‘Castle’ HSTs To Be Withdrawn By Great Western Railway
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Rail Advent.
This quote from a GWR spokesman, sums up the action that will be taken.
The Castles were always designed to be a temporary measure on the Cardiff to Penzance route. We expect to replace the Castle Class trains on a phased basis over the next couple of years, bringing customers the benefit of more modern trains that will reduce both cost and carbon emissions across the route.
These are my thoughts.
Could The Engines In The Power Cars Be Replaced With Modern Carbon-Neutral Engines?
This would be an alternative way to solve the decarbonisation problem.
It would also mean that other applications of the Class 43 power cars, like ScotRail’s Inter7City trains, Cross Country’s HSTs and Network Rail’s New Measurement Train would have a decarbonisation route,
In Rolls-Royce Releases mtu Rail Engines For Sustainable Fuels, Rolls-Royce mtu outline their route to decarbonise rail engines using sustainable fuels.
This was the first paragraph of my conclusion in the linked article.
Rolls-Royce and Cummins seem to be doing a thoroughly professional job in decarbonising the diesel engines they have made in recent years.
The Class 43 power cars have Rolls-Royce mtu Series 4000 engines, which will soon be available to run on sustainable fuel.
I think as a possible fall-back, one Class 43 power car should be converted to carbon neutral.
Could The Engines In The Power Cars Be Replaced With Modern Hydrogen Engines?
I looked at this in Will We See Class 43 Power Cars Converted To Hydrogen?.
I came to the conclusion, that this might be possible and said this.
It would be the ultimate Roller.
But then Rolls-Royce know about winning battles with large internal combustion engines.
The Option Of New Trains
This quote from a GWR spokesman was fairly definite about new trains, when they said.
The Castles were always designed to be a temporary measure on the Cardiff to Penzance route. We expect to replace the Castle Class trains on a phased basis over the next couple of years, bringing customers the benefit of more modern trains that will reduce both cost and carbon emissions across the route.
What trains could replace the Castles?
- The Cardiff and Penzance route is just short of 250 miles or roughly 400 kilometres.
- Only about 30 miles at the Cardiff end is electrified.
- Trains would need to be able to handle 25 KVAC overhead electrification.
- 125 mph trains will be needed at the Cardiff end.
- Four or five passenger cars will be needed.
- Currently, there are twelve Castles, so I will assume twelve new trains.
As these trains will be lasting up to forty years, they must be zero-carbon, which must mean battery-electric or hydrogen.
Charging Battery-Electric Trains
Consider
- Bristol Temple Meads, Exeter St. Davis and Plymouth are large stations with several platforms. I suspect that a number of Furrer + Frey’s charging stations can be installed along the route.
- The timetable would be adjusted to allow trains to be charged as they stopped to set down and pick up passengers.
- Trains would dwell in the station and then use their 125 mph performance to regain the time.
- I’ve also found a Penzance to Cardiff service, that stopped at Plymouth for fourteen minutes, which is more than enough to charge the batteries.
- Regenerative braking to the batteries would further eke out the range.
- There might also be some extra electrification around Bristol or Exeter.
- Some form of charging would be needed at Penzance.
Note.
- Putting up electrification may mean that it will delay the new trains for a few years.
- Charging stations along the route could probably be installed to a tight timetable.
I believe that with some top-class work, by battery and charger manufacturers, that a battery-electric train could be developed that could run between Cardiff and Penzance.
Thoughts On Hydrogen
Consider.
- The Alstom Coradia iLint train has a range of about 1,000 km. on hydrogen.
- Companies like Airbus, Boeing and a host of rocket makers will improve the storage and safety of hydrogen.
- A range of a 1,000 km. would allow refuelling at one end of the route.
- Trains could be multiple units or a hydrogen-electric locomotive pulling a rake of coaches with a driving van trailer.
I feel that hydrogen would be very feasible as a power source.
