Abandoned Eurostar

[dave182]

Not quite continental modelling, but just came across this video on YouTube of an abandoned original Eurostar set, sitting in a siding and vandalized and graffitied. Just wondering if anyone knows the location, and how this set ended up here. Is it going into preservation, or refurbishment or something? I thought they were all to be scrapped.

 

[jhb171achill]

Obscene waste of money.

[Broithe]

In most of the videos, etc., people sound Belgian, but hint at the location being in Northern France - nobody seems keen on revealing exactly where.

[Garfield]

28 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

Obscene waste of money.

I wouldn’t say that, JB. The Eurostar units have been around since 1994-ish and they’ve operated an intense schedule of services since then, with a hefty amount of mileage clocked up in the process - which is finally catching up with them...

 

[Warbonnet]

A number of them are currently being scrapped at Kingsbury, while a few are being refurbed to work alongside the new Siemens Valero sets.

As Patrick said, they’ve been intensively used at very high speeds and are worn out. They were also incredibly complex (ran off three voltage systems IIRC) including 750 DC third rail which is no longer required due to HS1.

i remember the fanfare around them when new, hard to believe so many years have passed.

There were a few shorter sets in use internally in France (the former GNER sets) which were stored a few years ago. The above might be one?

[Broithe]

25 minutes ago, Warbonnet said:

i remember the fanfare around them when new, hard to believe so many years have passed.

There was a lot of trumpet-blowing at the time - some of us can remember when it was going to be possible to go from Stafford to Avignon on a Saturday, and have about three hours there before coming back. It got as far as printed timetables before it was abandoned.

[jhb171achill]

Are they around that long? Suppose so.....

Well, an A class or a 141 can quite happily rattle along for fifty years, so I know which I'm voting for......!

Steam engines, even just adequately looked after, will give more than a century of good work.....

[Noel]

Expansion of low cost air travel possibly also a factor. 

[irishmail]

7 hours ago, Broithe said:

There was a lot of trumpet-blowing at the time - some of us can remember when it was going to be possible to go from Stafford to Avignon on a Saturday, and have about three hours there before coming back. It got as far as printed timetables before it was abandoned.

Even a servicing facillatiy being built at Longsight (Manchester) for the eurostar sets.  Would have been good if the proposals for the north of London Eurostar's took off along with the planned overnight trains, but I think the advent of the low-cost airlines at the time put paid to that.

[roxyguy]

I know these have seen mileage but I always despair when I see stuff like this. The amount of resources, technology, research and material that went into building such a thing and now is all but worthless.

In fairness 20 years or more is decent, I'm just speaking generally about the wasteful approach we see everywhere. What winds up on the scrap heap or in landfill is really frightening. 

 

 

[Broithe]

1 hour ago, irishmail said:

Even a servicing facillatiy being built at Longsight (Manchester) for the eurostar sets.  Would have been good if the proposals for the north of London Eurostar's took off along with the planned overnight trains, but I think the advent of the low-cost airlines at the time put paid to that.

There's a clue in the phrase "north of London"...

[minister_for_hardship]

In days gone by, old stock would be cascaded down to secondary duties or sold off to developing countries. I guess the amount of technical gimcracks that would need to be sorted precludes this?

[Warbonnet]

4 hours ago, minister_for_hardship said:

In days gone by, old stock would be cascaded down to secondary duties or sold off to developing countries. I guess the amount of technical gimcracks that would need to be sorted precludes this?

indeed, they're also too long for most stations outside the Eurostar route. I remember seeing the shorter 'Three Capital' sets in their GNER days and they barely fit the longest platforms in Kings Cross. Also highly complex mechanically and power hungry. They also couldnt go north of Newcastle due to loading gauge issues.

Probably the biggest waste of money of them all was the Nightstar sleeper stock. Coaches and class 92s were built, but the growth of low cost air meant that the service was never launched. Coaches remained unused for many years before being sold to Canada and a lot of the 92s saw minimal use elsewhere and spent most of their lives stored out of use, with some being reactivated by GBRf in the last couple of years for Tunnel freight and the WCML Caledonian sleeper service after a refurb.  

Still, always thought the Eurostar looked superb in GNER livery. 

Eurostar 3302 At Doncaster. by Neil Harvey 156, on Flickr

[Newtoncork]

It was also interesting that mk3 generator vans were developed for the Nightstar (think they were from mk3 sleeper coaches). They also saw little or no use. Even though they looked completely different externally to Irish mk3 gen vans , I wonder if they were similar mechanically?

[jhb171achill]

NIR had that driving trailer thing (now at Downpatrick) which never saw one single day's use.

At least it didn't cost zillions.....

[Noel]

Yes it's a shame to see wasting assets.