Alstom Anxious : Hitachi Hopeful (2)

Good News For the North East

There was dancing in the streets of Newton Aycliffe when it was announced that a brand new train building factory was to be built on a brown field site just outside the town.

The Newton Aycliffe facility was created as a result of the Agility Trains consortium being selected to produce high speed trains for the Intercity Express Programme in 2009. During 2011, Hitachi announced its selection of the site and construction work commenced two years later. The 43,000 m2 (460,000 sq ft) factory, which was officially opened on 3 September 2015, was completed at a cost of £82 million. Initially, the facility only performed assembly, using components that were produced elsewhere to complete trains, and no actual manufacturing operations took place. However, some manufacturing activities have been performed at Newton Aycliffe for later-built trains.

The factory is notable as the source of the 800 series of trains.

Originally, the factory assembled the Class 800 and Class 802 trainsets for the IEP. However, Hitachi subsequently secured further orders, such as to produce Class 385 EMUs for the Edinburgh to Glasgow Improvement Programme, Class 802s for TransPennine Express, and a fleet of 165 vehicles for East Midlands Railway. By 2020, the plant reportedly employed around 700 people, and was engaged in building the Classes 803, 805, 807 and 810 trainsets. 

Bad News For the North East?

All was looking hunky and dory for Hitachi after it secured a share in the project to build the trains or the High Speed 2 line. But as we know, Rishi has scuppered most of that and Keir won't reverse the policy.

Not good news ... BUT!

Faced with the "black hole" in the Government's finances (isn't there always a black hole when a change of government happens?) you do wonder how the lovely Louise (this week's Transport Minister) is going to manage it.

Meanwhile down souh at Derby ...

Alstom looked like joining the Closure Club which, if both "go under" would mean that there would be no train building left in the UK. 

The press are, as expected, full of doom and gloom.

Bad News For Derby?

With the end of production of the Aventras of assorted hues, there is no work for the lads and lasses of Litchurch Lane.

Illustrated above are the Aventras now trundling up and down the Elizabeth Line line in London.

... and there's more.

Good News For Derby - For Now

Hooray! The very nice people at Transport for London have worked out that passenger numbers on the purple lines have grown so much that they need more trains.  Thy need ten more trains.

Presumably the original contract for the main fleet included some complex add-on deal which has now been switched on.

A £370 million should keep things going at Litchurch Lane for a week or so.

Huge sighs of relief.

The North East Awaits

Will the lovely Louise pull the wiggly rabbit train orders out of the government finances empty hat?

The Labour Party might not want to risk losing votes once again from its "red wall" heartland; so expect the bunnies to start gamboling all over Newton Aycliffe in the very near future.

Meanwhile, many pensioners will be shivering this winer.

Thankfully, the fbb's finances, combined with a brand new boiler ...

... will ensure that they manage, despite young Rachel's efforts to ensure otherwise. And the fbbs have got "Hive" - whatever that may be.

 Next Variety blog : Saturday 7th Sept 

Let's Make A Train (3)

Quite A Few Bits Missing?

We have been following the "manufacture" of Anglia Railways' class 720 trains at Litchurch Lane works in Derby. Our slightly unreliable guide has been Gregg (Wow!) Wallace as presenter of the BBC2 series "Inside the Factory".

Yesterday saw the completion of a raw body shell, the aluminium "tube" that constitutes the main structural part of the train. In passing, the programme told us that glazing had been fitted to the bodyside panels.

This, like everything we have seen so far, will have arrived by road from a sub-contractor. Likewise the doors come into the works on the back of a lorry, ready painted and complete with their door-pillar mechanism.

They are plug doors which open to lie outside the side panels of the coach.

When the doors close they "plug" the hole and sit flush with the bodysides. There are complicated mechanics to go wrong, seen below top ...

... and bottom of the "doorpost".

This whole system comes complete and ready to bolt in.

But Gregg did take us to the "Cab Shop" where sidekick presenter Cherry Healey ...

... observed production of the glass reinforces plastic cab.

Layers of glass fibre and gunk are applied by hand to a large mould ...

... very much like making papier mache things at primary school. The mould is baked ...

... and, once done to a turn, out pops an Aventra cab. OK, it need trimming, glazing and painting, but it will be a cab. 

But it also needs testing for structural integrity - ensuring there are no voids - that's thin bits to you and fbb! And how do they test it; what clever sonar visioning equipment is used?

Answer, a 50p piece!

Unless Alstom were kidding Gregg et al ...

... the man taps all over the cab moulding to check for he right-sounding clunk. And you thought these manual jobs had gone from the railway with the demise of the wheel tapper?

Anyway, the finished cab is bolted on to the carriage tube ...

...  complete with interior; which has magically arrived from somewhere ...

... and equally mysteriously manifested itself in place.

Eternally amazed, Gregg is surprised. "Wow, I would have thought that the cab would be made of metal and not plastic!". The Alstom man did not explain further to the jovial presenter.

This, of course, is another piece of misleading presentation.

The "skin" of the cab, the pretty bit, is indeed made of plastic but the underlying structure of the cab is a big strong steel (?) frame designed to protect the driver in the event of impact.

The above picture shows the installation of the wiring looms (delivered to the works on yet another a lorry!) into the cab; but it does also show the very hefty frame (light brown) that constitutes the real cab.

