INTRO: Ralf Roman Rossberg saw the first of 59 ICE1 trainsets being refurbished in DB's Nürnberg workshops where a €180m project to rejuvenate the fleet is getting underway
SINCE the first ICE1 trainsets entered service in a blaze of publicity in 1991, each set has clocked up an average of 7 million km on Germany's prime inter-city routes. DB considers the 59 trains to be in relatively good condition, and all sets are to undergo a mid-life refurbishment so that they can remain in front-line service for another 10 to 15 years.
DB picked its main workshops in Nürnberg for the refurbishment programme, and Director Dietmar Pötzsch says that alternatives included acquisition of new trains or refurbishment by an external contractor.
Staff in Nürnberg are quite familiar with the ICE1 fleet as the trains have been maintained there from the outset. Now the opportunity is being taken to combine refurbishment with a major overhaul. DB had in fact considered closing or selling off the Nürnberg site, but its future is now assured. Indeed, the shops have been re-equipped with new tools, and staff will enjoy better working conditions thanks to rebuilding to allow them to use more natural light.
The €180m project covers 118 power cars and 708 trailers, all of which will be completely stripped - each vehicle contains around 12000 individual parts. When the trains were built, not all suppliers appreciated the need for exchangeable modules. This means that in many cases individual components will need to be reinstalled in precisely the same location, incurring high costs in terms of logistics as the parts progress through cleaning, reconditioning and temporary storage, says Pötzsch.
Car interiors will receive many new components, including seats, tables, carpets and electronic seat reservation displays. The number of seats will be increased, although not at the price of less legroom as a slimmer seat design from Grammer will be used.
The refurbishment programme includes refitting the restaurant cars - those who bemoaned recent cutbacks in on-board catering in Germany will be pleased to know that 'no further reduction in dining car services is planned for long-distance trains'. Audio and seat-back videos, on the other hand, are being dropped as take-up of these facilities was low. But all seats on the refurbished ICE1 fleet will have laptop sockets.
Power cars
Major work is to be carried out on the power cars, including replacement of the bogie frames. Braking equipment will be updated with the latest wheelslide prevention and changes to the software. The auxiliary power supply for the train air-conditioning is also being updated.
The first ICE1 set is now being fitted out as a prototype in Nürnberg. P?€?tzsch says that 'this is giving us good experience and helping us to gain the knowledge needed to refit the rest of the fleet.' Test running began at the end of June, initially with only fitters and engineers on board. From mid-July trials with passengers were due to take place 'to give them a foretaste of the refitted trains' according to Pötzsch.
Work on the rest of the fleet will begin in the autumn with two trains being dealt with at a time. The refit and overhaul takes five weeks per set.
All 59 refurbished trains are due back in service by December 2008. The fleet will be reformed so that each set has four first class cars, a restaurant car and seven second class cars - at the moment some sets have only 11 cars. They will be diagrammed to run 500000 km a year.
CAPTION: New seats await installation in the first refurbished ICE1 trainset at Nürnberg
