British Rail Class 165


The British Rail Class 165 Networker is a fleet of suburban diesel multiple units, originally specified by and built for the British Rail Thames and Chiltern Division of Network SouthEast. They were built by BREL York Works between 1990 and 1992. An express version was subsequently built in the form of the Class 166 Networker Turbo Express trains. Both classes are now sometimes referred to as "Networker Turbos", a name which was derived some three years later for the project that resulted in the visually similar and EMUs.
The class is still in service, and is now operated by Great Western Railway and by Chiltern Railways. When operated originally by Network SouthEast, along with that operator's Class 166 trains, the Paddington suburban units were initially known as Thames Turbos, whilst the units operated on the Marylebone suburban network were known as Chiltern Turbos.

Description

Two batches of units were built for different subdivisions of Network SouthEast to replace "Heritage" DMUs as well as locomotive-hauled trains on services out of London Paddington and London Marylebone.
Both have a Perkins 2006-TWH diesel engine on each car, Voith Turbo-transmissions, and Gmeinder final drive.
When new, the units were branded as either Thames Turbo or Chiltern Turbo between the two first class windows of the DMCL carriage.
Class 165 are designed for Driver Only Operation - in cases where a Guard is required, the Guard must carry out their door operation duties via a bell system to signal the Drivers to close doors and start the train. This requires the Guard to return to a vacant cab at each station to carry out these duties. Examples of this include Chiltern Railways services north of Banbury or Great Western Railway services on the Cotswolds and Reading to Gatwick lines.

Class 165/0

Thirty-nine Class 165/0 Networker trains were built in 1990-91, in two batches, for the Chiltern subdivision of Network SouthEast, numbered 165001-039. Both 2-car and 3-car variants were built. Initially, thirty-three units were ordered but an additional order was placed for a further six units. Units 165001-028 were delivered consecutively, as 2-car units, whilst units 165029-039 were delivered as 3-car units. These vehicles have a top speed of. They are now all fitted with tripcocks for working over the London Underground lines between Amersham and Harrow-on-the-Hill, although upon delivery this equipment was only fitted to 165006-028. Automatic Train Protection is also fitted, making them one of the few classes to have both these features in Britain.
165029-039 were temporarily allocated to the Thames line in 1992. This was necessary as resignalling of Paddington station meant that Network SouthEast could no longer run locomotive-hauled trains to and from Paddington. Insufficient numbers of Class 165/1 Turbo trains had been delivered by this date to operate all the locomotive-hauled services, so all the 3-car Class 165/0 Turbo trains were diverted to the Thames line as replacements. Once sufficient Class 165/1 Turbo trains had been delivered, 165029-039 were returned to the Chiltern line.
Each unit was formed of two outer driving motors, with an additional intermediate motor in the 3-car units. The technical description of the formation is DMOSL+MOS+DMOS. Individual carriages are numbered as follows:
Thirty-seven Class 165/1 Networker trains were built in 1992 for the Thames line subdivision of Network SouthEast, numbered 165101-137. Like the Chiltern units, both 2-car and 3-car variants were built. Units 165101-117 were delivered as 3-car units, followed by the 2-car units 165118-137. They are re-geared and fitted with bogie yaw dampers to allow top speed of, more suitable for mainline use.
Each unit was formed of two outer driving motors, with an additional intermediate motor in the 3-car units. The technical description of the formation is DMOCL+MOS+DMOS. Although still listed on the vehicle data sheets at DMCL vehicles, the first class area has been removed from 2-car 165s operated by GWR, as such these vehicles are now technically DMOSL vehicles. Individual carriages are numbered as follows:
Two coaches of no. 165115 were destroyed in the Ladbroke Grove rail crash. The remaining driving motor carriage remains as a spare vehicle.

