BRITISH RAIL CLASS 373

The British Rail 'Class 373' or 'TGV-TMST' train is an electric multiple unit that operates the Eurostar service from London Waterloo to France and Belgium. It is a TGV modified for use in the Great Britain and in the Channel Tunnel. Differences include the smaller cross-section, to fit within the constrictive British loading gauge; British-designed asynchronous traction motors; and extensive fireproofing in case of fire in the tunnel.
Class 373 is its allocated number under the TOPS classification system in use in Britain. In France, it is known as the series 373000 TGV. In the planning stages, it was also known as the '''TransManche Super Train''' (Cross-channel Super Train). The trains were built by GEC-Alsthom (now Alstom) at its sites in La Rochelle (France), Belfort (France) and Washwood Heath (England), entering service in 1993.
The Class 373 is the fastest type of train in the United Kingdom and holds the British rail speed record of 334.7 km/h (208 mph).

Contents

Types and ownership

Maintenance

Operations

Fleet details

Technical details

Power

Signalling systems

Record runs

At Exhibitions

10th birthday celebrations

References

Types and ownership

Two types were built: the Three Capitals sets, consisting of two power cars and 18 carriages, including two with a powered bogie each; and the North of London sets, consisting of two power cars and 14 carriages, again two with powered bogies. Full sets of both types consist of two identical half-sets that are not articulated in the middle, so that in case of emergency in the Channel Tunnel, one half can be uncoupled and leave the tunnel. Each half-set is numbered separately.
Thirty-eight full sets, plus one spare power car, were ordered by the railway companies involved: 16 by SNCF; four by NMBS/SNCB; and 18 by British Rail, of which seven were North of London sets. Upon privatisation of British Rail by the UK Government, the sets were bought by London and Continental Railways, which named the subsidiary Eurostar (U.K.) Ltd., now managed by a consortium made up of the National Express Group (40%), SNCF (35%), SNCB (15%) and British Airways (10%).

Maintenance

Maintenance of the fleet is carried out at depots in the three capitals. North Pole International depot, adjacent to the Great Western Main Line in west London, is the current UK depot and is where the unused North of London sets and spare power car are stored. On completion of CTRL phase 2, it will be replaced by Temple Mills depot, currently under construction near Stratford International in east London. In France the trains are maintained at Le Landy depot in northern Paris, and in Belgium at Brussels Forest depot.
The 27 sets operating on Eurostar's routes were refurbished in 2004-5 with a new interior, designed by Philippe Starck. The grey-yellow look (in Standard class) and the grey-red look (in First class) have been replaced with a more grey-brown look in Standard, and a grey-burnt orange in First class.

Operations

The bulk of the fleet's operations are on Eurostar's core routes from London Waterloo to Paris Gare du Nord) and Brussels Gare du Midi (in Dutch: Zuidstation). They also operate to Disneyland Paris, and sets equipped for operation on French ''lignes classiques'' operate to Avignon (summer only) and on the ski-train service Bourg-Saint-Maurice (winter only).
Three of the Three Capitals sets owned by SNCF are in French domestic use and currently carry the silver and blue TGV livery. The North of London sets have never seen international use but were originally intended to provide direct Regional Eurostar services from Continental Europe to and from UK cities north of London, using the West Coast Main Line and the East Coast Main Line. These never came to fruition because of long proposed journey times, and the proliferation of budget airlines offering lower fares. Five of the sets were leased to GNER for use on its ''White Rose'' service between London Kings Cross and Leeds, with three of them carrying GNER's dark blue livery. The lease ended in December 2005. In 2007, SNCF leased six of the seven North of London sets to be used on the Paris-Lille TGV route.

Fleet details

Class	No. built	Unit numbers	Cars per half-set1	Description	Operators	Current units	Services operated
'Class 373/0'	22	3001-3022	10	BR sets	Eurostar	3001-3022	London-Paris, London-Brussels, London-Disneyland, London-Avignon², London-Alps²
'Class 373/1'	8	3101-3108	10	SNCB sets	Eurostar	3101-3108
'Class 373/2'	32	3201-3232	10	SNCF sets	Eurostar	3201/02/05-24/29-32
					SNCF	3203/04/25/26/27/28	French domestic
'Class 373/3'	14	3301-3314	8	North of London sets	SNCF³	3301-07/09-14
					Eurostar	3308	Currently stored at North Pole depot
'Spare'	1	3999	1	Spare power car only	Eurostar	3999

# including power car.
# Avignon and Alps ski-train services are worked by SNCF quadri-capable sets.
# North of London units transferred to SNCF from 2007.

Technical details

The Three Capitals sets have a capacity of 766 seats (206 1st-class, 560 standard). The North of London sets have a capacity of 558 seats (114 1st-class, 444 standard).

