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About the Class 222
Class 222 Meridian /
Pioneer
The Class
222 is a diesel-electric-multiple-unit (DEMU) high speed train. The Class
222, manufactured by Bombardier Transportation is capable of 125 mph.
There are 27 units in total.
The Class 222 Meridian fleet is numbered
222001-222023 with a total of 23 trains made up of 6 seven car trains and
17 five car trains.
The
Class 222 Pioneer fleet is numbered 222101-222104 with a total of 4 four car
trains with 222103 out of service following an accident at depot.
Bogies
–
The Class 222 fleet makes use B5000 lightweight bogies which are the same
bogies used in the Class 220 Voyager fleet. These are easily recognisable since
the entire outer surface of the wheel is visible.
Brakes
–
Class 222s have rheostatic braking using the motors
in reverse to generate electricity which is dissipated as heat through
resistors situated on the roof of each coach, this saves on brake shoe wear.
Coupler – The
Class 222 fleet is fitted with Dellner couplers, the
same type as on Class 220 Voyager and Class 221 SuperVoyager
trains, though these units cannot work together in service because the
electrical systems are incompatible
Engine – All
coaches are equipped with a Cummins QSK19 diesel engine of 750 hp
(560 kW) at 1800rpm. This powers a generator, which supplies current to
motors driving two axles per coach. Approximately 1,350 miles
(2,170 km) can be travelled between each refuelling.
A
seating plan for an East Midlands Trains Class 222 Meridian 5, 7 and 5+5 car
Meridian is available by clicking on the link below.
Coaches and Formations
This section describes the various types of coaches
used in the Class 222 trains sets.
Type |
No.
Series |
Built |
Description |
Seats |
DMSO – 601xx |
60161-60183 60191-60194 |
27 |
Driving motor coach - Standard |
38 (60161-67) 40 (60168-83) ?? (60191-94) |
MSO – 605xx |
60531-60337 60541-60547 60551-60557 60561-60567 60571-60574 |
32 |
Motor coach – Standard (All except 60671-74) Motor coach – Standard / First
(60571-74) |
68 (All except 60571-74) ?? (60571-74) |
MSRMB – 606xx |
60621-60643 60681-60684 |
27 |
Motor buffet coach - Standard |
62 (60621-43) ?? (60681-84) |
MCO – 609xx |
60918-60933 |
16 |
Motor composite coach –
Standard and First |
22 (Standard) (All coaches) 28 (First) (All coaches) |
MFO – 603xx + 604xx |
60341-60347 60441-60447 |
14 |
Motor coach – First |
42 (All coaches) |
DMRFO – 602xx |
60241-60243 60271-60274 |
27 |
Driving motor coach – First |
22 (60241-60243) ?? (60271-60274) |
Note:
The table above shows the situation when the units were newly delivered. There
have been a couple of notable changes that cannot be shown in the table above.
These are:
·
MSO coaches number 60571-60574 were
converted to allow for a small section of first class seating at one end not
long after delivery (this is shown in the table above) . The numbers of seats
is not known.
·
MFO coach number 60442 has been
converted into a MCO coach. The numbers of seats is not known.
·
MFO coach number 60444 has been
converted into a MSO coach. The numbers of seats is not known.
The
current coach formations of the class 222 fleets are shown below.
East Midlands Trains - seven car
class 222:
East Midlands Trains – five car
class 222:
East Midlands Trains - four car
class 222:
Technical Information
and Interesting Facts
·
Built by: Bombardier Transportation in
either Derby in England or Bruges in Belgium (if built in Belgium then finished
in England).
·
Engine: Cummins QSK19R
·
Coupler: Dellner
(auto coupler)
·
Door type: Plug
·
Maximum speed: 125mph (They only reach
this speed when going to York or Scarborough on the ECML parts)
·
Maintained at: Derby Etches Park,
Crofton (222103)
·
Selective door opening (SDO): Yes
·
Maximum coupling length: 13 coaches
·
Number built: 27 (one (222103)
currently out of use)
·
Year in service: Maximum = 4-5 years
(original 4 car Meridians and Pioneers, Minimum = 3 years (original 9 car
Meridians)
·
Lines served: Midland Mainline
·
Maximum distance on one tank of fuel:
1350 miles.
·
Longest 222 service and farthest north
running 222 service: London St Pancras to Scarborough and return (5 car Meridians
on summer Saturday only)
·
Shortest running 222 service: London St
Pancras to Kettering and return
·
Farthest south running: London St
Pancras
·
Incidents: 222009 - door opens in
service, 222103 - falls off jacks in Crofton workshop.
Names
Current
Names
Unit
Number |
Name |
Date
Named |
222003 |
Tornado |
24 March 2009 |
Removed Names
Unit
Number |
Name |
Date
Named |
Date
Removed |
222004 |
CITY OF SHEFFIELD |
29 March 2007 |
August 2008 |
222005 |
CITY OF NOTTINGHAM |
30 January 2007 |
August 2008 |
222006 |
CITY OF LEICESTER |
7 March 2007 |
July 2008 |
222007 |
CITY OF DERBY |
17 May 2007 |
September 2008 |
222101 |
Professor George Gray |
30 June 2005 |
February 2009 |
222102 |
Professor Stuart Palmer |
12 July 2005 |
February 2009 |
222103 |
Dr John Godber |
13 September 2005 |
2009 |
222104 |
Sir Terry Farrell |
6 September 2005 |
May 2009 |
Key Historical Dates
The 222 Story
Midland
Mainline took over the running of the Midland Main Line express services from InterCity in April 1996. They inherited many HSTs
which were enough to provide hourly services to Nottingham and Sheffield via
Derby. To increase services Midland Mainline ordered a fleet of 17 two car Turbostar units which would then be enough for Midland
Mainline to provide two trains to Nottingham per hour, one to Derby and
Sheffield per hour. 10 of the Turbostar trains
were boosted up to 3 cars in length to provide more capacity. When
the Turbostars arrived in 1999 and were a big
success and boosted up passenger numbers so much that something had to be done.
