The rolling stock refurbishment project for the class 377 for Southern railway started in 2011, and was completed in early 2015.
This project gave ABTS the chance to undertake another major rolling stock refurbishment project. This project consists of 187-units, with each unit consisting predominantly of 4 cars per unit.
ABTS refurbished a vast majority of the internal areas of the class 377 trains, these areas include; vestibule gangway (including first class), operators cab and toilet areas.
Below are just a few examples of work in which ABTS undertook for this project;
- Seat grab handles
- Armrests
- Vestibule grab handles & grab poles
- Luggage racks
- Floor chair profiles etc.
- Machining of vestibule grab pole âTâ fixings
- Fabrication of various kicking strips
- Repair and rebuild of grab handles/poles
- Clearing dado panels (removing all existing covering and adhesives)
With the significant size of this project and the tight lead times, ABTS recruited more staff members to contribute to the completion of the works required. From the start of the project, ABTS was dedicated in working very closely with Southern Railway to meet their requirements on both quality and turn-around times. ABTS did so on both, and this enabled each unit to be completed and delivered to Southern railway within 3 days. This was a significant improvement from the agreed 5 days turn around established on the earlier units.