Ageing trains mended using recycled parts for final years of service

[whole diary]

[grahame]

From the Saffron Walden Reporter

Ageing trains mended using recycled parts for final years of service

Ageing trains which have ferried commuters between London and the East of England since the 1980s are being retired from service.

Greater Anglia's Class 317s, which remain a familiar sight in west Essex, Hertfordshire and east London, are due to be replaced by Summer 2022.

To save money and the environment, however, the parts from scrapped trains are being used for those still in service.

This means new components are not needed for end-of-life trains, a green approach developed by engineers in Ilford.

A good news story in my view ...

[Surrey 455]

A similar approach was taken for many years with trains on the Isle of Wight.

Not necessarily about trains, but I remember reading about or watching on TV^▸ (Thames Valley, or TeleVision, depending on context) the benefits of 3D printing. One of which being the ability to make a one off spare part for machinery that is no longer manufactured. Does the railway industry do this?

[Electric train]

From the Saffron Walden Reporter

Ageing trains mended using recycled parts for final years of service

Ageing trains which have ferried commuters between London and the East of England since the 1980s are being retired from service.

Greater Anglia's Class 317s, which remain a familiar sight in west Essex, Hertfordshire and east London, are due to be replaced by Summer 2022.

To save money and the environment, however, the parts from scrapped trains are being used for those still in service.

This means new components are not needed for end-of-life trains, a green approach developed by engineers in Ilford.

A good news story in my view ...

Nothing new in this at all.  It has been a historic practice of the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) railways to have "retired" stock stripped of serviceable parts to keep trains in service especially when a class reaches the end of its service

[grahame]

Nothing new in this at all.  It has been a historic practice of the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) railways to have "retired" stock stripped of serviceable parts to keep trains in service especially when a class reaches the end of its service

Happening with High Speed Train (HST^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units))) power cars, isn't it?

Edit: VickiS - Clarifying Acronym

[Electric train]

Nothing new in this at all.  It has been a historic practice of the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) railways to have "retired" stock stripped of serviceable parts to keep trains in service especially when a class reaches the end of its service

Happening with HST^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) power cars, isn't it?

Yes, it happened with steam engines too, a rake of scrappers left in the depot to be 'robbed' to keep the rest in service.

Happens on the fixed infrastructure as well signalling eng and electrification engineers will strip parts from old equipment before its is stripped out and scrapped

[broadgage]

Agree, re-use of parts is sensible for both direct economic reasons and also from the climate change point of view.
Consider the carbon cost of new manufacture compared to the virtually zero carbon cost of reusing an existing part.

And in some cases, new spares might no longer be available.

[Western Pathfinder]

Also helps to keep people in employment. I've never been in favour of throwing away perfectly good usable spares,though with retirement getting that bit closer,I'm starting to think about selling off some of my second hand stock to lighten the load a bit.