First class 325 scrapped

[Nawdic]

Railway Magazine May 12:

After component recovery, Class 325 no 010 is to be scrapped at CF Booths in Rotherham, UK, making this to be the first of the 1995 built units to be scrapped.

This also comes at a time when a TGV 'La Poste' unit makes its way to St Pancras, the first time that a TGV has stepped onto British soil, in order to highlight the cheaper and more eco-efficient alternatives to deliver intercontinental post.

Could this mean the start of the end to regional mail by rail, and the start of intercontinental mail by rail?

Your thoughts.

[Pilot]

Weren't some Cars from 325010 used to make 325017. That makes me think that 325010 was involved in some incident, that it could not be repaired.

[Nawdic]

Looking at the pictures, its a full unit, but coach numbers are unknown.

[Geo Ghost]

If the fleet ends up scrapped, I hope they preserve at least one somewhere.
It's a pity. I think rail mail is probably the most affective long-distance way to deliver mail quickly. Hopefully this isn't the beginning of the end for the fleet or rail by mail as you put it.

[Nawdic]

rail by mail

Hmmmm....

[Kevo00]

Mail is a dying industry of declining bulk, and its probably better for the railways to gradually move out of it (Royal Mail effectively made the choice for them in 2003, anyway). Shame the 325s couldn't find another use though, like express 'merchandise' or something.

[Geo Ghost]

True that.
Still, I don't think scrapping is a great idea. I have often wondered why we don't have express freight. Ok, with an express one you can't move as much as a trail of container carriers but still, things that need to get from A-to-B as quickly as possible? There must be some use for them.
Or even re-fit them for passenger service.

[EXTspotter]

How expensive would the refitting to passenger services be? They're based on the 319 so could add extra units for Liverpool - Manchester or GWML plans...

[Badger]

Think you'll find they were based on the Networker 365/465/466s.

[Pilot]

Think you'll find they were based on the Networker 365/465/466s.

Running Gear and body was based on the 319's and Cabs on the Networkers.

[Badger]

Oh well, doesn't really matter anyway.

[supermop]

Not that I'd know, but wikipedia states they were designed to allow for conversion to passenger use when no longer needed. Seems like you guys are always desperate for even a handful more multiple units over there, and the dual voltage certainly should be handy. Is there some snag in your procurement system preventing at least a few being converted? 64 cars in total (maybe now 60?) should be a large enough fleet for an operator to justify the oddities of a unique class.

Best,

[61653]

How expensive would the refitting to passenger services be? They're based on the 319 so could add extra units for Liverpool - Manchester or GWML plans...

Quite expensive I imagine... Whilst others have pointed out above that they were based on existing technology for other units, they were constructed as parcels units from the start (unlike most of the 1st-generation Parcels DMUs), so would need a complete rebuild- not just including the obvious such as bodysides interiors and doors, but also corridor connections between cars as they have none, and auxilliary electrical supply for lighting & heating. After such an extensive rebuild, they would still then be non-standard compared to 319s or 365s, and as I mentioned in another thread, we really don't need yet more variation in our EMU fleet!

Having said that, I'd have thought that maybe some enterprising company could try to use them for transporting pallettised goods, but that would rely on the Royal Mail being prepared to sell them, and they're probably happier to scrap them than have them fall into the hands of a rival company.

[Geo Ghost]

How expensive would the refitting to passenger services be?

No idea. At a guess, I'd say it's still cheaper than building a whole new unit.
But I don't know the figures and facts when it comes to costing so anyone with more incite to that, feel free to chip in!

[Ameecher]

325010 has been demic at Ilford for years before being moved elsewhere in the last couple of years and used to provide replacement coaches for 017 as already said. It's been stripped of all spares and is just a bodyshell. It's not a scrapping of the whole fleet.

[JamieLei]

I would imagine that the costs of converting them wouldn't make it worthwile. As everyone's said, it would require a complete refitting of the interior and new heating and lighting, not to mention adding disabled access, new compliant doors, and crash protection. The obvious elephant in the room that noone's mentioned is that they're already 15 years old and probably only have another 10-15 years left in them at most. On the other hand, a new unit will last 20-30 years at the least, and be much more energy efficient. Already the new Thameslink stock is claiming to use half the electricity of the 319. Thus the costs of conversion would have to be well under half the cost of a new unit (which itself doesn't come cheap at £1.5m per coach), for a product that would be vastly inferior.

[supermop]

Actually a Parcel carrier would seem to make the most sense for this type of unit anyway. How quickly can these things be loaded or unloaded?

Even here in the US, FedEx, which was established essentially as air courier only, now uses road and rail freight as well for different tiers of service. I imagine an EMU would only make sense between distribution centers, not local distribution...

[Pilot]

An EMU would make sense for Local Distribution too. Especially ones like these that are powered by Overhead Wires and Third Rail. I'm not sure about how quick they can be loaded/unloaded but I think it's around 45 minutes.

[Dave]

Palletised freight would be an excellent idea but the fact that you'd need loading and unloading services at new/existing locations means you'd probably struggle. Supplying the railway stations with stock and logistical solutions using them would be quite interesting though. You know, PHS would have to supply bog roll to Euston for 3 x 325 to pick up and drop at all shacks up to Birmingham that have a bog, and so on... There must be some money in it! Haha.

[Pilot]

Yeah, because north of Birmingham we don't have bogs.