British Rail Class 373

Class 373s in the original Eurostar livery lined up at Waterloo International

Eurostar originally ran services to and from Waterloo International along existing mainline tracks, until it moved to St Pancras International in November 2007. Today Eurostar uses its fleet of Class 373s on routes from London St Pancras International to Paris (Gare Du Nord), Brussels (Midi), Amsterdam and Marseille (St Charles) with a "Ski" service in the winter to Bourg-Saint-Maurice.

In October 2010, Eurostar ordered 10 Class 374 "Eurostar e320" trains from Siemens to run on its existing routes from London to Paris and Brussels as well the newest route to Amsterdam alongside its Class 373 fleet. In 2016, Eurostar announced that it would refurbish 11 Class 373 sets and keep these in service once the full fleet of 374s (E320s) were in service; the rest of the Class 373 were stored or scrapped.[22]

In November 2018, a Class 373 set consisting of 373213 and 373224 was introduced into service by IZY, the low-cost service that runs between Paris and Brussels by Thalys, replacing a TGV Réseau train.[23]

"Regional" Eurostar set 373301 + 373302 at London King's Cross in 2004

In 2000, 373303 + 373304, 373309 +373310, 373305 +373306, 373301 +373302, were leased to GNER to operate "The White Rose" services from London King's Cross to York and Leeds.[24] 373303 +373304, 373305 + 373306 and 373301 + 373302 were all applied with GNER livery, whereas 373309 +373310 carried the original Eurostar livery without logos. The lease expired in December 2005 and they were handed back to Eurostar; they were later used to operate high speed TGV services with SNCF in northern France.

When being used for GNER services, the doors of the first and last carriages were locked out of use at some stations due to the units being too long to stop in the platforms.[25]

Due to restrictions in the power supply on the Hertford Loop Line, only one set was permitted to operate on that route at any one time.[26] They were only allowed to run from King's Cross to York and Leeds because of gauging on the bridges approaching Newcastle. They were not allowed to travel to Bradford Forster Square because the electrical infrastructure beyond Leeds was insufficient. Manually locked selective door opening was used at shorter platforms. At the following locations on the East Coast Main Line they were only allowed to run at 110 mph (177 km/h), shown by blue "TGV" signs next to the tracks, or required to only use one pantograph:
(i) The Down Fast line between 59 m 10ch and 59 m 30ch (Huntingdon North Jn)
(ii) between Grantham (105 m 77ch) and Shaftholme Jn (160 m 00ch Down/160m 20ch Up)
(iii) between Colton Jn (182 m 75ch) and York.

373203/204 working for SNCF passing Étaples - Le Touquet

SNCF leased 3 of Eurostar's "Three Capitals" sets for use on French domestic TGV services (mainly between Paris and Lille). The sets remained in the original Eurostar livery with SNCF branding, and some sets had greyish white or silver front ends. In 2007, SNCF added more Class 373 sets to its fleet by leasing the redundant "North of London" sets from Eurostar. SNCF's lease of the sets was scheduled to last until 2011 with the option to keep the sets running for another two years.[27]

In October 2014, the three "Three Capitals" sets were withdrawn from traffic and stored, having been replaced by TGV Duplex sets. Some have since been scrapped having provided spare parts to other Class 373 sets with remaining sets still stored in Ambérieu, France.

Each set is formed of 2 power cars and 18 coaches:

Original:

Refurbished:

North of London/Regional Eurostar sets are formed of 2 power cars and 14 coaches:

Eurostar 373211/373212 on LGV Interconnexion Est, near Chennevières-lès-Louvres, Val d'Oise, France

All Class 373 sets were built as tri-voltage, able to operate on 25 kV 50 Hz AC (LGVs, Eurotunnel, High Speed 1, UK overhead electrified lines) and 3 kV DC (Belgian classic lines) using pantographs, and 750 V DC (UK third rail network) using third-rail pickup shoes. The shoes were retracted when switching to overhead power.[30] After the opening of High Speed 1 in 2007, overhead electrification is used throughout and the third rail shoes had been removed. Five of the SNCF-owned sets are quadri-voltage, able to operate from 1,500 V DC (French lignes classiques) in the south of France, used on London–Avignon and ski services.

