IEP design awaits the acid test

摘要

The first of three pre-series IEP trainsets has begun low-speed running trials on the test track at Hitachi's Kasado factory in Japan. Two are five-car sets and one is nine-car; all three are bi-mode. Expected to arrive in the UK early next year, the first set is due to begin trials on the East Coast Main Line, although Hitachi is discussing the possibility of using the Old Dalby test track. Full-size IEP mock-ups at industrial premises near Warwick Parkway station have now been inspected by over 2 000 stakeholders as the final part of an iterative process to finalise design details well before the trains undergo the acid test of commercial service. Constructed by DCA Design International, the mock-ups consist of a cab segment and sections of two cars with the interiors fashioned to replicate all the different areas of the PRM TSI-compliant interior. Externally, the mock-ups do not have the tapered ends of the 26 m long IEP cars, but the taper is incorporated in the interior. Inter- mediate car bodies are actually 25 m long, plus 500 mm for each gangway.