And more challenges for Alstom Aventras too
Since the bi-mode conversion of the Class 319 – now Class 769 – was announced, my colleague over the page in‘Pan Up’ has made Winnie the Pooh’s Eeyore seem like Little Orphan Annie singing‘Tomorrow’. And while the claim that they would never turn a wheel in passenger service has been confounded, there is turning a wheel and turning a wheel.
That the first Reporting Period for the new railway year showed Northern’s eight four-car units recording 31 Technical Incidents (TINs) in 31,500 miles was bad enough. But two days into the next Period, on 30 April, No 769434 caused electronic havoc when it arrived at Manchester Oxford Road station.
Running under 25kV AC electric power, what is believed to be component failure in the traction equipment generated high levels of electrical interference. Phenomena observed as the unit arrived at the station included buzzing on the public address system and CCTV not working, with screens going blank.
WRONG-SIDE
Most serious of all were multiple wrong-side failures of reed-type track circuits. This type of track circuit depends on detecting specific frequencies and such interference, effectively‘white noise’, contains a broad sp…
