The roaring and ground shaking sound of class 43 High Speed Trains pulling out of stations while filling the train shed with blue smoke is becoming a rare site across Great Britain as, following a major refurbishing project, much of the HST fleet has been fitted with new engines.
For 30 years the class 43 fleet has operated well with its original Valenta Paxman engines, however, with the HST fleet to remain in service for at least another decade, it was decided by First Great Western to look into the possibility of replacing the aging Valentas.
In summer 2004 the company has started a trial project, sending its power cars 43004 and 43009 for refitting with German made MTU engines. The rebuilt power cars were revealed to the public on 11 May 2005.
With the rebuilt units completing thousands of almost fault free miles, and First Group securing the Great Western Railway franchise until 2016, it was decided to refit the entire FGW class 43 fleet with the successful MTU engines.
The MTU engine is a liquid cooled 16V V-shaped diesel engine running at 1,500 rpm and generating a power output of 1,680 kW / 2,250 h.p, which is the same output as the original Valenta engines.
The MTU’s principal improvements over the 30 year old Valenta engines include:
- 15% fuel saving
- CO2 emissions reduced by 64%
- Nitrogen Oxide emissions reduced by 21%
- Hydrocarbon emissions reduced by 46%
- Particulate emissions reduced by 75%
- An MTU on full power generates less smoke than a Valenta at idle speed
- Reduction in lubricant consumption and oil leaks
Over the last year the MTU refitted HST sets have seen a 30% reliability improvement over their Valenta counter parts. On 2 January 2008 the last of FGW’s Valenta powered HST sets was having its final day in operation.
The total cost of FGW’s class 43 refitting programme is £80 million.
Following the success of the FGW refitting, HST power cars in service with other train operators started being rebuilt with MTU engines as well.
On the East Coast Main Line the new franchise holder, National Express, is carrying forward the refitting programme started by GNER with almost half of all power cars rebuilt by now. The completion of the programme is expected for 2009.
Arriva Cross Country is having ten power cars rebuilt, due to be completed by November 2008.
It is estimated that by spring 2009, 159 of the 194 HST power cars should be having an MTU engine.
The only class 43 keep their original Valenta Paxman engines are the East Midlands, Grand Central, and Network Rail operated power cars.
