Hi Does anyone else have an issue where the 350 dumps the parking brake in below 3mph (I'm assuming its the parking brake) or am I missing something I used to be a SC on them and can assure you its not an issue in real life. The 350s were very smooth at stopping Many thanks Mark
I want to ask the same question, can't seem to keep the train moving at a speed slower than 5 kph (3 mph). Quite painful when aiming to couple lightly and smoothly. Also I noticed there's a low speed button but it doesn't seem to work
It isn't the parking brake per se, but all Desiro units (AFAIK), so Class 700, 350, 450, 380 + whatever apply a step 2 brake application when the train comes to a stand. I have heard people in railway circles complaining about how it makes coupling/ coming to a smooth stop difficult as the train will just dump its brakes when crawling. As for why this is a feature, I don't know. But it does feel unnaturally strong on the class 350. Again, my knowledge on these units isn't the greatest, but I think the low speed button reduces power output to the wheels. but someone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
I was on a Class 350 last week and the sudden stop nearly made me fall over. I was stood by the doors waiting to get off but not holding any handrail and the train was smoothly decelerating when all of a sudden BLAM a big jolt as we stopped in an instant from about 3 or 4 mph. I should have known it was coming. It caught my wife out too.
I have a feeling the brakes of the WCML 350s are a little bit on the strong side, maybe that's the reason the brake holding feels so jerky. 20% braking gives me a feeling of a notch two brake, and 30% at 3 (instead of full service 100% at notch 3) Goes like 10% - 20% - 30% instead of 33% - 66% - 100% If this is the case, the step 2 holding brake shouldn't be 66% but 20% instead, and I guess this will be way smoother. I haven't taken a 350 IRL, but I assume the feature is there, just it's way stronger than IRL in the TSW
