British Rail Class 314
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The British Rail Class 314 was a class of
alternating current Alternating current (AC) is an electric current that periodically reverses direction and changes its magnitude continuously with time, in contrast to direct current (DC), which flows only in one direction. Alternating current is the form in w ...
electric multiple unit An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple-unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a number o ...
(EMU) trains built by
British Rail Engineering Limited British Rail Engineering Limited (BREL) was the rolling stock manufacturing and maintenance subsidiary of British Rail. It was established on 1 January 1970 by the British Railways Board to operate its 14 rolling stock maintenance centres and ...
's Holgate Road carriage works in 1979. They were a class of units derived from
British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Comm ...
's 1971 prototype suburban EMU design which, as the BREL 1972 family, eventually encompassed 755 vehicles over five production classes ( 313, 314, 315, 507 and
508 __NOTOC__ Year 508 ( DVIII) was a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Venantius and Celer (or, less frequently, year 1261 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomi ...
). The Class 314 fleet was used to operate inner-suburban services on the Strathclyde Passenger Transport rail network in and around
Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
, most typically on the Argyle, North Clyde, Cathcart Circle, Paisley Canal and
Inverclyde Inverclyde (, , , "mouth of the Clyde") is one of 32 council areas used for local government in Scotland. Together with the East Renfrewshire and Renfrewshire council areas, Inverclyde forms part of the historic county of Renfrewshire, which ...
lines. The units, formed of three cars each, worked either independently or in six-car pairs. Although the fleet had undergone a number of life-extension overhauls and upgrades, it was withdrawn from service in 2018–2019 as a result of non-compliance with the requirements of the Persons with Reduced Mobility Technical Specification for Interoperability (PRM-TSI), which became legally binding at the end of December 2019. It was replaced, for the most part, by cascaded Class 318 and Class 320 units following the introduction of the Class 385 fleet. Following withdrawal, all but one unit was scrapped; the remaining unit has been converted to act as a technology demonstrator using
hydrogen Hydrogen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol H and atomic number 1. It is the lightest and abundance of the chemical elements, most abundant chemical element in the universe, constituting about 75% of all baryon, normal matter ...
-powered
fuel cell A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen fuel, hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electricity through a pair of redox reactions. Fuel cells are different from most bat ...
s and was reclassified into Class 614 in October 2021.


History

Class 314 units were formed of two vehicles with driver's cabs sandwiching a trailer vehicles that carried the
pantograph A pantograph (, from their original use for copying writing) is a Linkage (mechanical), mechanical linkage connected in a manner based on parallelograms so that the movement of one pen, in tracing an image, produces identical movements in a se ...
and high-voltage transformer. The 25 kV supply collected from the
overhead line An overhead line or overhead wire is an electrical cable that is used to transmit electrical energy to electric locomotives, Electric multiple unit, electric multiple units, trolleybuses or trams. The generic term used by the International Union ...
s by the pantograph was passed from the transformer in the intermediate trailer to four
direct current Direct current (DC) is one-directional electric current, flow of electric charge. An electrochemical cell is a prime example of DC power. Direct current may flow through a conductor (material), conductor such as a wire, but can also flow throug ...
traction motor A traction motor is an electric motor used for propulsion of a vehicle, such as locomotives, electric vehicle, electric or hydrogen vehicles, or electric multiple unit trains. Traction (engineering), Traction motors are used in electrically powe ...
s mounted under each driving car. In common with the other classes of BREL's 1972 family, Class 314 vehicles were of constructed of
aluminium alloy An aluminium alloy ( UK/IUPAC) or aluminum alloy ( NA; see spelling differences) is an alloy in which aluminium (Al) is the predominant metal. The typical alloying elements are copper, magnesium, manganese, silicon, tin, nickel and zinc. There ...
on a
steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...
underframe and had pneumatically-actuated sliding doors.
Tightlock coupling Type H Tightlock couplers are a variety of Janney coupler, typically used on North American mainline passenger rail cars. They have mechanical features that reduce slack in normal operation and prevent telescoping in derailments, yet remain c ...
s allowed units to be coupled and uncoupled by the driver alone from within the cab, a simplification compared to the coupling procedure used by the Strathclyde network's then-existing units. The sixteen-strong Class 314 fleet had been acquired for the main purpose of operating the newly-opened
Argyle Line The Argyle Line is a suburban railway located in West Central Scotland. The line serves the commercial and shopping districts of Glasgow's central area, and connects towns from West Dunbartonshire to South Lanarkshire. Named for Glasgow's Arg ...
, which they did—along with the
North Clyde Line The North Clyde Line (defined by Network Rail as the ''Glasgow North Electric Suburban'' line) is a suburban railway in West Central Scotland. The route is operated by ScotRail. As a result of the incorporation of the Airdrie–Bathgate rail ...
—from introduction in late 1979 until October 1999. After this they were transferred to operate Cathcart Circle services on the southern side of the Strathclyde network, covering for the withdrawal and scrapping of the Class 303 fleet. A small number of Class 314 units also worked
Inverclyde Line The Inverclyde Line is a railway line running from Glasgow Central station through Paisley (Gilmour Street) and a series of stations to the south of the River Clyde and the Firth of Clyde, terminating at Gourock and Wemyss Bay, where it conn ...
services to and , mostly during peak hours. From November 2012 the fleet additionally operated services on the Paisley Canal Line, following its electrification.


