CLASSIC TRAINS

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The arrival of Hitachi’s Class 395 on high speed services from the Kent coast proved to be a quantum leap forward for Kent’s rail travelling public, transforming journey times and freeing up capacity on the existing main line network. Ten

years on from introduction, Hitachi’s ‘Mini Shinkansen’ is still the fastest train in domestic service in the United Kingdom, running at speeds of 140mph over sections of the HS1 route,

as Paul Isles recounts.

BRITAIN’SFASTEST

Ten years of Javelin services

The story behind Hitachi’s entry to the United Kingdom railway market with the Class 395 ‘Javelin’ began with Secretary of State for Transport Sir

George Young’s formal announcement on 29 February 1996 that London & Continental Railways (L&CR) had been awarded the contract to build the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL). L&CR had included proposals for combined international and domestic stations at Stratford and Ebbsfleet in its tender document and the idea of providing high speed domestic services on to Medway and East Kent was seen as a catalyst for regeneration of these areas.

After several years of procrastination and doubts over government rail spending, by October 2003 the Strategic Rail Authority had outlined plans for domestic services to Ashford,

Canterbury, Folkestone, Thanet and Medway, with Swale, Dover, Maidstone and Sandwich being added subsequently (in response to local political lobbying), once the Government had given CTRL domestic services the green light on 27 October 2004.

In 2002, Japan’s Hitachi Rail were looking for opportunities to transfer skills and technology to the UK and anticipating that new rolling stock would be required for CTRL, created the V-Train 1 project to test and prove their ‘A’ Train technology on AC and DC supply for the UK rail network. The ‘V’ (for Verification) Train, designated as Class 960/2, was based on adapted Class 310 units Nos. 310109 and 310113, with a Class 423 4-VEP MBSO motor car, No. 62138, added to enable third rail traction. The unusual dark green and black liveried ‘V’ train, operating as unit No. 960201, took

part in testing between January 2004 and March 2005 and the lessons learnt, along with some of the equipment, were incorporated into the production series of the Class 395.

UK Government approval for using the CTRL to run domestic services was grated on 27 October 2004 and on the same day it was announced that Hitachi Rail Europe was the preferred contractor for the new domestic high speed rolling stock, the £250 million contract to construct and deliver 28, six-car, dual-voltage sets, being awarded to Hitachi Rail Europe by the SRA being signed in June.

At this point, high speed services were not due to extend to Dover, the narrow bores of Shakespeare Cliff tunnels being perceived as obstacles to the safety of passengers. With very little space either side of a vehicle for passengers to evacuate in an emergency, the only

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Hitachi ‘Javelin’ Class 395 395013 (named Hornby Visitor Centre on June 8 2019) leads a

12-car formation on the approach to Wye.

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escape route was via end gangways, a feature not present on the streamlined form of the Class 395s. Almost out of the blue, on 29 July 2006, a formal announcement was made that HS1 services would extend to Dover and the order for vehicles was increased to 29 sets, at an increase to the budget of £9 million. Without documentary evidence, it can only be presumed that the recessed sliding doors of the Class 395 allowed for adequate clearance to evacuate passengers once the track through the tunnels was realigned to one side, or at the very least provided the SRA with a valid reason to authorise the route in the

face of sustained lobbying from Dover politicians and businesses.

The design of the Class 395 was influenced by the Japanese 400 Series Shinkansen High Speed Train, the prototype for which Hitachi worked on along with Tokyu Car and Kawasaki, and Hitachi’s own 885 series A-train aluminium railcar system. This had been developed and deployed on high speed routes, as well as commuter and suburban lines. The lightweight, modular design, constructed using friction-stir welding, gave the Class 395 a quiet ride, strong rigidity, improved safety standards and improved air resistance

through tunnels, as well as reducing production times to just eight weeks from start to finish. The CTRL does have sections that are cleared for running at 186mph and while the Class 395 could attain this speed, the gearing ratio has been biased towards quick acceleration, rather than ultimate top speed; the pay-off for having stop-start commuter diagrams beyond Ashford.

