Northern temporarily withdraws 22 Class 195/331s

NORTHERN HAS temporarily withdrawn 22 of its CAF Class 195 DMUs and Class 331 EMUs from service following the discovery of failed yaw dampers, which help to reduce the sway of carriages. Inspections of the rest of the fleet have found no other problems and they remain in traffic. This was after a mounting bracket was found to have become detached from the body of coach 102121 of Class 195 DMU 195121, which led to the RSSB issuing an urgent National Incident Report on April 3. Northern said this hadn’t affected services due to the lower utilisation rate because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The failure was discovered during a maintenance exam at Newton Heath Depot. A spokesperson for Northern said: “A fault has been identified on some of the new fleet of trains built by CAF. Northern is now working closely with CAF to determine the cause of the fault and to fix the issue. The units still in passenger service will be regularly checked as part of the ongoing engineering process.”

As the CAF fleets in the UK are built to a similar design, the report states that Classes 195, 196, 331 and 397 could all be affected and will require regular inspection. This will also be the case for locohauled Mk V and Mk Va coaches. However, some experts have questioned the robustness of the T-slots used to attach the damper to the bodyside. Any repair procedure developed will have to be strong and is expected to be a complex process and involve more than welding the affected parts back in place.