Overhaul and refurbishment

A minor overhaul programme between May 2006 and mid-2007 included electrical upgrades and installation of improved door actuation mechanisms. Between 2009 and 2010, the fleet received a life-extension (C5E) overhaul that included refurbishment and/or replacement of the bogies, and alterations to the driver's cabs. Between 2011 and 2013, five units received a C3 major overhaul at Railcare
Springburn Springburn () is an inner-city district in the north of the Scottish city of Glasgow, made up of generally working-class households. Springburn developed from a rural hamlet at the beginning of the 19th century. Its industrial expansion began ...
, which included corrosion repairs, repainting of internal surfaces, replacement of
linoleum Linoleum is a floor covering made from materials such as solidified linseed oil (linoxyn), Pine Resin, pine resin, ground Cork (material), cork dust, sawdust, and mineral fillers such as calcium carbonate, most commonly on a Hessian fabric, hes ...
flooring material, replacement of seat covers, refurbishment of bogies and couplers, reliability upgrades and repainting into the then-new ScotRail
Saltire A saltire, also called Saint Andrew's Cross or the crux decussata, is a Heraldry, heraldic symbol in the form of a diagonal cross. The word comes from the Middle French , Medieval Latin ("stirrup"). From its use as field sign, the saltire cam ...
livery. Eight other units underwent the C3 overhaul but were not repainted, while the remaining three units received the same internal refurbishment but a less-intensive C4 overhaul. A further two units were repainted into the new livery in 2016, leaving nine in SPT's carmine and cream colours until their withdrawal.


Replacement and withdrawal

The increasing age of the Class 314 units, along with their failing to comply with the PRM-TSI requirements, made it unlikely that they would remain in service into the 2020s without further costly refurbishment. Ultimately this became unnecessary, as the continuing introduction of new units created sufficient spare capacity in the PRM-compliant Class , , and fleets to support withdrawal of the Class 314 fleet. ScotRail announced in May 2019 that Class 314 units would begin to be replaced by Class 385s on the Inverclyde Line that same month, leaving only three services—all early on weekday mornings—to be operated by 314s. Further withdrawals occurred throughout 2019, and the final Class 314 passenger service was worked from Paisley Canal to Glasgow Central by 314216 on 14 December 2019. ScotRail held a farewell tour for the class on 18 December 2019, with units 314202 and 314205 operating a special service around the ScotRail network, running to Ayr, Carstairs, Cumbernauld, and Helensburgh. The tour raised funds for ScotRail's charity partner MND Scotland. In the following year, all but one of the withdrawn units were scrapped.