Alstom Could Offer A Hydrogen Aventra
Consider.
- Alstom are developing a hydrogen-powered Aventra.
- Bombardier were offering a 125 mph Aventra.
- A typical Aventra like a Class 720 train seats a hundred passengers a car.
A hydrogen Aventra would be feasible.
Hitachi Could Offer A Battery-Electric Or Hybrid AT-300
In 2021, in Hitachi And Eversholt Rail To Develop GWR Intercity Battery Hybrid Train – Offering Fuel Savings Of More Than 20%, I wrote about the announcement of the Hitachi Intercity Tri-Mode Battery Hybrid Train, which is shown in this Hitachi infographic.
Note.
- Batteries replacing an engine to cut fuel usage and reduce carbon emissions.
- First time a modern UK intercity train, in passenger service, will use alternative fuel.
- These Hitachi trains use mtu engines, so I suspect they will be switched to sustainable fuel like HVO.
- The trains are 125 mph and 140 mph with the latest digital signalling.
- Great Western Railway already have 58 five-car Class 800/802 trains and 35 nine-car 800/802 trains.
- They would not need any changing stations or other infrastructure changes.
- Staff retraining would be minimal.
Testing of the prototype of these trains must be getting very close or even underway.
Stadler Could Offer A Battery-Electric Flirt Akku
Consider
- Stadler have run a Flirt Akku on batteries for 243 km.
- Flirt Akkus will go into service soon.
- Flirts have been designed for 125 mph running.
With charging at Cardiff, Bristol, Exeter, Plymouth and Penzance, I believe a Flirt Akku could handle the route.
Are Hitachi Home And Hosed?
I have a feeling that the announcement has been made about retiring the Castles as the prototype Hitachi Intercity Tri-Mode Battery Hybrid Train is under test and is performing well.
So I wouldn’t be surprised to see an order for twelve more Class 802 trains soon.
The Anonymous Widower 
There crashing the service and redeploying 5 car IETs. Much as i like the HSTs the smarter thing from the start would have been to have a decent production run of IETs so all operators that work diesels under the wires could at least go bi mode.
Comment by Nicholas Lewis | November 27, 2022 |
Sense would have seen TransPennine having an all Hitachi fleet, but I suspect there wasn’t the production capacity to build them on the one hand or the money in First Group to buy them.
The Hitachi trains are not perfect, but they’re very much better than the dreaded Pendolinos.
I came back from Doncaster recently in a 225 and they may be old, but they’re OK.
Comment by AnonW | November 28, 2022 |
Flirts with their many doors and level boarding would do wonders for that route. It’s basically three commuter sections separated by long fast runs, then the Cornwall tourism crowd (eg. loads of luggage and pushchairs) at the end. But I suppose practical concerns mean we’ll get more IETs instead.
Comment by Neil | November 29, 2022 |
Railfuture Wales reports that these will be withdrawn by the end of the year, though there’s no mention of what will replace them.
Comment by Peter Robins | March 19, 2023 |
In this post, I lay out why I’m convinced that Hitachi and their partner Hyperdrive Innovation are developing a High Speed Train, with a range of at least a 100 miles on batteries at an average speed of 100 mph.
Hyperdrive’s parent is a company called Turntide Technologies and they have an interesting video on their home page.
https://turntide.com/
It features Lorna McDonald, who is Hitachi’s Program for battery-electric trains. Listen to what she says.
I feel that the HST’s could be replaced with five-car Class 802 trains with short-lengths of electrification or chargers at Penzance, Plymouth, Exeter, Taunton and a few other places.
Suppose a station sat in the middle of a few miles of electrification. A train needing to do a stop and have a drink of electricity, would stop in the station and raise the pantograph. After charging the batteries, it would move on, dropping the pantograph before the end of the electrification.
Remember those Hitachis have pantographs, that go up and down as smoothly as a whore’s drawers.
