UK’s Southern Railway has completed a major upgrade to its Class 377 fleet in a bid to make it resilient to frost and snow.
The trains’ sensitive electronic equipment will be protected by 1.5t large line inductors, which are components that sit beneath the train and smooth-out spikes from the electric third rail current.
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Southern Railway Selhurst Repair Shop heavy repair manager Justin Lanigan said: “This was a huge campaign and credit must go to the team who completed this work and to other Southern colleagues who provided the units and berthing space to get this done.”
A total of 518 line inductors were removed from 182 of Southern’s Electrostar trains as part of the modifications.
Later on, they were replaced with units that were fitted by Bombardier in Crewe with shields to prevent snow from getting in and shorting out the circuitry.
It took more than 30 months for the repair team at the company’s Selhurst Repair Shop to complete the works.
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By GlobalDataSouthern noted that winter weather conditions have not been as severe since the heavy snowfalls of 2013 that prompted the work. The company claimed that the work will deliver a 50% reduction in inductor failures due to the modification.
Engineering director Gerry McFadden said: “The Class 377 Electrostar fleet is our core EMU on Southern and modifications were made to the vast majority of those trains in time for the cold weather this winter.
“Now the programme is complete, we’re finding much better rates of reliability.”
Image: The heavy repair team at Southern’s Selhurst Repair Shop removed 518 line inductors from all 182 of its Electrostar trains. Photo: © Govia.
