First Great Eastern 4-car EMU number 315 834 has arrived at Shenfield station on 26 March 2004 as the rear half of an 8-car working from London Liverpool Street. The "First" logo has been covered up ready for the transfer of the franchise to the National Express Group.
315 units 801 to 841 inclusive were originally built with Brush Traction propulsion equipment. As part of a reliability improvement programme these units are to be equipped with Replacement Traction Control Electronics supplied by Alstom at Preston. Despite the control electronics, which was designed by myself, being effectively identical to that successfully running for many years in Hong Kong (see photo), it was necessary to spend a lot of time and effort gaining approval for its operation in the UK. 315 834 was the first conversion and was used for the testing process during the summer of 2003, since when it has been running successfully in revenue-earning service.
Over the next couple of years, all Brush and GEC Class 315 were converted, then the similar Class 314 were also converted.
- Created on
- Friday 26 March 2004
- Posted on
- Saturday 31 August 2019
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