Wessex Trains are refurbishing their Class 150 fleet. Here are some pictures of one of them.
Click on the images for a larger (640x480, generally 20-35k) version. As I took these pictures with my Nokia 7650 the quality of the larger shots is somewhat lacking, unfortunately.
A few exterior shots.
Immediately behind the driver's cab of the DMS car. Note the new wheelchair ramp cupboard, and the 'new' draughtscreen on the right. More on these later!
This makes this area considerably more 'open' than when there was a full bulkhead and sliding door here.
Also note: six tip-down seats (three each side) and two tables in this area. Two of the tip-down seats are even provided with seat-back tables!
Some detail of that wheelchair ramp cupboard. This appears to be entirely new (and quite substantial) construction, and eats into the doorway space quite considerably.
To avoid passengers who had started boarding I then moved to the DMS(L) car. The toilet is unchanged. Note the tip-down seats hiding everywhere.
The units have been fitted with staff door controls at the inner doorways. The passenger door controls have new buttons (still open-over-close though), and the panel has been re-textured by covering it over with a new sheet of plastic (look carefully at the passcom handle recess and you can see the old texture).
At this end the draughtscreens have also been re-arranged. The tool/emergency equipment cupboard is the same size, but the screen opposite is new. Note the attempts to get the new and old to match.
It's not all perfect though - they could have repainted the luggage racks to match! The cab door window rubber is a bit rough too.
Update! At least one of the other units *does* have the luggage rack ends painted grey. The first picture is a view upwards whilst sitting in a seat...
The seats are numbered up to 58.... but starting from *minus two*???!
And I don't know where the green tinge on that shot has come from...
Some detail on tip-down seats, seat-back tables and table supports.
One of the reasons often quoted for other operators not re-arranging the seats in Class 150s is that there is underseat equipment (heaters etc) which restricts where you can move the seats to. Wessex seem to have managed to work quite well around this, though one or two seats have been left with rather restricted leg room!
The seat covering is a purple variation on the familiar 'Regional Railways' one.
The signeage is based on that used in Wessex's Class 158s.
The door pockets are used to good advantage with in-house advertising & route maps. Above the door, nothing has changed.
The batteries on this unit appeared to be a little flat - only as the driver took power did we get more than one light lit!
A final few exterior shots.
Finally, a pic of an un-refurbished unit. More (including interior shots) coming as soon as I find another one (!) just so we don't forget what we're 'missing'...
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