BRAND NEW TRAIN DESIGNS ARE ENTERING SERVICE IN LARGE NUMBERS. ROGER FORD ASKS, HOW QUICKLY WILL THEY MATCH THE PERFORMANCE OF THIS YEAR’S GOLDEN SPANNER WINNERS?
When this annual review started in January 2005, rolling stock was much easier to categorise. There were the ex-British Rail diesel and electric multiple-units, the new EMUs and DMUs ordered following the 1,064-day hiatus after privatisation, plus inter-city. I also separated out the Pacers and the fast disappearing Mk 1 slam-door stock fleets – with a South West Trains Class 421/8 (you mean a ‘CIG’ - Ed) topping the reliability tables at just over 50,000 miles per five minutes delay (MP5MD).
RAILWAY children
Those attending the Golden Spanners Awards event donated a total of over £2,150 to the Railway Children charity (www.railwaychildren.org.uk)
In November that year, the inaugural Golden Spanners ceremony formalised these categories with awards for ex-BR EMUs and DMUs, New Generation EMUs and DMUs and inter-city. The most reliable fleet in each category won the coveted Golden Spanner while the most improved received Silver.
To provide a yardstick for the new fleets being delivered, I transferred the ex-BR three-phase-drive EMUs to the New G…
