AVANTI WEST Coast, Alstom and Angel Trains hosted an event at Alstom Transport Technology Centre, in Widnes, to highlight the success of the AWC Class 390 internal refurbishment project. It has entered its second phase, with Alstom completing the Class 390/1 earlier this year and now powering through the internal transformation of the 21 Class 390/0s.
Railways Illustrated was invited to take a look at the work being carried out on 390050, the fourth Class 390/0 to go through the project. Each train takes just 10 working days to complete, and Alstom has not missed any deadline, meaning the project is on target for an on-time completion. By the time this issue is published in early November, 390050 will have been returned to AWC, with work underway on the next train to enter the facility.
On the day of our visit to Widnes, 390050 was into the third day and work was progressing at an impressive rate, all of its old seating, tables, ceiling lighting gondolas and carpets having been removed. The old Virgin-era onboard shop had also been dismantled, the equipment being taken out through the roof of the coach once the air conditioning unit was removed from the train.
Scope of the refurbishment
The trains will generally arrive at Alstom’s Widnes facility on the Saturday and positioned in the workshop on the Sunday, and a safe system of work is put in place on the train, ready for work to begin on the Sunday night. The first tasks are the removal of seats, tables, ceiling lighting gondolas and carpeting, and the floorboards of the trains are then assessed. One unexpected aspect of the project has been the large number of floorboards that have been found to need replacing – higher than originally envisaged – with each of the floorboards tested during the dismantling of the interior.
By the end of the second day, the old shop is removed and work is completed on the fitting of replacement floorboards, while the following day, heater grilles are cleaned and refitted. Day four usually sees new carpets fitted throughout the length of the train, while the main tasks on the fi
