by LH due to the current financial pressures.

Over the past 6 months we have had a massive amount of top-end related running problems due to pitted camshafts. On examination, it would appear from a simple visual inspection of the failed camshafts that the failed shafts are all very similar in appearance caused by what looks like incorrect/insufficient processing of the metal during production. Whether this is because of scrimping is yet to be seen, but i suspect that it is.

Dependant on the circumstances surrounding the failure (after joint investigations), these defective parts are replaced as part of the product warranty from LH, especially if there is a known/recurring problem and repairs will be made by their (or LH approved) technicians, however you still have the initial failure and then the resulting downtime of the vehicle, plus the additional manpower/overheads/consumables etc and of course on the Ops side, the dreaded Impact minutes!!!!!!! It all gets reclaimed in one way or another financially through claims and counter claims, but that doesn't stop the public seeing the effects by a 2-car 158/9 rolling in as the 3rd car is stranded on depot waiting for LH to attend.

I would like to emphasise though that while i have used LH Group in this example, the same situation occurs with all the other over-haulers/suppliers, such as Wabtec/Voith/Cummins etc.

It is alot more complicated and engorsed than most people would think..........!

Wo do try our best! 

Its easy, trip out & in the PACB (Comms CB on 143s)

Or just navigate through the Menu on the Auto Announcera and Stop the announcment (if you can see the screen, as most have been vandalised by idiotic TRAIN CREW!  )

Several Hybid 158s are currently missing centre cars, due to an unusual amount of engine related problems last wseek, including 2 total seizures!

As has been said, the initial Refresh sets had a long housing to house the domestic power sockets, however they were easily bent by people using them as foot rests/kicking/vandalising them.

Subesquently the housing were shortand however they are still vandalised by mindless/idiotic people, and you can hardly blame FGW for that. They are checked as part of the exam scheduale, and the fault may well have been booked on a minor exam and be awaiting rectification on a more major exam.

Ermmm.......

The TPWS brake demand timeout is actually 60 seconds +/- 3 seconds.

Incorrect about the presence of the guard aswell or the annoncment of a safety system activation broadcasting on the PA^▸ (Public Address)! No idea were you have got this stuff from!!!

Yes, they have also changed the way the staff upgrade system is structured.

'Flush inhibit mod'.

AFAIK^▸ (as far as I know), two sets modded and been running around since beginning of this year on a 6 month trial at the moment to evaluate effectiveness and reliability.

Sorry II, it seeems we posted replies at the same time! 

It is called a 'wet bed'.

It occurs due to 'voiding' when the ballast underneath a sleeper settles or is eroded and thus is no longer providing vertical support to the sleeper.

At this stage if the draininage is not good, water will tend to lie in the ballast and with the attition of concrete sleepers against the ballast, you get the white slurry, which is predominantly powdered concrete.

The clogging of the ballast with concrete dust will itself then cause damage to the adjoining ballast and will breakdown the natural drainage.

Nothing too serious, but not a desirable conditon for track to be in. It will probably be sorted when the area is patrolled again.