The Anonymous Widower

A Class 345 Train Passing Stratford Station

I took these pictures of a Class 345 train, as it passed through Stratford station.

The pictures were taken from the pedestrian bridge that connects Eastfield to the station.

Note.

1. Pantographs on cars two and six.
2. Both pantographs are up.
3. The rounded ends of each car.
4. The generally smooth roof.

Points 3. and 4. are probably there to improve the aerodynamics.

I found this snippet on the Internet which gives the formation of the new Class 345 trains.

When operating as nine-car trains, the Class 345 trains will have two Driving Motor Standard Opens (DMSO), two Pantograph Motor Standard Opens (PMSO), four Motor Standard Opens (MSO) and one Trailer Standard Open (TSO). They will be formed as DMSO+PMSO+MSO+MSO+TSO+MSO+MSO+PMSO+DMSO.

So as both PMSO cars are there, I would assume that the current seven-car trains are two MSO cars short of a full-train.

The power cars/total cars ratio will be as follow.

• Seven-car train – 0.86
• Nine-car train – 0.89

Could this mean that the full nine-car trains will accelerate faster?

I suspect Bombardier know a lot about passenger behaviour in walk-through trains running in the UK and London in particular, as London Underground’s S Stock and London Overground’s Class 378 trains have similar layouts, with all and eighty percent of the cars powered respectively.

If passengers even themselves out between the cars and most cars are powered, this must surely help the dynamics of the train.

Passengers too, probably have a better ride if they are spread out along the train.

It will be interesting to ride in a full train between Shenfield and London, to see how the Self Loading Cargo behaves.

May 18, 2017 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Class 345 Train, Crossrail, Trains