Power

All of the train sets are at least tri-current and are able to operate on 25 kV, 50 Hz AC (LGVs, CTRL, UK overhead electrified lines), 3 kV DC (Belgian ''lignes classiques'') and 750 V DC (UK third rail). Five of the SNCF-owned sets are quadri-current, being able to operate on 1500 V DC (French ''lignes classiques'').
Along with the 8 powered axles in the power car the bogie in the first coach of each set that is nearer to the power car is also powered, as was the case with the same as the original TGV PSE sets. However, each set only has 12 axles to haul 18 carriages, whereas a TGV Reseau has 8 axles to haul 9. Eurostar has the lowest power:weight ratio of any of the trains in the TGV family.
In 2007 when the second phase of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link opens to London St. Pancras there will be 25 kV 50 Hz AC all the way from Lille via Channel Tunnel, including access to the new Depot facilities at Temple Mills and to potential services through to the East and West-Coast Main Lines. The British third rail "shoes" will become superfluous at this point and it is likely that the system will be removed as has happened on domestically-used French sets.
'Length:' 394 m (1,293 ft)


'Width:' 2.81 m (9.2 ft)


'Unladen weight:' 752 tonnes


'Laden weight:' 816 tonnes


'Speed in service:' 300 km/h (186 mph)


'Power under 25 kV AC:' 12,000 kW


'Power under 3 kV DC:' 5,700 kW


'Power on 750 V DC:' 3,400 kW


'Powered bogies:' 6


'Trailer bogies:' 18

Signalling systems

The trains must be fitted with the signalling systems used in all regions of operation, leading to a cluttered control desk in the driver's cab. These include

★ AWS, the British signalling system (induction based)

★ TPWS, the warning system which supplements AWS

★ TVM (Transmission Voie-Machine), used on ''lignes à grande vitesse''

★ KVB, the system used on French ''lignes classiques'' (electro-mechanical with radio beacons)

★ MEMOR, the Belgian signalling system (electro-mechanical)

Record runs

On 30 July 2003, on the opening press run of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link section 1, Eurostar set 3313/14 set a new British rail speed record of 334.7 km/h (208mph), breaking the previous-held record of at 162.2mph (259.5 km/h) set by an Advanced Passenger Train on 20 December 1979.
On 16 May 2006 a Eurostar set a new record for the longest non-stop high speed journey, when set 3209/10 made the 1421km journey from London to Cannes in 7 hours 25 minutes. This was a result of Eurostar's partnership with Da Vinci Code, and the train carried stars Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou and director Ron Howard, who had named the train ''The Da Vinci Code'' prior to its journey to the film premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.
On September 4 2007 the first revenue Eurostar train to use the new Channel Tunnel Rail Link to St Pancras railway station sets a new speed record for rail travel between London and Paris. The first train left Paris at 9:44AM BST and arrived at St. Pancras two hours, three minutes and 39 seconds later. Officials aboard the inaugural train recorded speeds up to 202 mph (325 km/h) in France and 195 mph (314 km/h) in Britain. (BBC)^[1]

At Exhibitions

On several occasions, Eurostar locomotive and sets have appeared at special events:

★ Rotterdam, 6 April 1996, Full Set 3309/3310.

★ Brussels South, Belgium's ''Travelling Day'': May 1998, Half-set 3305.

★ Berlin Grunewald, Eurailspeed 1998, 3303/3304 half-set(s).

★ Madrid Chamartín, Eurailspeed 2002, locomotive 3212 + trailers.

★ York NRM, Railfest 200, 2004, locomotive 3313 + Eurostar's simulator.

★ A barge on the River Thames, London, 16 November 2004^[2], a locomotive specially painted by Ben Langlands and Nikki Bell.

10th birthday celebrations

The River Thames event surrounded celebrating the 10th anniversary of Eurostar operations. The Eurostar locomotive was "painted" using vinyl decals at the North Pole depot under the supervision of the artists before travelling to Tilbury to be loaded on to a barge. Named ''"Language of Places on Eurostar"'' by Langlands and Bell, the artwork piece consisted of the three-letter "destination codes for all the places Eurostar goes to or
connects to"^[3]. During up the Thames, the voyage past under Tower Bridge, alongside the House of Parliament and was eventually moored for a period against HMS Belfast. The event was delayed 24hours following a fatal train crash on the day that the publicity stunt had originally been due to take place.

★ Photograph of Eurostar in front of Tower Bridge

★ Short Write of the journey, with three pictures.

References

1. Eurostar sets Paris-London record
2. Eurostar Press Release, ''Eurostar Floats!''
3. 2007-08-10, Private email reply from Ben Langlands and Nikki Bell