As predicted, total power at the rail will be 4MW, compared with 4.7MW for IC225. This means that the bi-mode will have 2MW electric at one end and 2MW diesel at the other. Where DfT Rail said that the diesel would be used to ‘top up’ the electric traction under the wires, I reckon that the engine will be on load for around 30% of the time between London and Edinburgh – not what I call ‘topping-up’ .

Hitachi intends to buy the diesel engine competitively. I reckon they would be mad to introduce an engine with no record of IC125-type binary driving, switching frequently from full power to idling to full power again. MTU now have 1.1 million running hours with its 4000 Series in re-engineered Class 73 power cars. For me, that makes same again a no-brainer.

In the column there is a new diagram showing all the SET variants and formations. Among other things, this shows, for the first time, where the auxiliary diesel generator will go. This will have the same rating as the 750hp Cummins engines under the Voyagers.   

Won’t that be bad for the weight target? No, because Hitachi has been able to cut back on the capacity, and weight, of the batteries which won’t now have to meet the 90min emergency supply requirement.

Some things that come across my desk immediately trip my ‘bonkers idea’ alert. And one of them was a report by Network Rail saying that Thameslink is to be signalled with ETCS Level 2 plus an Automatic Train Operation (ATO) overlay to get 24 trains/h reliably.

But you shouldn’t judge a strategy by its title. And when I got into the proposal it was clear that the NR signalling team has come up with a neat and flexible way of getting from Key Output Zero to KO2 in 2015, although I suspect that full ATO will require a later KO3.

This is how Network Rail intends to reduce the risk. First, the central core is resignalled conventionally in time for KO1 in December 2011. Also installed, but not operational, is the ETCS Level 2 kit, such as balises and a Radio Block Centre.

The new trains, due to start entering service in 2012, will be fitted with operational ETCS Level 2 (transmission based cab signalling) from the start but, initially, Automatic Train Protection will be provided by conventional AWS and TPWS. ETCS in the new trains will read the magnets and ‘grids’ through a Specific Transmission Module.

Finally, when the new trains take over all services in December 2015 (KO2), ETCS Level 2 is operational. In theory ATO should be available at the same time, but I suspect it may come in a year or so later. You could always run an interim service, say 20 trains/h, until ATO was ready.

By the time you are reading this,  First Capital Connect’s Key Output Zero timetable should have been introduced.

If all has gone to plan it will be the result of some complex train swaps and loans between FCC, Southern and South Eastern, plus the Class 319 fleet being sweated at 95% availability. The column explains what has gone where to fill the gap, more a gaping hole, left by the non delivery of the 23 Class 377 Electrostars on which the KO Zero Timetable was based.

And there was just time before the column went to press to mention the latest  development – weld quality problems with the fabricated beams from which the underfloor kit below the Class 377 is hung. Bombardier told me at Railtex that they were evaluating the welding issue and would probably develop a test and repair specification to minimise the impact on immediate deliveries.

Which brings us to the late-running Class 377/378 contracts with Southern and London Overground. Failing sub-contractors are a convenient excuse, but managing the supply chain has been a vital part of train building for nearly three decades. It was  when Metro-Cammell which first realised that simple ‘train builders’ had become managers of risk as the number and complexity of systems and equipment in the modern train had multiplied. But a significant change since then is that material is now sourced from all over the world.

One of the Class 377/378 problems is interior trim which doesn’t fit. But where Met-Camm could go and sort out its sub-contractors down the road in the West-Midlands, Bombardier is buying trim and fittings from Italy and China.

Supply chain management may be a highly professional business, when it goes wrong, distance multiplies the impact. And now is not a good time for Bombardier to be underperforming.

As you can imagine the prospect of the Government having to set up Diesel Trains Ltd (DTL), its own one-shot instant ROSCO, to fund the 202 Diesel Multiple Units vehicles brought forward as part of the Chancellor’s Fiscal Stimulus package was the subject of much grim mirth.

This centred on the likely rentals, given the way that DfT Rail has been slagging off the rapacious ROSCOs. Apparently, DTL’s rentals will be determined by an independent expert.

So will ‘fair’ rentals be dramatically lower?  Well, probably not, because the idea is to sell on DTL or its assets and leasing agreements, pronto. So if the rentals are not commercially attractive, that is realistic, no one will buy.

And if an acceptable offer is not forthcoming, DTL will remain in Government ownership ‘for the time being’, says DfT Rail.

It’s been a busy few weeks. Just after the March e-Preview was published I had my technical session with Hitachi on Super Express. And what a pleasure it was afterwards to take away a mass of information and write a straightforward technical description. A tonic after all that regulatory stuff

But before I got down to writing there was Brian Perren’s funeral, where his railway friends packed half of the church. For me, a hallmark of a funeral is that the deceased would have enjoyed it and I think that was achieved.

There was more technical self indulgence the following week when on the Tuesday I had a session with Freightliner’s Engineering Director on the new GE PowerHaul diesel loco. And on the Thursday I went back for an update on how Alstom is maintaining the Northern Line fleet at Golders Green Depot.

I reckon that Alstom are way ahead of the rest when it comes to real time monitoring of train performance. Correction, it’s not the monitoring that’s clever, but the way the company turns the data into information. Another technical article to come.    

For my birthday treat the following week we went to Tate Modern and on the way home dropped in to have a look at King’s Place near Kings Cross Station. This is an office development with has two art galleries and a concert hall in the basement. Among the tenants of the office block above is Network Rail.

As we were leaving who should we meet but Bombardier head honcho Colin Walton and a couple of his team. ‘Have you been to see Iain Coucher’ Colin asked after the introductions?  I explained that Mrs F drew the line at sitting in on my railway interviews.

After that it was Railtex, where the mood seemed more positive than I had expected. This time I was disciplined and instead of covering every stand had 20 ‘must visits’ and learned a lot.

Finally, in the week just past the IRSE had another of its excellent seminars, this time on signalling projects. Very informative, with one exception.

When I asked Network Rail’s signalling king to fill out the details on the new ‘modular signalling’, the answer left everyone none the wiser. Nor did a supplementary question help. Still, I’ll keep trying.

So far, the remainder of March and early April are pretty quiet at the moment, except that I’ve been invited to a press dinner with the Network Rail board. We’ve been asked to give warning of any topics we might want to raise. I suppose I might ask if they can explain modular signalling.

Meanwhile, apologies for not running the promised feature on tractive effort curves. I now have much more data on Exhibit A – the PowerHaul loco and its role in Freightliner’s motive power strategy. But I have had to call upon my young brother to help me with my homework on Exhibit B the IEP bi-mode.

That’s all for now, except to say thank you for the unanimous response that the length of last month’s e-Preview was not a pain.   

Roger

Quite.

And finally

Apologies for not providing the further tutorial on traction physics promised for this month. At Railtex I had an update on Freightliner’s new General Electric locomotive which makes one example more exciting. And I have had to ask my young brother to help me with my homework on the IEP bi-mode.

Meanwhile if you are keeping the HLOS 1300 vehicle chart up to date, knock out the 12 DMU vehicles for Chiltern. Adrian Shooter has declared UDI when it comes to rolling stock policy.