Comment by AnonW | March 19, 2023 |
You don’t need HS trains on that Cardiff-SW run. Most of it is max 100mph. I expect they’ll use some of their existing diesel stock for the time being, but the DfT have asked them to come up with a plan for replacing the diesels, so I await with interest what that will come up with.
Comment by Peter Robins | March 19, 2023 |
If you look at Cardiff-SW, Basingstoke-Exeter, Chiltern, Borders, Stirling-Inverness, Thornton-Aberdeen, Settle-Carlisle, Uckfield/Marshlink and several other routes, they all need a train with the following specification.
100 mph
Four/five cars
Battery range of 100 miles at 100 mph.
25 KVAC and 750 VDC electrification as required.
Hitachi Class 385s would handle these with batteries.
Five car battery-electric Class 80Xs would use similar technology, as both trains are from the AT-300. This would decarbonise Avanti, GWR, EMR, LNER and SWR.
As to freight, that will be left to Stadler and Cummins, with hydrogen-electric bi-modes. I wrote about what I envisage their plan is in.
Comment by AnonW | March 19, 2023 |
atm, Hitachi are only offering 90km range on their regional battery trains, which will cover most English routes, but not the full SW line. The Flirt Akku is now offering 150km, which is close enough. These ranges are quite likely to increase by the time any orders are fulfilled. IMO operators should start on the short routes, and then see how the tech looks in 5-10 years time to tackle the longer ones. The Scots are still planning on electrifying the lines the Aberdeen and Inverness.
Comment by Peter Robins | March 19, 2023 |
Basingstoke and Salisbury is around 35 miles and Salisbury and Exeter is around 90 miles, so both sections would be capable of being run by a battery-electric train, with charging at Salisbury.
I can just see the reaction from the Health and Safety idiots at the ORR if Network Rail asked for a dispensation to put in say five miles of third-rail electrification.
Five miles of overhead electrification would work, but could be very expensive and they’d probably have to fight the Heritage Taliban, as the station is Grade II Listed.
There’s also fourteen stops between Basingstoke and Exeter, which will all need power as regenerative braking won’t hoover up all the braking energy.
So is this why First Group bought Vivarail’s charging technology?
Alternatively, they could put sufficient batteries in each car, so they wouldn’t need a recharge. I reckon that would be something like 427 kWh per car.
Comment by AnonW | March 19, 2023 |
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It seems that the story of the HST may not be over. It looks as though they may have a future in ……Mexico.
https://www.railtech.com/all/2023/08/29/british-high-speed-trains-set-for-mexico/
Comment by fammorris | August 29, 2023 |
I’ve not been down that way recently, but GWR are still using some, right? Also AFAIK both Scotrail and CrossCountry still have some. These things are taking a long time to die.
Comment by Peter Robins | August 30, 2023 |
A future for the HST?
https://www.railtech.com/all/2023/08/29/british-high-speed-trains-set-for-mexico/
Comment by fammorris | August 29, 2023 |
It seems GWR are planning on taking over TfW’s 175s to replace their HSTs. None of the existing operators are going to be ordering new trains, as they won’t be operating their franchise for much longer. So it’s more reshuffling of the existing pack, until GBR decides on a decarbisation strategy.
I was on GWR’s HSTs quite a bit earlier in the year. They are still comfortable to ride in, but the engines are very noisy, and the exhaust is awful. It’s nearly 50 years now since they were new. I thought they were great back then, when I was working in S Wales.
Comment by Peter Robins | November 16, 2024 |
I think the only way to keep them running would be for Ricardo to convert the power cars to hydrogen.
But it looks like they’ve got the technology.
https://anonw.com/2024/11/16/ricardos-hydrogen-fuel-cell-module-celebrates-key-milestone-to-successfully-generating-power/
Network Rail still have the problem of what to do with the Flying Banana! I talked to one of the crew once, and he said, that two trains might be needed in future.
Comment by AnonW | November 16, 2024 |