TURBOSTAR

The 'Turbostar' is a diesel multiple unit (DMU) built by Bombardier Transportation (previously ADtranz) at their Derby Litchurch Lane Works, England. This has become the most popular type of DMU built since the privatisation of Britain's railways, with 138 units built. There are three different varients of Turbostar referred to as Class 170, Class 171 and the in development Class 172.

Contents

Description

Working in multiple

Turbostar variants

External links

Description

Turbostars have been acquired for use by several franchises, each with different specifications. One of the more noticeable differences with later units compared to earlier ones, is the larger headlights now specified for safety reasons.
Units are generally numbered 170xxx, where xxx is the serial number of the unit. Individual carriages are numbered 50xxx and 79xxx for driving motor cars, and 56xxx and 54xxx for centre cars.
They are closely related to the Class 168 ''Clubman''.
Turbostars use a MTU 6R 183TD engine.

Working in multiple

One factor in the popularity of this type of unit is that that the Class 170 varient of Turbostars, unlike all other types built since privatisation, are fully capable of working in multiple with older types from the 15X ''Sprinter'' series of units, giving them much more flexibility, although there are issues with so-called "sandwich" formations, formed either 170-15X-170 or 15X-170-15X, which does cause problems with empty stock movements where up to 4 units of various types coupled together is common. A possible side effect of this is that Turbostars performance is also in line with the 2nd generation 15X units, in fact being somewhat behind a 150 or 156 on "short hop" workings, and behind a 158 on longer distance workings unless there is enough 100mph running to take advantage of the 10mph higher speed of the Class 170.

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Turbostar variants

Class	Image	Operator	Introduced	Number	Carriages	End gangways
170		Central Trains First ScotRail 'one' South West Trains TransPennine Express	1998	122	2 or 3	No
171		Southern	2003	16	2 or 4	No
172 (On order)		London Midland London Overground	2010	27	2 or 3	?

External links

★ Detailed description of the Turbostars