Midland Mainline could either extend the Turbostars
or they could order a new train that was more designed for inter-city travel.
They went for the second option.
On
Thursday 14th February 2002 Midland Mainline placed an order for 23 Class 222
Meridian trains. These would create 210 jobs and add 10,000 extra seats to the
network. The 23 Meridians would be made up of 7 nine car trains and 16 four car
trains. The plan was to use the 7 nine car trains on a new enhanced Leeds -
London St Pancras service and the 16 four car trains would replace the Turbostars on the routes they ran on. While the trains were
being built the SRA refused the Leeds - London St Pancras services which meant
that the 7 nine car trains being built had no services to run on when
delivered. Meanwhile Hull Trains who ran services from Hull - London were also
using Turbostars to run their services decided that
they needed to upgrade their trains and ordered 4 Class 222 Pioneer trains.
These would be the same as the ones Midland Mainline ordered but with slightly
different interiors.
In
Early 2008 the first Meridian was delivered to the UK via the Channel Tunnel.
The Meridian delivered was number 222008. Test runs were conducted and
222008 made its first passenger service on 31st May 2004. Over the next
year all the other Meridians and Pioneers were delivered the UK. While the
shorter 4 car trains were all in service on the Midland Main Line the 9 car
Meridians stood out of use with their future un-decided. There were talks of
them going to Ireland but this would involve a lot of technical changes to the
trains. Finally it was decided that they would be put into use with Midland
Mainline to replace some of the HSTs that they had. The 9 car Meridians were
put into use on most of the fast express services from Nottingham - London St
Pancras and a few of the fast express services from Sheffield - London St
Pancras.
After
a review of the performance of the fleet Midland Mainline could see that some
of the four car Meridian services were getting crowded where the nine car
Meridian services were very lightly loaded. They decided
that nine cars was too many and reduced all the 7 nine car Meridians
to eight car Meridians and then inserted the spare coach into 7 of the four car
Meridians (222011-222017). This process was done in early 2007 and this
produced better capacity demand ratio.
Hull
Trains had happily been using the Pioneers on their services for the past three
years. But in early 2007 disaster stuck when two cars of Pioneer number 222103
fell of jacks while it was being maintained. This left Hull Trains needing 100%
availability for their trains. The Pioneers performed brilliantly with only a
few days of cancelled services. This shows what a good and well designed train
the Class 222 is. Due to the high usage Pioneer number 222102 set on fire but
not much damage was done and the train was back in service a few days later.
After a while Hull Trains were informed that the cars damaged from the jack
incident would need to be replaced and this could take 18 months. They decided
to use Class 180 trains that First Great Western no longer needed to fill in
for the out of use 222103. There are rumours that Hull Trains will replace all
their fleet with Class 180 trains. The Pioneers would then go to East Midlands
Trains. There is no proof of this though.
In
November 2007 the Midland Main Line franchise ended and so did Midland Mainline
with it. The new operator is a new company called East Midlands Trains. After
looking at the fleet they could see that four car trains were no longer enough
for the capacity needed. Five car trains were needed. To do this they took one
more car from 6 (222001-222006) of the eight car Meridians making them seven
car Meridians; they then took three cars (one standard and two first to be
converted to standard) from eight car Meridian 222007 to reduce it to a
five car Meridians. All these spare coaches were then added to the remaining
four car Meridians. This produced a uniform fleet of 6 seven car Meridians and
17 five car Meridians. This process was done in early 2008. The last three
Meridians to be upgrade to 5 coaches had to wait until autumn 2008 due to the
need to convert two coaches from first to standard which is taking a while. All
Meridians were reformed and rebranded by October 2008.
December
2008 saw the start of a brand new timetable for East Midlands Trains London
services. The Meridians were a big part of delivering this timetable. The seven
car Meridians were removed from most of the fast Nottingham - London services,
these Meridians were then placed Sheffield - London services. As
the Sheffield - London services diagram share with the new Corby
- London services six seven-car Meridians are not enough to provide
the hourly service so five car Meridians are also used on both Corby and
Sheffield services. As of January 2009 the Corby - London services
are currently terminating at Kettering and reversing there. This is due to East
Midlands Trains not having enough intercity trains to provide the service. To
combat this East Midlands Trains are in the process of receiving the four 4 car
Pioneers that Hull Trains uses on the London-Hull services. 222101 was moved to East Midlands Trains on 26th January
2009 with 222102 following on the 28th January 2009. These are now
being used in service. 222104 moved to East Midlands Trains on the 27th April
2009 and is currently being prepared for use in
service. 222103 is due to move soon (when it is fixed).
to be updated...
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