| The Virgin Trains Class 221 'Super
Voyagers' are
diesel-electric
railcar sets built in 2001-2003 by Bombardier Transportation in
Belgium, with some of the assembly work being done in England. They
differ from the Class 220 'Voyagers' in that the 221s are equipped with
tilting equipment offering up to six degrees of tilt to allow them to
take curves faster without affecting
passenger comfort. The coach bodies, the engines and most of the equipment of the two types are the same, but the bogies are very different; the 220s have inside bearings which expose the whole of the wheel faces, whilst the 221s have a more traditional-looking outside-framed bogie. To aid identification by staff, the two types now have different Virgin 'shield' logos on the nose: the 221s have a red background to the shields, and the 220s a silver background. The 221s feature an interesting naming theme, the trains being named after various 'voyaging personalities' with dark blue backgrounds to their plates (fixed to one of the intermediate coaches). Virgin and removing these from units transferred to Cross-Country. The fleet numbers of the units are marked low down on the corner of the driving ends and very hard to see when the trains are in service: best best is to note the name and refer to the table below; alternatively each coach of a 221 has a number of which the last two digits are the last two of the unit number plus 50, e.g. coach 60360 is part of 221 110. The fleet is owned by Halifax Asset Finance, managed by Angel Trains, and leased to Virgin. There are 44 Class 221 trains, numbered 221 101 to 221 144. 101 to 140 are five-car trains built for Virgin Cross Country, and 141 to 144 are four-car sets which were intended for use by Virgin West Coast on the London - North Wales service. However, things have not worked out like this. All coaches are equipped with a Cummins QSK19 diesel engine of 560kW (750hp) at 1800rpm, powering a generator which supples current to motors driving two axles per coach. Maximum speed is 125 miles per hour, and 1200 miles can be travelled between refuellings. A five car set provides 26 seats in First (originally 'Club') class and 224 in standard. All vehicles are air-conditioned and fitted with at-seat audio entertainment systems and power sockets for laptop computers and mobile phone charging. The train formation is: Standard Class with driving cab and reservable space for four bikes (coach F) Standard Class with Shop/Buffet counter (D) Standard Class (C) Standard Class (B) Club Class with pantry and driving cab(A). The Virgin Trains website includes a Tour of a Voyager train which requires a Flash Plugin for full effect. All Virgin's Voyagers are allocated to Central Rivers depot near Burton-on-Trent. The First Class coach has a yellow rectangle on its front coupler shroud to aid identification as a train approaches a station. |
Class 221 Super Voyagers Virgin West Coast fleet:
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