Accidents and incidents

Chiltern Railways

The 165/0 units were originally delivered in Network SouthEast livery for used on routes including fast services from London Marylebone to Princes Risborough and Banbury and local services from Aylesbury to London and Princes Risborough. In this role they replaced the DMUs. They were later used further afield, when Chiltern services were extended to serve Leamington Spa, Solihull and Birmingham Snow Hill.
In December 1993, due to a downturn in traffic as a result of the recession, units 165001-007 were transferred from the Chiltern lines of Network SouthEast to the Thames lines. All vehicles had their tripcock equipment removed before transfer. The following year, unit 165007 was returned to the Chiltern lines, followed by 165006 in 1995. Due to unavailability of tripcock equipment upon their return, the units were coupled cab-to-cab and operated for some months between the vehicles of other units as semi-permanently formed four car units - until tripcock equipment became available, allowing them to be restored to operational two car units. Following privatisation, two former Chiltern units were repainted into Thames Trains livery. Chiltern Railways inherited 34 Class 165/0 units from Network SouthEast, and the remaining five others were returned from Thames Trains in 2004 - leaving Chiltern Railways operating the whole subclass.
After privatisation they continued to work similar services as before but, with the arrival of the faster Class 168 Clubman units, the 165 Turbo trains were displaced and are now found less often on expresses to Birmingham, generally working on shorter routes such as stopping services to Aylesbury, High Wycombe, and Stratford-upon-Avon and also the Birmingham Moor Street - Leamington Spa local services.
A new depot was built at Aylesbury in 1990/1991 for the maintenance of these trains and has been enlarged since British Rail days, with the addition of a wheel lathe. Light maintenance and refuelling is carried out at Wembley LMD and Tyseley TMD and units can occasionally be found at Stourbridge LMD. Units are also regularly stabled in the Marylebone station environs, Aylesbury South Sidings and at Banbury, where a further depot is currently under construction at the south end of the station on the western side of the line.
All Chiltern units were refurbished between late 2003 and early 2005. Air conditioning was added and the opening hopper windows replaced with sealed units. A new passenger information system, similar to that on the Class 168 Clubman trains, CCTV cameras and an area designated for the use of wheelchair-users were added and the first-class section was removed, as Chiltern became a standard-class only railway in 2003. The original 3+2 seating at the outer ends of the driving vehicles was replaced by new 2+2 high back seating. The existing 3+2 low back seating was retained in the centre areas of the driving vehicles and throughout the centre vehicles of the three-car units. A cycle/wheelchair area with tip up seats was also added to each unit. A further refurbishment commenced in 2015, concentrating on the toilet areas, to make these units fully
Disability Discrimination Act 1995 compliant for operation beyond 2020.
They can often be found on the Aylesbury to London Marylebone routes including the Princes Risborough shuttle.

Great Western Railway

Thames Valley

The Class 165/1 fleet were built for local services from along the Great Western Main Line; their main destinations included local trains to,,,, Oxford, and, and services along the branch lines to,, and.
Following privatisation of British Rail, the franchise was won by the Go-Ahead Group who operated it as Thames Trains from 1996 to 2004 and inheriting the all the Class 165/1 Turbo trains as well as the first five Class 165/0 Turbo trains that had been transferred from the Chiltern lines. In April 2004, operation of the Thames Trains franchise passed to First Great Western Link. In 2004, due to deliveries of new Class 180 Adelante units on sister company First Great Western, the five Class 165/0 Turbo units became redundant and were transferred to Chiltern Railways.
In January 2010, First Great Western announced an £8 million refurbishment programme for its fleet of Classes 165 and 166 Turbo DMU trains:
In 2012, First Great Western took delivery of Class 180 Adelante units for Cotswold Line service, and three-car Sprinter units for Reading to Basingstoke Line services, allowing Class 165 and 166 units to be used to reinforce Thames Valley services.
In late 2015, as part of the rebranding to GWR, the Class 165 fleet had all first class sections removed to increase capacity.
Following electrification of the Great Western Main Line up to Didcot Parkway, as well as the Reading-Taunton line as far as Newbury, services between London Paddington and Didcot Parkway, as well as between Reading and Newbury, have been operated by new Class 387 electric multiple units, allowing much of the existing Class 165 fleet to move to the Bristol area. Class 165s continue to service the aforementioned branch lines, but no longer run to London Paddington except during peak hours.

Bristol area

Alongside the Class 166s, some of the Class 165 fleet has been transferred to Bristol and allocated to St Philip's Marsh depot. This is to be able to strengthen and provide better capacity in the Bristol area, allowing most of the fleet in the Bristol area to move further west. One of the main purposes for the Class 165 operation in the Bristol area is for them to be coupled up to Class 166s for the Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour service, which means the service will be provided by a 5 coach train. Because of this, the 2 car 165s have received lettered with one coach being coach D and the other being coach E. Alongside the 166s too, the 165s will operate majority of the local services in Bristol area, which include the Severn Beach line, Bristol to Exeter line, Golden Valley line, Heart of Wessex Line and Wessex Main Line.
On 1 July 2018, the first Class 165 came into service in the Bristol area. Since then, other units have followed and started service on some of the local lines around Bristol as previously mentioned, just like how the 166s have done the same, alongside the 166s. The first five coach train began service on the Cardiff to Portsmouth route in January 2019.

Current fleet details

Future development

It was reported in September 2018 that Angel Trains were to convert class 165 units for Chiltern Railways to hybrid diesel and battery-powered trains, and that the first Class 165 HyDrive train should be ready by mid 2020.
In April 2020, unit 165004 was sent to LORAM rail at Derby for HyDrive conversion.

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