Class 458

JCogman · Post by **JCogman** » Mon May 10, 2004 8:13 am

will anyone be creating the class 458 in south west trains livery?.

47522 · Post by **47522** » Mon May 10, 2004 3:21 pm

** points in Buffy's direction**

pepsipowell · Post by **pepsipowell** » Mon May 10, 2004 3:28 pm

Unfortunately Buffy's Juniper TSM model is corrupt, so this is not possible (otherwise I would have finished it months ago), unless an entirely new model is built...

Jonathan

buffy500 · Post by **buffy500** » Thu May 13, 2004 8:56 am

I imagine that if I looked hard enough at it, I might find a part finished version which was usable.
I will look into it.

arabiandisco · Post by **arabiandisco** » Thu May 13, 2004 8:59 am

can you give it an eng file that makes it fail after 5 minutes? or you get to the first stop and the the doors don't work? The quest for ultimate realism

buffy500 · Post by **buffy500** » Thu May 13, 2004 10:35 am

richardpratt · Post by **richardpratt** » Thu May 13, 2004 12:00 pm

To be honest, unless you want it as an historic train there is no point creating a Class 458, because South West Trains are withdrawing them at the end of the year.

buffy500 · Post by **buffy500** » Thu May 13, 2004 12:08 pm

I doubt very much they are headed for the scrap yard though are they ?

arabiandisco · Post by **arabiandisco** » Thu May 13, 2004 12:32 pm

I would doubt that they'll just bin some new, safety compliant trains. But SWT has had such a hard time making them go properly, that I don't know who else would take them on. I've heard rumours about GatEx, or even converting them to AC and sending them to scotland where they seem to be able to make junipers work better. But they're only rumours. Perhaps they'll be adapted for the East London Line extension or something...

JCogman · Post by **JCogman** » Thu May 13, 2004 1:19 pm

i've been on a 458 from richmond-waterloo, a couple of times, and the trains seem fine. it always got to waterloo without failing and the doors worked fine.

richardpratt · Post by **richardpratt** » Thu May 13, 2004 1:27 pm

Yeah, they are good trains, seems weird they are removing them

arabiandisco · Post by **arabiandisco** » Thu May 13, 2004 1:28 pm

I was being facetious. Though a guy in my office told me of one time when they were doing Aldershot - Guildford (Ascot - Guildford is a popular haunt for a 458) where they had such trouble with the doors at Ash that they abandoned the stop at Wanborough alltogether! I've had a fair number of rides on them, and they've never failed on me either, but they must have got the reputation from somewhere!

petermakosch · Post by **petermakosch** » Thu May 13, 2004 1:33 pm

I just think they look strange. Not like any other train really.

buffy500 · Post by **buffy500** » Thu May 13, 2004 2:43 pm

arabiandisco wrote:I would doubt that they'll just bin some new, safety compliant trains. But SWT has had such a hard time making them go properly, that I don't know who else would take them on. I've heard rumours about GatEx, or even converting them to AC and sending them to scotland where they seem to be able to make junipers work better. But they're only rumours. Perhaps they'll be adapted for the East London Line extension or something...

I *think* that GeX and SPT have been ruled out, but who knows what the SRA will decide.
I know that since the announcement of them being returned the reliability has increased a lot. I think its not too unfair to say that there is a certain amount SWT "wanting" then to fail.
I imagine that a few other TOCs could make them work ok.

arabiandisco · Post by **arabiandisco** » Thu May 13, 2004 2:53 pm

maybe a bit of that, they have gone and bought desiros now, so they don't want to be embarrassed by 458s actually turning out better than what siemens can manage. Though I think they're getting about 20000mpc from a 450, and more like 3000mpc from a juniper. Though if they're improving that's probably out of date...

I daresay that since they have Northam to look after desiros, complete with siemens staff and so on, they're getting better care than they could do at Wimbledon with the guys who are used to the somewhat simpler mk1 and 455 stock!

I'm sure that if SET or SCT (or even silverlink or merseyrail) wanted to they could make 458s go a lot better than SWT have. GatEx have proved that junipers can do a bit better than the 458s have, as have SPT. Though GatEx still keep some 73s cos the 460s aren't quite onto the flat bit of the bathtub curve...