On 23 June 2006, a full size mock-up of a DPTS driving trailer in white, black and yellow was revealed at Ashford to illustrate the proposed 2+2 seating arrangement featuring airline, table and tip-up seats, as well as

CLASSIC TRAINS

An overhead view inside Hitachi’s state of the art Ashford facility.

Inside the Hitachi depot at Ashford.

An unidentified Class 395 approaching

Sandwich at speed.

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the driving cab layout. The low-density seating provided for 340 seats to a six-car set, with toilets in the leading and trailing driving trailers, one of which is equipped for disabled access. The cab layout was a completely new concept in the UK, but was received well by the drivers and their feedback on layout was incorporated into the final version, endearing the vehicle design to staff even more.

Construction of the body shells took place at Hitachi’s southern Japanese factory in Kasado and by the end of January 2007 the first unit was ready for wiring and fitting out. The onboard data systems were going to have to cope with signalling systems never previously used on domestic trains and so on 20 February 2007, Hitachi announced that

it had enlisted the consultancy services of French State rail company SNCF to validate and certify the new signalling equipment required to operate over the high-speed CTRL. Four of the Class 395 onboard signalling systems required configuration across the fleet: TVM430 (Transmission Voie Machine), TPWS (Train Protection Warning System), AWS (Automatic Warning System) and KVB (Contrôle Vitesse par Balise – Speed Control by Beacon). TVM430 was used to signal the Channel Tunnel and was also employed on the CTRL for Eurostar services, TPWS and AWS were already in use on the British rail network and the KVB system was fitted to all French TGV trains. Configuration of these systems was undertaken both before the units

left Japan, and again after their eventual arrival in Britain.

The first six-car set, No. 395001, was completed on 9 March 2007 and was sent for extensive acceptance tests and exams over the next few months. Leaving the port of Kobe aboard the MV Tarago in late July, 395001 arrived at Southampton Docks on 23 August after a six week, 10,760 mile voyage and was moved to Hitachi’s new £53 million maintenance facility at Ashford on 30 August for testing to commence on the local railway network during October.

Hitachi’s new Ashford Depot was formally opened on 2 October 2007 by the Secretary of State for Transport, the Rt. Hon. Ruth Kelly MP and the Japanese Ambassador, His Excellency, Mr. Yoshiji Nogami, who were joined by Hitachi Rail System’s London General Manager, Alistair Dormer and Southeastern’s Managing Director, Charles Horton. The facility was built with a five road maintenance shed incorporating a double road bogie and equipment drop pit, as well as a heavy inspection road. Carriage washing plants, a bio-hazard pit for the safe removal of waste, a 25kV test track and a tandem wheel lathe were also constructed at the site, which also has stabling facilities for the Southeastern rolling stock operating locally.

The current Operations Planning Manager at Hitachi’s Ashford Depot, Dave Hamilton, explained how the roads are allocated to inbound Class 395 sets as part of the maintenance rota: “At any given point during Monday to Friday we have 26 of the 29 sets in service and a typical day will see the fifth road occupied by a set undergoing a heavy overhaul, the fourth road occupied by a unit going through its Day 29 Exam and two out of roads one to three occupied by units undergoing their Day 15 Exams.” With two Exams taking place in the depot every day, the modular design of the Class 395 units and the testing tools available within the new depot make working on the units far easier than the old EMU units that worked Kent’s main line, as Dave points out. “It’s easier now to find faults and interrogate data, as we can plug a laptop in and have all of the information to hand that we need to make a decision whether we need to replace parts or not. Many of the components are modular, so we can save time by

Southeastern Set No. 395013 is named Hornby Visitor Centre at Ramsgate Open Day on 8 June..

Hitachi Operations Planning Manager, Dave Hamilton, inside the works at Ashford.

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CLASSIC TRAINS

replacing units, rather than having to strip and rebuild as we used to do.”