Hydrogen conversion

In February 2020, ScotRail announced plans to convert the remaining unit, 314209, to be powered by on-board
hydrogen Hydrogen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol H and atomic number 1. It is the lightest and abundance of the chemical elements, most abundant chemical element in the universe, constituting about 75% of all baryon, normal matter ...
fuel cell A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen fuel, hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electricity through a pair of redox reactions. Fuel cells are different from most bat ...
s. The initiative is intended to study the feasibility of using hydrogen to fuel trains, as part of ScotRail's commitment to end its use of diesel fuel for traction by 2035. The project was initially handled primarily by a workgroup at the
University of St Andrews The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, f ...
, before a request for tenders was issued in September 2020 seeking a commercial partner for the full design, installation, and demonstration of a hydrogen fuel system using the Class 314 unit. In December 2020 the unit was moved to the Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway, near
Falkirk Falkirk ( ; ; ) is a town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow. Falkirk had a resident population of 32,422 at the ...
, for conversion work to begin. The lead contractor for the conversion work was rolling stock refurbishment firm Brodie Engineering, with Arcola Energy acting as hydrogen energy specialists. Arcola's A-Drive fuel cell powertrain forms the core of the new traction system, with hydrogen tanks and battery modules installed underneath all three vehicles. The increased weight of the new components was carefully measured and controlled in order to avoid exceeding the unit's maximum permissible axle load and to reduce the likelihood of the unit's kinematic envelope increasing; it was partially offset by replacing the original traction motors with new
alternating current Alternating current (AC) is an electric current that periodically reverses direction and changes its magnitude continuously with time, in contrast to direct current (DC), which flows only in one direction. Alternating current is the form in w ...
models. The intent is for the demonstrator to remain reasonably similar to a "standard" Class 314 unit, so that it can be run under its existing certificates of conformity for the general railway network. In September 2020, it was announced that the demonstrator would appear at the COP26 Climate Change Summit, to be held in Glasgow during November 2021. The unit was to operate special services for the benefit of visiting delegates. In advance of the summit the unit was reclassified into the alternative-fuels class number range and renumbered 614209. An acknowledged limitation of the Class 614 demonstrator is that it can only carry of hydrogen, pressurised at . This is sufficient for short-distance operation as a prototype, but storage capacity will need to be significantly increased for normal passenger service to be feasible. The project team claim that it will be possible to achieve this increase by installing additional storage tanks within the vehiclesa necessity as the UK's standard
loading gauge A loading gauge is a diagram or physical structure that defines the maximum height and width dimensions in railway vehicles and their loads. Their purpose is to ensure that rail vehicles can pass safely through tunnels and under bridges, and k ...
does not allow enough space for roof-mounted tanks.


Accidents and incidents

* On 21 July 1991, unit 314203 was damaged in the Newton rail accident. The leading DMSO vehicle was destroyed, but later replaced with the BDMSO vehicle from written-off unit 507022. The repaired unit re-entered service in May 1996. * On 12 December 1994, units 314208 and 314212 were severely damaged when they were caught in floodwaters in the low-level platforms at . Extremely heavy rain had caused the
River Kelvin The River Kelvin () is a tributary of the River Clyde in northern and northeastern Glasgow, Scotland. It rises on the moor south east of the village of Banton, Scotland, Banton, east of Kilsyth. At almost long, it initially flows south to D ...
to overflow its banks near the former Kelvinbridge railway station, from which the floodwaters flowed into the disused Kelvingrove and St Vincent Crescent tunnels of the
Glasgow Central Railway The Glasgow Central Railway was a railway line built in Glasgow, Scotland by the Caledonian Railway, running in tunnel east to west through the city centre. It was opened in stages from 1894 and opened up new journey opportunities for passengers ...
and thence into the active Argyle Line tunnels near . Both units were later returned to service, but the Argyle Line through Glasgow Central remained closed for ten months whilst under repair.


Named units

Unit 314203 was named ''European Union''.


Notes


References


Further reading

* {{British Rail DMU
314 __NOTOC__ Year 314 ( CCCXIV) was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Rufius and Annianus (or, less frequently, year 1067 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 314 ...
314 __NOTOC__ Year 314 ( CCCXIV) was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Rufius and Annianus (or, less frequently, year 1067 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 314 ...
Train-related introductions in 1979 25 kV AC multiple units