British Rail Class 390
The British Rail Class 390 Pendolino is a type of electric high-speed passenger train operated by Avanti West Coast in Great Britain, leased from Angel Trains. They are electric multiple units, using Fiat Ferroviaria's tilting train Pendolino technology and built by Alstom.
Fifty-three eight-car units were originally built between 2001 and 2005 for operation on the West Coast Main Line. The trains of the original batch were the last to be assembled at Alstom's Washwood Heath plant, before its closure in 2005. The trains were subsequently extended to nine-cars in the mid-2000s. Some trains were lengthened further to 11-cars in the 2010s, being renumbered as the subclass 390/1. An additional batch of four 11-car trains were built in Italy.
The Class 390 Pendolino has a design speed of ; however, limitations to track signalling systems restrict the trains to a maximum speed of in service. The fleet is maintained at Longsight TMD near station.
In 2021, a £117million refurbishment programme to upgrade the fleet to as new condition began; this has included conversion of one first-class carriage to standard class to increase capacity, adding power sockets and new customer information screens.
Background
During 1997, private operator Virgin Rail Group started operating the InterCity West Coast franchise, taking over from state-owned operator British Rail. Virgin had been awarded the franchise having made a commitment to replace the locomotives and rolling stock in use on the route, namely the classes, and electric locomotives and Mark 2 and Mark 3 coaching stock, with brand new tilting trains. Following negotiations with several manufacturers, Virgin placed an order with Alstom/Fiat Ferroviaria to produce the envisioned tilting train, which was known by the name Pendolino and was later designated under TOPS as the Class 390.The purpose of tilt on the Pendolino was to maintain passenger comfort levels when traversing curves at high speed by reducing the sideways forces on the train's occupants, minimising their tendency to slide across the carriage. The train was designed to be visually impressive: the concept design for the Pendolino was originally produced by industrial design firm Priestman Goode in cooperation with JHL and Start Design and many aspects of the finished product, such as the shaping of its aerodynamic nose and much of the train's interior areas, can be attributed to them.
The concept of deploying tilting trains on the West Coast Main Line was not an original one. During the 1980s and 1990s, British Rail had developed several plans to introduce new trains and pursued the development of the revolutionary, but ultimately unsuccessful, Advanced Passenger Train for a protracted period. Some years after the cancellation of the APT, British Rail had intended to replace the existing fleet of trains on the West Coast Main Line as part of the InterCity 250 project, but this was cancelled by the government shortly before the privatisation of British Rail during the late 1990s.
The original Pendolino order was for 54 nine-car units, costing £500million. As originally planned, a pre-series test train was scheduled to be completed and to be in active testing by July 2000, while the first Pendolino was to enter revenue service during March 2001. It was expected that the whole fleet would be delivered by May 2002.
The Pendolinos were intended to run at service speeds of up to. Railtrack, therefore, embarked on a modernisation of the West Coast Main Line to allow for the faster line speeds. However, the programme ran into serious difficulties. By its end, it was almost four times over-budget, had been delayed by a number of years, and had not improved the infrastructure as much as had been planned. Consequently, and in a manner reminiscent of the introduction of the InterCity 225, the lack of signalling upgrades resulted in the maximum line speed being set at. Although the Pendolino's in-service top speed is well below British Rail's hopes for the APT, which was to reach up to, it does match the maximum speed of 125mph for the APT in passenger service.
Fiat Ferroviaria introduced its first tilting trains during the 1970s. They were first operated on the Italian railways in 1976. Fiat Ferroviaria supplied much of the content of the Class 390, including the unit's bodyshell and the bogies, while final assembly was carried out at Washwood Heath. The tilting technology was developed by SIG Switzerland. Each car uses a pair of electromechanical actuators to achieve the desired tilting angle. The train can tilt to a maximum of eight degrees, at which point one side of the train is higher above the track than the other. In contrast to other Fiat Ferroviaria tilting trains which use hydraulic tilting actuators, the electromechanical system offers lower maintenance cost and higher efficiency.