Back to 2007, and within three days of testing commencing on the local third rail system, speeds of 100mph were being achieved and when test running commenced on the CTRL on 1st November, No. 395001 managed to achieve full line running speed within ten days. The second set, No. 395002, joined No. 395001 on 20 November and by March 2008, the pair had been joined by two further sets, with shipping of the main production batch beginning in December 2008. The ORR performance acceptance tests of 4,000 miles fault-free running were achieved six months ahead of schedule, allowing a ‘preview’ service between London St. Pancras, Ebbsfleet International and Ashford International stations to commence on 29 June 2009. The final three trains arrived in the UK during August 2009, with the final train being delivered to South Eastern on 11 December 2009, just ahead of the official launch of public HS1 services on 13 December.

The Class 395 fleet, by now known as ‘Javelins’ due to their shape and speed, were to take centre stage in transport plans for London 2012, ferrying spectators into Stratford, home station for the Olympic Park, in under seven minutes from St. Pancras. Just prior to the Olympics, in April 2012, the Javelins were achieving over 50,000 miles per technical failure having been set a target of 30,000 miles and the reliability of the

fleet contributed greatly to the success of the transport system during the Olympic Games. As MD Alistair Dormer put it at the time: “It was an important milestone for us and our first opportunity to fully demonstrate the calibre of our high quality rolling stock that we can offer the UK and Europe.”

The only real problem with the class that was encountered was found to be

vibration increasing during transit through tunnel sections, however the swift fitting of uprated dampers soon cured this, and the ‘Javelins’ have continued serenely in service ever since. Indeed, former Managing Director of Southeastern, Charles Horton, commented: “I’ve worked 25 years in the UK rail industry and this has been the smoothest train introduction I’ve ever experienced.”

The mounted presentation model marking the event.Presentation of the Hornby model of No. 395013 Hornby Visitor Centre is caught on camera by the film crew.

A pre-production render of new Hornby model of ‘Javelin’ No. 395 013 Hornby Visitor Centre. Note, early livery sample may differ slightly to the finished product.

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Pre-production view of the new ‘Javelin’ set, with unmarked dummy power car.

Close up of Hornby’s new model of No. 395013 Hornby Visitor Centre.

So, ten years on, what benefits have the Class 395s brought to Kent? Quicker services, undoubtedly; Dover to St. Pancras now takes 65 minutes, against a former journey of at least 112 minutes, while Ashford journey times are 38 minutes, whereas previously they were 83 minutes. This has, in turn, encouraged an increase in passenger numbers. Canterbury West has seen a 42% increase in passengers since the 2007 winter timetable introduction, Ashford International a 66% increase and Rochester 44%. It is not just about HS1 services either, the rest of the network was able to expand, with 200 extra trains introduced from the start of the 2007 winter timetable (an increase of 5% in capacity), allowing stations like Tunbridge

Wells to gain an extra four trains per hour during the peak period.

In customer surveys, 94% of Kent’s rail travellers have rated their Class 395 service as ‘Very Satisfied’, while 14% of passengers are saying that they now travel more frequently because of HS1 services. Quite simply put, the Class 395s have transformed rail travel in Kent, both directly and indirectly, and long may they continue to do so.

R3813, Southeastern Class 395, Set 395013 Hornby Visitor CentreAlmost ten years to the day after Class 395001 preview services commenced, a ceremony at Southeastern’s Ramsgate Engineering Depot Open Day on Saturday,

8 June officially named Set No. 395013 Hornby Visitor Centre, recognising the value to tourism in Thanet that the attraction provides, as well as marking the return to Margate after an absence of four years.

From launch, the Class 395 ‘Javelins’ have been associated with ‘Britain’s Fastest’, starting with No. 395001 Dame Kelly Holmes and while the early units to No.395011 carried the names of previous British Olympic sporting icons, post-2012, a further 14 units received the names of gold medal winning British athletes, followed by two further units that received remembrance themed names. Hornby Visitor Centre represents a departure in naming convention for the class and Hornby are proud to have been included in this honoured company of names. H