The last Class 323 received its new traction equipment on 28 January
Most people expected Regional Railways’ rather small EMU requirement to be met with an extension to the order for Networkers, which being an existing design were bound to be cheaper than starting again. They weren’t, and Regional Railways also realised it could do the job with 3x23-metre long vehicles rather than 4x20m ones, the short length being imposed by the London commuter lines.
Hunslet TPL, famed for defecting from Metro Cammell, got the job and went for GTO thyristor drives supplied by Holec of Ridderkerk in the Netherlands. The trains had their ups and downs but on the whole did well, although the GTO arrangement gave its share of grief. To keep them cool the GTOs were located in a tank full of freon (as found in old fridges) and failed GTO tanks were the No 1 problem in the time I had anything to do with them. The technology was obsolete, other countries had got rid of them and reliability could only go from bad to worse.
ALARM BELLS
On a visit to Siemens in Krefeld when buying the Class 350/2s I caught sight of the company’s planned build programme, which included Class 323 replacement. The fleet size of 129 vehicles still …
