Senior Reporter
Vivarail is repurposing old District Line rolling stock for local and regional rail services. The Engineer took a ride.
Having lived in Whitechapel for the past three years, I’m perhaps more familiar than I’d like to be with the inside of a District Line train. Over the past while, London Underground has been slowly replacing the D78 Stock that has run on the line since the early 80s, upgrading to the air-conditioned S Stock already in operation on the Circle, Hammersmith & City, and Metropolitan Lines.
The new trains are undoubtedly an improvement, with increased comfort and capacity, as well as the ability to walk from one carriage to the next, allowing passengers to move to less crowded cars without exiting on to a platform. Despite this, I’m sure I won’t be the only regular passenger that will feel a twinge of sadness when the D Stock disappears completely next summer. It could be noisy and uncomfortable during rush hour, but hey, welcome to London.
Another reason to mourn the D Stock’s withdrawal is that it’s being replaced 15 years ahead of its intended lifespan, to allow for a uniform and more consistent fleet across the sub-surface part of the Tube network. Knowing that there was still plenty of life in the old dog – and recognising a shortage in supply of diesel multiple units (DMUs) – an experienced team of engineers led by Adrian Shooter set up Vivarail in 2012. Its express goal was to develop D-Train, a new type of rolling stock for regional rail repurposed from old District Line trains. In November 2014, Vivarail signed a contract with London Underground, and in January of this year it took delivery of the first D78 three-car unit.
Since then, Vivarail’s team at Quinton Rail Technology Centre (QRTC) near Stratford upon Avon have been a busy bunch. During a site visit this week, myself and several other guests took a ride on D-Train around QRTC’s 4km test track. The interior was unmistakably that of an old District Line carriage, pleasantly familiar but a little uninspiring. Vivarail will offer the carriages in a number of new configurations for different routes, with clever options for folding-bike storage and slots to hold smartphones and tablets for standing passengers.
The interior of the test track unit hadn’t been fitted out with any of this kit, but this train was there to showcase the core technology rather than the bells and whistles. D-Train has retained the bodyshells, bogies and motors of the District Line stock, but the motors are now powered by underfloor-mounted low-emission diesel engines that incorporate “stop-start” technology. The electro-mechanical control equipment has been completely replaced, and Vivarail says that the new Strukton power units will help D-Train become the first production DMU in the world to recover and re-use braking energy.
Elsewhere, the driver’s cab has been reinforced and will be equipped with the latest technology, and the entire carriage structure has been strengthened to protect against collisions at level crossings – a danger that the D78 stock wasn’t designed for. Despite all this, Vivarail estimates that D-train will offer considerable savings against both existing and new model DMUs, with lower costs across leasing, maintenance and fuel consumption.
Shooter, who has over 40 years experience in the rail industry, told us that the first D-Trains will be ready for fleet service in early 2016, before the old D78 stock is even fully retired from the Tube. It’s an astonishing turnaround, and one that demonstrates how quickly infrastructure can be repurposed with some innovative thinking and an eye for a gap in the market.
If successful, the project might inspire engineers across a range of different fields to explore how other parts of our infrastructure can be recycled and repurposed rather than sent to the scrap heap. Earlier in the week I wrote about the UK’s plans for deep underground storage of high-level nuclear waste. Several of our readers suggested that the waste could in fact be used as fuel in molten salt reactors, providing an energy solution as well as reducing a waste problem. Though the technology has yet to be fully developed, it’s another example of the thinking required in the face of dwindling resources, climate change, and budget cuts. When the diesel runs out, perhaps we’ll even see a nuclear-powered local rail service at some stage down the line.
Good that these old electric tube trains are being re-used rather than being scrapped but a pity they could not be converted to electric battery power and charged inductively possibly at the depot and at station stops rather than being powered by diesel.
Regarding “other parts of our infrastructure that could be saved from the scrap heap and recycled”, there are millions of older cars on our roads today with high mileage petrol and diesel engines that are reaching the end of their economic lives. Due to the advances made in recent years in corrosion protection, the bodywork of many of these vehicles is still in very good condition and because of the annual MOT their suspension, brakes and other mechanical wear parts are quite sound. So why not remove the worn items including the IC engine, exhaust system, catalytic converter, radiator and fuel tank and convert suitable vehicles to electric power? There are companies (including the OEMs?) that given the demand could prototype and supply the conversion kits for particular models and the many thousands of existing motor vehicle service stations around the country could readily undertake the conversion work given the necessary training.
