Virgin Voyager fleet withdrawl! - 30th May

Post by **James** » Mon May 30, 2005 10:50 pm

On the departure monitors at Bridgwater there was a long explanation...apparently due to a "major technical fault that concerns the entire Voyager fleet, there are many Virgin cancellations today".

I noticed one train had been cancelled while I was at Taunton, but when I got to Bristol Temple Meads it was chaos! The sort of chaos where half the screen is made up of blue "cancelled" lines and the station was devoid of Voyagers.

Still don't know what the hell happened...it must be a pretty damn big fault to result in a total fleet withdrawl

Post by **AJR** » Tue May 31, 2005 12:05 am

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/4593775.stm

Post by **James** » Tue May 31, 2005 12:09 am

Ah, so a single chip with a "wind problem" can ground an entire fleet...now that's technological progress for you!

Post by **madhattie** » Tue May 31, 2005 11:44 am

James wrote:Ah, so a single chip with a "wind problem" can ground an entire fleet...now that's technological progress for you!

I believe the explosion caused by the fault was rather large. Blew off an internal and external door causing an injury to someone.

I found this on uk.rail:

"A technical fault found yesterday on Virgin's Voyager fleet has meant many
cancellations whilst vehicles are treated to rectify the problem.

"An inverter behind the cab doors is said to have exploded at Barton Hill
overnight, which in turn caused an external door to blow off, which injured
a person. Virgin immediately pulled the fleet and modifications took place
overnight with only a number being treated by the start of this morning's
timetable, at 09:30, six Voyagers had been modified out of 78.

"An amended timetable is in operation, with more Voyager's expecting to
enter service as the day progresses. The Voyager is the mainstay of the
Virgin CrossCountry franchise, with 34 Class 220 Voyager's and 44 Class 221
Super Voyager's."

Post by **James** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 10:33 am

A Voyager caught fire on June 1st as well!

http://scottishrailpics.fotopic.net/p15736671.html

Post by **madhattie** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 10:46 am

James wrote:A Voyager caught fire on June 1st as well!

And another broke down at Ivybridge yesterday causing complete chaos until a 57 pushed it back to Plymouth.

Virgin are hiring HSTs as replacement units apparently!

Post by **James** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 10:48 am

madhattie wrote:And another broke down at Ivybridge yesterday causing complete chaos until a 57 pushed it back to Plymouth.

Virgin are hiring HSTs as replacement units apparently!

Brilliant! I hope there's still a lot in VXC livery!

Time for some random journeys I think

Post by **madhattie** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 10:54 am

James wrote:Brilliant! I hope there's still a lot in VXC livery!

Yeah, I do so much like them in red!

I took this the other day at FAW:
http://www.el-loco.co.uk/43157-1.php

I was the only photographer at that station that even bothered to watch the thing go through let alone take a pic! Weird lot, some of these spotters!

Post by **James** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 11:48 am

madhattie wrote:
James wrote:Brilliant! I hope there's still a lot in VXC livery!
Yeah, I do so much like them in red!

I still think Virgin could have come up with a much better livery...it's very jagged, and unlike liveries like Intercity Swallow or FGW "Fag packet" it doesn't flow...HSTs look best when they carry a livery that features continuous horizontal banding.

Compare:

Post by **madhattie** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 12:07 pm

James wrote: I still think Virgin could have come up with a much better livery...it's very jagged, and unlike liveries like Intercity Swallow or FGW "Fag packet" it doesn't flow...HSTs look best when they carry a livery that features continuous horizontal banding.

Compare:

I prefer the top one!

Anyways, new regs state that the doors have to be painted a different colour to the rest of the livery to help the visually impaired. So neither livery could be used in the future !

Post by **James** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 6:01 pm

Voyager beeps:

http://www.freewebs.com/derbyrtc/22xbeep.htm

I've only heard No. 3

Graham · Post by **Graham** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 8:12 pm

I've heard all but the first one! The most common is definitely the second...but the question is, what on earth are they? They seem to happen at the most random of times, I used to think they were a warning for a trapped door or when someone wants to call for the conductor, but...are they just for effect or something!?