Royal opening for CAF Newport

Although the production of DMUs for Northern and West Midlands Trains has been underway since late 2018, February saw CAF’s train building factory in South Wales officially opened by Prince Charles.

THE CAF factory in Newport, South Wales, was officially opened on February 21, when the Prince of Wales toured the plant, met with employees, and unveiled a pair of commemorative bilingual plaques.

Although the factory has been assembling trains since late 2018, it is now close to current capacity turning out one new vehicle roughly every week. It was built to assemble DMU vehicles, although there is provision to add overhead wiring for EMUs in the future – either new builds or DMU to EMU conversions.

The 15,000m sq factory is on the south side of the South Wales Main Line, east of Newport and just west of the adjacent Tata Steel plant at Llanwern. There are three main buildings running parallel to the mainline: a five-road test shed (roads A-E), a three-road assembly shed (roads F-H), and a stores building. These are connected by a traverser at the Llanwern end, where there is also a separate paint shop and washer (which is used to check for leaks).

Pre-painted bodyshells arrive by road at the Newport end and enter via doors F-H on wheeled stands for assembly to begin. The first stage is to add glass to the windows, followed by all the complex wiring, seats and other interior fitments. The final stage in the assembly shed is to lower the bodies

onto their bogies, which is done at the Llanwern end of road F. The vehicles are then shunted out onto the traverser for a leak test, then moved to the test shed before eventually leaving at the Newport end again.

The test shed can easily hold five four-car trains, which is around

50% more than the assembly shed,

but spare land is available to build further assembly lines if required and consideration is also being given to assembling vehicle bodies rather than bringing them in from other CAF sites in continental Europe. There is also a plan to build a 1.25-mile (2km) test track alongside the main line, which would allow units to get up to speeds around

40mph, although this would run onto land owned by the steelworks, and so CAF needs to work with Tata for this to go ahead.

Current orders at the plant include the last two and three-car Class 195 DMUs for Northern plus two and fourcar Class 196 DMUs for West Midlands Trains. The ‘196s’ differ from the ‘195s’

mainly by having cab-to-cab gangway connections. These will be followed by similar gangway-fitted two and threecar Class 197 DMUs for TfW Rail.

Beyond these current orders, CAF is also bidding to build trains for HS2, while a contract for new Docklands

Light Railway trains could be switched to Newport from elsewhere in Europe.

↑ One of the train wheel-shaped plaques was in English, the other in Welsh. ← The Prince of Wales (right) and CAF’s chief executive officer Andres Arizkorreta reveal the bilingual plaques that officiallymarked the opening of the company’s factory in Newport, SouthWales. The unnumbered Class 195 vehicle behind carried a special dragon motif for the day. All photos on February 21 by Paul Bickerdyke

Inside the five-road test shed, looking from the Llanwern (traverser) end back to the Newport (vehicle exit) end. Each road can comfortably hold a four-car unit.

A view of the three production lines (F, G and H from left) looking from the Newport (bodyshell entry) end to the Llanwern (traverser) end. Class 195/196 DMUs for Northern and West Midlands Trains are at various levels of assembly.

The driver’s desk of a Northern Class 195 DMU showing the centrally-positioned seat.

The finished passenger saloon of a Class 195 DMU destined for use by Northern, looking towards the driving cab (with its door open).

The final stage in the assembly shed is to add the bogies, which is done at the end of road F. This Class 196 driving car has just received its wheels.

↑ The first stage is to add the windows, then the complex wiring process can begin. → There are vast amounts of cabling and harnesses inside every vehicle. This is the gangway-fitted cab of a Class 196 destined for West Midlands Trains.

↑ Bodyshells wait outside the plant to take their turn on the assembly lines and become Class 196 DMUs for West Midlands Trains. → Bodyshells are placed on these wheeled supports through the assembly process.

A view of the CAF plant at the Newport end. New bodyshells go through doors F, G and H on to the assembly lines, while completed vehicles leave from doors A-E. The marquee was a temporary structure for the official opening event and the South Wales Main Line runs parallel behind the trees on the left.

Testing underway inside a Class 195 DMU for Northern. The seats are covered in plastic sheets to protect them from dirt.

Units are shunted out of the assembly shed onto a traverser so they can access the test shed.

The traverser also gives access to this paint shop at the Llanwern end of the plant.