Just think of the job opportunities for UK apprentices and others and the kick start it would give the fledgling UK electric vehicle battery, electric motor and charging system industry and how this would accelerate the take-up of affordable electric vehicles with reduced pollution and improved health for all from the reduction in tailpipe emissions.
….how quickly infrastructure can be repurposed with some innovative thinking….
many years ago, I recall a lecturer at a management ‘school’ located not a million miles from Philadelphia commenting that the real ‘measure’ of a society and its capability to really look after the interests of the vast majority of its citizens was the ratio of ‘horse-power’ that was in the hands of individual citizens and the State. I have thought long and hard about that concept: having posed the hypothesis, I wonder if other bloggers have reached the conclusion I have. Answers on a post-card please: [because if we let the administrators and those who are there to ensure their wishes and interests are paramount get any more…we are surely all done!]
Mike B
…how quickly infrastructure can be re-purposed with some innovative thinking….
many years ago, I recall a lecturer at a management ‘school’ located not a million miles from Philadelphia commenting that the real ‘measure’ of a society and its capability to really look after the interests of the vast majority of its citizens was the ratio of ‘horse-power’ that was in the hands of individual citizens and the State. I have thought long and hard about that concept: having posed the hypothesis, I wonder if other bloggers have reached the conclusion I have. Answers on a post-card please: [because if we let the administrators and those who are there to ensure their wishes and interests are paramount get any more…we are surely all done!]
Mike B
Good to squeeze every moment of useful life from products that are disposed of before EOL. It’s the ‘greenest’ thing that can be done. Much better than building a new vehicle with difficult to mine and process exotic materials.
I recall many (very many!) years ago traveling to Ventnor on the Isle of Wight in an ex Northern line Red Devil tube train. This was before they closed the tunnel into Ventnor because it was too expensive to repair. The view from Ventnor’s station was a superb introduction to the town being a hundred or so feet above seal level so it was a shame they only counted the pennies. Seemingly the Tube trains were the only alternative to Steam locos that could manage the inclines on that stretch of railway.
No offence John, but the IOW underground trains never ran into Ventnor. The line was closed south of Shanklin before it was electrified.
Needless to say, the self-appointed ‘spokespersons’ (PC, moi…?) for the folk destined to be the first users of these trains have poo-poohed the whole idea. ‘London’s reach-me-downs’, etc.
Vivarail know what they are doing and I have a suspicion that once these trains are in service there will be more than a few others saying “we’ll have then if you don’t want them…”
Interesting months lie ahead.
No connection with VivaRail, I hasten to add: 37 in railway service, an observer since ca. 6 years old, and still keeping a watch some four-score on.
A substantial element of our economic strength? is derived from encouraging overseas visitors to gawp at the old buildings, streets,churches, systems, institutions….with which our nation is littered. What an opportunity here for some smart-a**ed PR person, marketing guru, history graduate (even an Engineer) to start tours of scrap-yards, reclamation sites, rubbish tips, refuse collections…steel mills, to show the full extent of the past which we are now capable of re-using!
Why not apply for Lottery Funding?
Best
Mike B
Re JohnK’s comment on the ex-LT trains on the Isle of Wight, I’m afraid they never would have reached Ventnor even if the tunnel had remained open. The ‘juice rail’ never extended beyond Sandown. One of my former colleagues was responsible for modifying the trains from 4th rail to 3rd rail and getting them to the Island. They travelled on the vehicle ferry with a very few inches clearance, and the Island is now on its second generation of ex-LT stock! Must be built to last…. which takes us back to VivaRail,
The ‘juice rail’ went was far as Shanklin! I worked in a hotel, at age 16, in Shanklin in the summer of 1969 and regularly travelled from Ryde, where my brother then lived, to Shanklin.
I wonder if the modern stock being produced today will be robust enough to withstand refurbishment into a second role.
As all 75 D78 stocks that were used on London Underground District Line are to be converted by Vivarail into the brand new British Rail Class 230 DEMU trains. Most of them could be used on Abellio Greater Anglia to replace the Class 153’s and Class 156’s (used on rural lines in Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambs and on the Marks Tey-Sudbury line) to be cascaded to Great Western Railway (GWR) and the Class 170’s to be transferred to either GTR Southern Trains (London Bridge/London Victoria-Oxted & Brighton-Ashford Intl routes) or possibly Transpennine Express or GWR (local lines in Devon and Cornwall). And some of the Class 230’s could be used on London Midland’s Coventry-Nuneaton, Bletchley-Bedford and other local routes in the West Midlands.