The Bombardier Turbostar (sold as the ADtranz Turbostar until 2001) is a family of
diesel multiple unit (DMU) passenger trains that was built by
ADtranz and later
Bombardier Transportation at
Derby Litchurch Lane Works
Derby Litchurch Lane Works (formerly Derby Carriage and Wagon Works) is a railway rolling stock factory in Derby, England. It was opened in the 19th century by the Midland Railway. The plant has produced rolling stock under the ownership of the ...
in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
between 1997 and 2011. The Turbostar was the first new train type to be introduced after the
privatisation of British Rail
The privatisation of British Rail was the process by which ownership and operation of the railways of Great Britain passed from government control into private hands. Begun in 1994, it had been completed by 1997. The deregulation of the indust ...
. The first units were ordered by
Chiltern Railways in 1996 and were designated
Class 168 (also known as ''Clubman''). Since then the family has grown with the addition of the
Class 170,
Class 171, and the
Class 172.
Description and technical details
![Turbostar onboard display](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/Turbostar_onboard_display.jpg)
The Turbostar and Electrostar platforms are a modular design, which share the same basic design, bodyshell and core structure, and are optimised for speedy manufacture and easy maintenance. They consist of a common
underframe
An underframe is a framework of wood or metal carrying the main body structure of a railway vehicle, such as a locomotive, carriage or wagon.
See also
* Chassis
* Headstock
* Locomotive bed
* Locomotive frame
A locomotive frame is the struct ...
, which is created by seam-welding a number of aluminium alloy
extrusion
Extrusion is a process used to create objects of a fixed cross-sectional profile by pushing material through a die of the desired cross-section. Its two main advantages over other manufacturing processes are its ability to create very complex ...
s, upon which bodyside panels are mounted followed by a single piece roof, again made from extruded sections. The car ends (cabs) are made from
glass-reinforced plastic and steel, and are
huck-bolted onto the main car bodies. Underframe components are collected in ‘rafts’, which are bolted into slots on the underframe extrusion. The mostly aluminium alloy body gives light weight to help acceleration and energy efficiency.
Much of the design of the Class 168/170/171 is derived from the
Networker Turbo Class 165 and
Class 166 trains built by
British Rail Engineering Limited
British Rail Engineering Limited (BREL) was the railway systems engineering subsidiary of British Rail. Established in 1970, the maintenance arm was split as British Rail Maintenance Limited in 1987, and the design and building of trains was ...
's
Holgate Road carriage works
The Holgate Road carriage works was a railway carriage manufacturing factory in the Holgate area of York, England.
The factory began production in 1884 as a planned expansion and replacement of the North Eastern Railway's Queen Street site; ...
. Notable features shared are the aluminium alloy frame and two-stage
Voith
The Voith Group is a German manufacturer of machines for the pulp and paper industry, technical equipment for hydropower plants and drive and braking systems. The family-owned company, which operates worldwide and has its headquarters in Heid ...
T211r
hydrodynamic transmission system. The
diesel engine
The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-ca ...
has changed to an
MTU 6R 183TD13H. A
cardan shaft links the output of the gearbox to
ZF final drives (instead of
Gmeinder
Gmeinder GmbH was a German locomotive and engineering company based in Mosbach. Its products included diesel engines, small locomotives (shunters) and other railway locomotive parts. Much of its business came through the German railways, though i ...
in the Networkers) on the inner bogie of each vehicle. The engine and transmission are situated under the body; one bogie per car is powered, the other bogie unpowered.
The Class 172 differs mechanically to its older relations in several ways. The engine used is the more powerful and cleaner MTU 6H1800R83, the transmission is the mechanical 6-speed ZF Ecomat-Rail, and lighter Bombardier FLEXX-ECO bogies and hollow axles are used as well as half-height airdams. The exhaust system is also quieter and does not have the distinctive note of that of the Class 168/170/171.
Turbostars have been acquired for use by several
train operating companies, each with different specifications. One of the more noticeable differences with later units compared to earlier ones are the larger headlights now specified for safety reasons.
Units are numbered 168 xxx, 170 xxx, 171 xxx, or 172 xxx, where xxx is the serial number of the unit. Individual carriages are numbered 50xxx and 79xxx for driving motor cars, and 54xxx, 55xxx and 56xxx for centre cars.
Working in multiple
One factor which contributes to the popularity of the Turbostars is that Class 170 units are fully capable of working in multiple with older types from the Class 15x ''
Sprinter'' series of units as well as other units of the same class,
unlike all other types built since privatisation, giving them greater flexibility. However, there are issues with so-called "sandwich" formations, formed either as 170-15x-170 or 15x-170-15x, which causes problems with empty stock movements where up to four units of various types coupled together is common. A possible side effect of this is that Turbostars' performance is in line with the second generation 15x units, in fact being somewhat slower than a
Class 150 or
Class 156 on "short hop" workings, and slower than a
Class 158 on longer distance workings unless there is enough 100 mph running to take advantage of the 10 mph higher top speed of the Class 170.
The Class 171 units are fitted with
Dellner couplers rather than
BSI (''
Bergische Stahl Industrie
Faiveley Transport (), formerly Faiveley, is an international manufacturer and supplier of equipment for the railway industry founded in 1919. It introduced the single-arm pantograph in 1955. The company has subsidiaries in more than 24 countr ...
'') couplers, which means that they can mechanically couple with Southern's
Class 377 ''Electrostar'' EMUs for rescue purposes.
Variants
References
Further reading
*
External links
Detailed description of the Turbostars
{{Bombardier Turbostar, Electrostar and Alstom Aventra families
Bombardier Transportation multiple units
Adtranz multiple units
British Rail diesel multiple units
Train-related introductions in 1998