A Class 373 passes Herne Hill; from 1994 until 2007, Eurostar ran its services to and from London Waterloo/Waterloo International, using the third rail network in Southern England

The trains are powered by asynchronous traction motors. There are four powered axles in each power car and two powered axles in the outer bogie of the front passenger coach (a layout used on the original SNCF TGV Sud-Est (PSE) sets) giving 12 powered axles. Each set draws up to 16MW with 12 MW (16,000 hp) of traction power, but the lowest power-to-weight ratio in the TGV family.

The class uses five different standards of overhead: domestic catenary in each of Belgium, France and the United Kingdom; fixed-height catenary on LGV lines and HS1; and taller catenary in the Channel Tunnel, designed to accommodate double-deck car-carrying trains and roll-on roll-off heavy goods vehicle trains. The driver must manually lower and then raise the pantograph during the transition between catenary systems.

The Class 373s are fitted with a wide range of signalling systems, these include:

• AWS (Automatic Warning System), the British signalling system, only used when services call at Ashford International[31]
• TPWS (Train Protection & Warning System), the safety system that works with the AWS, only used when services call at Ashford International[31]
• TVM (Transmission Voie-Machine), used on LGV ("lignes à grande vitesse"),[32] Eurotunnel, HS1 and HSL 1[33]
• KVB (Contrôle de vitesse par balises), used between Paris Gare du Nord and LGV Nord, on French Classic Lines and on the HS1 connected throat around London St Pancras. It is electro-mechanical with fixed radio beacons.[31]
• TBL, (the Belgian signalling system,) electro-mechanical, used between Brussels-South/Midi and HSL 1, Belgium.[31]

When travelling at high speeds, it is not possible for the driver to accurately see colour-light signals at the side of the track. With the TVM signalling used on the high-speed lines, the target speed for the end of the current block is displayed with a flashing indication on the in-cab display for the next block if it is at a different speed. Auxiliary signalling information, including the location of neutral sections in the overhead supply and pantograph adjustment zones, is displayed in cab and by the lineside. The operation of circuit breakers over neutral sections is handled automatically on TVM-signalled lines only, and pantograph adjustments must always be manually performed by the driver.[34]

The Class 373 was designed to comply with the Channel Tunnel safety regulations, and consists of two independent half-sets, each with its own power car. Most of the trailer cars are supported on Jacobs bogies shared between adjacent coaches, supporting both of them, with the cars next to the power cars and the two middle coaches (carriages 9 and 10 in a full-length set) not articulated. Non-shared bogies are coupled with Scharfenberg couplers, providing three points for separation in the event of an emergency in the Channel Tunnel. The electrical supply cables between a power car and the first carriage are designed to break apart during an emergency separation. In the event of a serious fire in the Tunnel the passengers would be transferred into the undamaged half of the train, which would then be uncoupled from the damaged half and driven out of the tunnel.[35] If the undamaged part is the rear half of the train, this would be driven by the Chef du Train who is a fully authorised driver and occupies the rear driving cab in the tunnel for this purpose.[36] Due to limitations on driving hours, the driver and Chef du Train exchange roles for the return journey.

The articulated design is advantageous during a derailment as the carriages will tend to stay aligned. On non-articulated trains couplings may break and the carriages may jackknife. A disadvantage of articulation is that it is difficult to remove and separate the individual carriages for maintenance. Although the power cars can be uncoupled, specialised depot equipment is needed to split carriages by lifting the entire train at once. Once uncoupled, one of the carriage ends is left without a bogie at the point of separation, so a bogie frame is required to support it.

The class 373s use three braking systems:

• The 12 traction motors can provide dynamic braking
• All non-powered axles have four disc brakes.
• All powered axles have cast iron brake shoes pushed against the wheel rim.

A train travelling at 300 kilometres per hour (186 mph) can slow down to stop in 65 seconds, during which time the braking distance is about 2.7 km (1.7 miles)

To combat the hypnotic effect of driving through the tunnel at speed for 20 minutes, the power cars have a very small windscreen when compared to other high-speed trains and TGVs.[37][38][39]

On 5 June 2000, 373101/102 on a Paris to London service derailed on LGV Nord near Arras, France at 180mph (290 km/h). 14 people were treated for light injuries or shock, with no serious injures or fatalities. The articulated design was credited with maintaining stability during the incident and the train stayed upright.[40][41] After investigation, the incident was blamed on a component of the transmission between the motors and axles coming loose. To reduce the unsprung mass, TGV trains have the motors attached to the train rather than the bogies. In order for the train to be able to go around curves a sliding "tripod" assembly is used, which became dislodged.

