News - New Hitachi Unit on the move!
30 December 2003
The new Hitachi unit has now moved from Derby RTC.At the beginning of December 977977/977978/977979/977980 of the Hitachi / AEA / HSBC unit 960201 left Derby by road and went to Bombardier Ilford depot. It is currently out on test on night time possessions on the First Great Eastern Shenfield - Southminster - Southend route although there have been no sightings of it out and about as yet... keep those cameras at the ready! The first run took place on December 10th 2003. It is expected to move to Kent in the new year to start tests on the DC equipment - running between Faversham and Ramsgate.
The unit is dubbed the "V Train" (for Verification) and is a conversion from former class 310 vehicles. It is to be used by Hitachi for development of its "A Train" for Britain and Europe and basically it will compare the performance of its electronics with the results from simulations in Japan. These tests started in 2001 and were followed by 5 months' work on a dynamic test bed. After this a new transformer, traction motors, wheelsets, rheostatic braking resistors and traction package were fitted to the redundant class 310 vehicles from HSBC Rail.
The project is also supported by AEA Rail (for safety case and train conversion.)
When the train moves to the SR it will have its standard class 310 motor coach exchanged for a Class 423 motor coach - this is 977981 which is still at Derby and is not yet active.
While other companies have used test trains in the past and still delivered new trains late, Hitachi is confident that they will not be repeating this experience again
****UPDATED 27TH JANUARY 2004****
THE UNIT TODAY MOVED FROM ILFORD TO RAMSGATE WITH 977981 NOW IN THE CONSIST. 977979 IS THE COACH THAT REMAINS AT ILFORD.
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