THE first ‘Flex’ Class 769 has moved to the Great Central Railway at Quorn for testing following a number of lengthy delays because of a raft of technical issues.

Porterbrook has been heavily involved in the project to convert what was an EMU to a tri-mode unit able to operate on 25kV, 750v DC and diesel power through a new bogie at each end of the train fitted with a MAN 520hp diesel engine.

The conversion work has been carried out by Wabtec Brush, Loughborough, and has necessitated the construction of a special rig to allow the two diesel engines to ‘talk’ to each other. This, and associated software changes, are where engineers have faced many of the challenges.

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