We recently travelled to Wabtec at Doncaster to complete the research work on the Class 321 units, in preparation for the CAD work to begin.
While we had been provided with copies of numerous original BREL drawings, dating from the 1970s and 80s, there were some areas where further work was needed – particularly on the underframe details.
Wabtec’s Doncaster works is the home of Eversholt Rail’s “Renatus” project, a major refit and refurbishment programme for their Class 321 units.
30 units are being rebuilt for Abellio Greater Anglia (though the franchise may change hands during the life of the programme) and the team at Wabtec have worked had to create a workable system.
The project sees the interiors and much of the electrical equipment stripped out and replaced with new interiors, air conditioning and new traction and electrical equipment.
The bogies are remain largely unaltered, since the basic design is sound, but powered vehicles will receive new traction motors. The opportunity to get close when the bogie is away from its unit is very useful from a research point of view.
Of course the main aim was to check the dimensions, positioning and appearance of all the various components on the underframe of these vehicles. Despite the increasing use of laser scanning and other modern methods sometimes the best approach is to use an old-fashioned and manually operated tape measure – expertly deployed here by volunteer helper Paul!
Once again Revolution would like to thank Renatus Project Manager Chris Jenner, on the right, of Eversholt Rail, the owners of the Class 321 units, for offering us excellent access to ensure we can produce an accurate and detailed model.
As we left we did come across this unit – I understand it’s been used as a demonstrator for possible future users of the Renatus 321s. At the moment we have no plans to offer this as a potential additional livery version!
You can order your Revolution N Gauge 321 models via our shop pages here.
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