Design
Overview
The Pendolino is a high-speed electric multiple unit train, which incorporates Fiat Ferroviaria's tilting train Pendolino technology. According to Ian Scoley of the design firm Priestman Goode, the design of the Pendolino is "more reminiscent of an aircraft than a train". It has a maximum design speed of, which requires compatible infrastructure to do so. A nine-carriage Pendolino reportedly weighs around 471tonnes, which is equivalent to a dozen fully laden lorries. The structure of the Pendolino is largely composed of extruded aluminium panels; allegedly, this material is responsible for the train's exterior surface being considerably smoother than its steel counterparts. The cross-section of the bodyshell is deliberately tapered; the need for this shaping is imposed by the train's ability to tilt around corners. To avoid the risk of striking passing trains or static structures while a carriage is being tilted, the body must be narrower towards the top than it is at wheel height.The nose of the Pendolino is manufactured out of composite materials and moulded in a similar fashion as has been used to produce the shells of racing cars. This construction methodology has been claimed to have been readily compatible with the aerodynamic contouring techniques practised while also retaining considerable structural strength. Allegedly, at one stage of development, the nose was intended to taper as far forwards as, similar to the noses of Japanese bullet trains. However, as the design was refined, this was reduced to a tapering length of just due to design constraints, while a roof fairing extends the curvature rearwards by a further, located directly above and behind the driver's windscreen. To validate its performance, the forward section of the trains was subject to considerable aerodynamic testing to prove its suitability for high-speed operations.
Tilting
The Pendolino features an actively actuated tilt system. Each of the carriages can tilt up to eightdegrees from the vertical; this is done to manage the forces imposed between high speed trains and the track while traversing corners. On top of this, the lines of the Network Rail network are often canted up to sixdegrees, akin to a shallow-banked velodrome; when combined with the Pendolino's tilt system, the train can reportedly comfortably take curves at a 20percent greater speed than it otherwise would be able to do so.The active tilting mechanism is achieved using electrically operated tilt activators, which are situated under each carriage. Unlike some alternative systems, which are pre-programmed to tilt at sections of a pre-determined route, the Pendolino's tilt system actively detects the upcoming corners using sensors and tilts appropriately to correspond. As tilting may not be appropriate or possible at some locations along the route, such as when travelling close to bridges and tunnels, the tilt mechanism can be disabled by an onboard system, called the Tilt Authorisation and Speed Supervision. This system relies upon trackside beacons, which are typically spaced around from one another, to transmit data to the train; this information, as well as temporarily locking-out the tilting mechanism from being used on relevant stretches of track, also relays the maximum permissible speeds for the adjacent corners.
Safety
The Pendolino incorporates several different onboard safety systems, including the Automatic Warning System and the Train Protection Warning System ; it was also planned to install compatible equipment for the European Train Control System. These systems automatically deliver situational warnings regarding the relevant signals and speed limits to the driver and, if not reacted to appropriately, are able to bring the train to a complete halt. Unlike most trains, it also features a Tilt Authorisation and Speed Supervision system, which is used to control the onboard tilting mechanism. In the event of an accident, each Pendolino also incorporates a black box data recorder. Another structural measure designed to help dissipate the forces involved in an incident involving a severe collision, are the crush zones, which can reportedly absorb three times the forces of existing High Speed Trains.The Pendolino features relatively shallow windows in comparison to trains such as the Voyager; visually, the windows are linked by a black livery line to form a continuous band running along the length of the train. A combination of structural constraints and internal configuration selections had determined the narrowness of the windows; the adoption of larger windows would have intrinsically weakened the bodyshell of each carriage. Reportedly, consideration was given to the adoption of asymmetric window layout during the design process, but this was ultimately discarded in favour of the arrangement used in service instead.
Due to these design choices, the Pendolino has a very high level of structural integrity. In the Grayrigg derailment incident, where the unit involved was travelling at a speed of and derailed at a set of points sending the carriages off the track and down a bank, one died and 30 were seriously injured from the 104 passengers and four crew. This low fatality number is attributed to the strength and safety of the unit.