SWR refurbishment brings new life to Eastleigh
WORK has started to modernise the 30-year-old Class 442 electric multiple units for use on South Western Railway services between Portsmouth and London.
The five-car ‘Wessex Electrics’ are being fitted with new traction equipment, brakes and interiors at Eastleigh railway works. The £45 million contact with Kiepe Electric UK brings 40 jobs for 18 months.
Also at Eastleigh, Siemens has started to refresh its large Class 444 and ‘450’ EMU fleets, in a £50m project that will bring 150 jobs for a year.
It marks a significant increase in business at the Hampshire site, which is managed by Arlington Fleet Services. It sub-lets sections of the works to other businesses.
Eighteen five-car Angel Trainsowned ‘442s’ are being re-fitted. They have been in storage since coming out of service with Gatwick Express over the past two years. The 90 vehicles were built for services to Weymouth, Southampton and Portsmouth in the late 1980s, but replaced on those routes a decade ago by German-built Siemens stock.
“We could not buy new trains within the timescale required,” said SWR Engineering Director Neil Drury.
“We needed short-term capacity improvements. And the trains have 2+2 seating, which our customers tell us they prefer to the 2+3 format of our blue Class 450 trains for longer journeys.
“We are adding more Standard Class seats than they had before. The traction equipment was fitted second-hand when British Rail built these trains in the 1980s. It was the single most unreliable part of this train, and we have to replace it.”
Kiepe Electric has rented space at Eastleigh because it is close to the
customer. “We are not taking the units far from where they operate. That makes it quicker,” said Kiepe Electric Sales and Commercial Director Paul Woolley.
“It’s an intrusive project, taking the train back to a shell. These vehicles are really quite old. The equipment is obsolete and it doesn’t work particularly well. When we’ve finished, these will effectively look like new trains.”
Old DC motors will be replaced with AC equipment from Kiepe in Dusseldorf. Brakes come from Knorr-Bremse and include regenerative braking. There will be new seats and carpets, at-seat power, WiFi and LED lighting, and accessible toilets for disabled people will also be installed.
In another part of the Eastleigh site, Siemens is beginning refurbishment of its fleet of 172 Class 444 and ‘450’ trains - a total of 733 carriages. It does not have sufficient space at its nearby Northam depot.
Worn carpets will be replaced with new ones by Axminster, and seat covers are being changed. At-seat power points for mobile devices and real-time information displays are being fitted. And First Class passengers will get leather seats and new tables. Five trains at a time will be taken out of service for the work. The Siemens project is due for completion in December.
SWR has committed to refurbish or replace every train, boosting peak capacity into London Waterloo by 30% by December 2020.
For more pictures, including pictures of the interior refit, see: www.railmagazine.com