And it is very definitely not plastic.

Soon we see the near complete vehicle being lowered gingerly on to its bogies.

Then we see the completed carriage being wheeled out of the production line and on to a traverser.

This clever bit of kit (Wow!) carries a complete carriage sideways along to the yard where is meets its four chums.

And, abracadabta, we have a complete joined up working train.

Gregg is impressed!

And as a finale, he gets to drive the train along Alstom's works test track.

It is reported that Mr Wallace needed four weeks in a convalescent home to recover from the astronomically high level of excitement (wow factor) that his visit generated.

But we saw no electric motors, no pantograph ...

... an nothing about the high level of technology that keeps train, driver and passengers safe.

Pity.

But Gregg did "help build the train" by tightening one nut to fix one of the air horns in place,

So, having watched the programme, fbb can only come to one conclusion.

Aventra Class 720 trains were NOT manufactured at Derby.

Like the Midland Railway Pullman cars of the 1870s ...

... they are assembled from a very large kit of parts.

Such are the consequences of "the global market", the determination to "drive down costs" and the sad fact that UK Ltd has forgotten completely how to make anything!

Soon after completing the contract, Alstom in Derby were in trouble.

 Alstom and Hitachi blog : Thurs 5th Sept  

Let's Make A Train (2)

 What Does "Make" Mean"?

In the 1870s, The Pullman Car Company of the USA sent kits of parts to the Midland Railway for assembly at the Litchirch Lane Carriage Works. Effectively, the Railway was gluing together a giant Airfix kit, although not plastic!

But the ebullient Gregg Wallace fronted an episode of "Inside The Factory" first broadcast in 2022 and repeated a few days ago.

Mr Wallace "shot to fame" (as they say) presenting a programme called "Veg Talk" on BBC Radio 4. His origins were humble, as a porter and then a salesman at Covent Garden Market but he grew his own fruit and veg business dramatically and then moved into the Restaurant trade

Once upon a time, documentaries on the BBC were well researched, informative and occasionally intellectually challenging.

"Inside the Factory" is none of these. The series verges on the banal, intellectually at Primary School level. Some of the information is revealing and interesting, but the presentation is hardly "highbrow" and rarely even "middlebrow".

"And the wheels fit on the bolster?", mused Gregg with wide eyed amazement. "Wow, I never knew that!". Although Gregg's (mis)understanding was confirmed by the supervisor interviewed, that conclusion is wrong.

The wheels fit on the bogie ...

... and the bogie attaches to the bolster ...

... pivoting on that big peg in the middle.

The "Train" programme begins with the arrival of a very long lorry load.

We were NOT told whence came this vehicle, but a sign on the back ...

... reads "Convoi Exceptioinel" which is the European standard for warning following drivers of a "Long Vehicle". So it is reasonable to assume that these loads did NOT come from the UK!

These IKEA-style "flat packs" of aluminium panels would form the floor pan of the carriage. But first we have to enjoy watching the welding machine doing its stuff.

Once welded, the floor was shot blasted using a terrifying nozzle viewed excitedly by Gregg but without shot! 

Scaree!

This would clean the surface and provide a good "key" for the next stage. Then it was spray painted by hand. Indeed all the body panels were hand sprayed.

The welded floor was then spun upside down, again much to the "Wow" factor from our endearing presenter.

Once upside down ("So the seats are all underneath? Wow!")

Erm, No, Gregg. The seats haven't been fitted yet. If they had, they would have been crushed when the floor panel was turned over!

Here the "bolster" ...

... and lots of other stuff is fitted (but no wheels, Gregg!) and the floor is turned right way up. 

Along comes the roof panel, "assembled in the same way as the floor". The roof is suspended in a jig.

Now the sides have to be fixed.

These are swung into place alongside the roof-gap-floot jig ...

As we watch this side panel swinging, note that the panels are not solid; they are hollow with zigzag aluminium strengthening which makes them much stronger than the old steel panels and, importantly, they weigh only a third of the "traditional" metal construction.

Here is a view of the original delivery, end on.

All the panels are like this.

Nothing was said about how these panels were actually made, which confirms that they were NOT made at Litchurch Lane!

The sides are bolted to roof and floor ...

... using 28 (in the case of this shorter panel) "Huck" bolts. "Huck" is a brand name like Hoover, Google and Sellotape. The generic term would be "self locking bolts".

No, fbb had no idea either - but he has watched a video.

And "swage"?

Swaging is a metal-forming technique in which the metal of one part is deformed to fit around another part by either pressing or hammering, or by forcing the material through a die.

Yep, that matches the Huck Bolt idea. The "nut" (called a "collar") is pushed onto the threaded bolt in such a way that the metal of the collar is forced tight into the screw thread making a permanent immovable seal.

According to the Alstom man on the telly programme, these devices are stronger than a weld, stronger than a rivet and even stronger than Seccotine.

(OK, fbb made that last bit up)

So floor ...

... roof ...

... and sides ... 

... make up a very strong tube of aluminium which is, effectively, the equivalent of the steel chassis of the traditional railway coach.

As yet, no mention of coach ends?

So far, have we come across anything that is actually made in the UK?

More possibilities tomorrow!

 Next Make a Train blog : Weds 4th Sept