There have been several minor incidents. In October 1994, there were teething problems relating to the start of operations. The first preview train, carrying 400 members of the press and media, was delayed for two hours by technical issues.[42][41][43][44] On 29 May 2002 a set was accidentally routed towards Victoria instead of London Waterloo, causing it to arrive 25 minutes late. The signalling error that led to the incorrect routeing was stated to have caused "no risk" as a result.[45]

During the night of 18–19 December 2009, there was heavy snow causing widespread disruption to roads, railways and airports across northern Europe. Five trains (one of which was 373217 + 373218) broke down inside the Channel Tunnel because snow in the engine compartment was melted by warmer temperatures in the tunnel, the resulting water causing electrical and control system faults. Eurostar commissioned an independent report to evaluate what went wrong and how future events could be prevented or better managed.[46] The report's recommendations included:

• Increased number of diesel rescue locomotives with exhaust filtration to be on standby at each end of the tunnel.
• Major changes to the power cars to prevent snow ingress into electrical compartments.
• Better staff training.
• Improved communication internally and with other stakeholders (Eurotunnel and emergency services).
• Better information provision to passengers.

The majority of the recommendations were implemented by 23 October 2012.

On 30 July 2003, on the opening press run of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link Section 1, 373313/314 established a new British rail speed record of 334.7 kilometres per hour (208.0 mph), breaking the previous record of 261.0 kilometres per hour (162.2 mph) set by an Advanced Passenger Train on 20 December 1979.[47][48][14]

On 16 May 2006 373209/210 created a record for the longest non-stop high-speed journey when it made the 1,421-kilometre (883 mi) journey from London to Cannes in 7 hours 25 minutes.[49] This was a publicity event for the Da Vinci Code film; the train carried actors Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou and director Ron Howard, who had jointly named the train The Da Vinci Code prior to departing for the film premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.

On 4 September 2007 the first revenue train to use High Speed 1 to St Pancras set a new speed record:[50] it left Paris at 09:44 BST and arrived at St Pancras two hours three minutes and 39 seconds later. Officials aboard recorded speeds of up to 325 kilometres per hour (202 mph) in France and 314 kilometres per hour (195 mph) in Britain.[51][52]

373309 alongside Mat '54 and NS Class 1500 at Rotterdam Centraal open day in 1996

On several occasions sets appeared at special events and displays, such as at Lille Flandres in 1995,[ex 1] Rotterdam Centraal Station on 6 April 1996,[ex 2] Berlin-Grunewald station for Eurailspeed 1998,[ex 3] Madrid Chamartín railway station for Eurailspeed 2002[ex 4] and at the York National Railway Museum for the Railfest 200 celebrations in 2004.[ex 5]

To celebrate ten years of Eurostar service, a barge was floated down the River Thames in London on 16 November 2004,[ex 6] with a power car on board, specially painted by Ben Langlands and Nikki Bell. Named "Language of Places on Eurostar" by Langlands and Bell, it consisted of the three-letter "destination codes for all the places where Eurostar goes or connects".[64] The barge went under Tower Bridge,[65] past the Houses of Parliament and moored beside the museum-warship HMS Belfast.[66]

At the beginning of August 2015, ex North of London powercar 373308 was added to the national collection put on display at the National Railway Museum in York.[29]

In 1995 Hornby Railways launched its first version of the Eurostar in HO gauge which can be extended from 4 to 6 cars,[67] while Kato have produced it in N gauge which can be extended from 8 to the full 20 cars. Both manufacturers have made versions in the original and new e300 liveries. Hornby Railways then produced a OO gauge train pack model which was released in October 1996 which again can be extended from 4 cars to 6 cars.[68] Hornby Railways released its first OO Gauge train set of the BR Class 373 Eurostar in 1997.[69]

• Marsden, Colin J. (2011). Traction Recognition (2nd ed.). Ian Allan. ISBN 978-0-7110-3494-5.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)