Future railway engineers studying in Enfield now have a full-size replica DLR carriage to work with.
The carriage made an 11-mile journey on the back of a flatbed articulated lorry from the TfL depot in Ilford to the London Rail Academy’s Enfield Centre on 19th December. The 15m long carriage will help provide practical training for students and apprentices at the academy.
(c) CONEL
The carriage is a wooden replica of an actual DLR carriage, which was made by Spanish transport engineering manufacturer Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) for the launch of a new fleet of 43 DLR trains that are due to come into service in 2023.
The London Rail Academy is part of the College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London (CONEL).
Barry Connelly, Strategic Adviser for Engineering Development at CONEL, said: “The carriage was specifically built to promote the new DLR rolling stock to the rail industry in September 2020. Over the past few months I worked with TfL to reach an agreement to adopt the carriage and install it at the London Rail Academy to improve the learning experience for our students.”
A temporary shelter has been built to house the carriage until a more permanent engineering shed is constructed on the site.
Engineering UK estimates there is an annual shortfall of between 37,000 to 59,000 in core engineering roles despite an annual demand of 124,000 jobs and says it is essential that more young people study STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects.
Nice to see the DLR train painted in the DLR colour, complete with the one-third white stripe!
What do you mean by ‘one third white stripe’ sorry to be a pain?
Shame we don’t make trains here anymore and even have to import replica ones.
What about all the trains made in Derby and the ones soon to be made on Goole?
I read a comment on a previous article re the contract for these trains that they will be built in Newport.
As CAF have won contract to manufacture the new DLR light rail stocks. They could continue with manufacturing the new London Underground tube stocks to replace the ageing tube stocks on the Bakerloo Line and new tube stocks for the Central Line and Waterloo & City Line. With Siemens who won the contract to build new Inspiro tube stocks for the Piccadilly Line which is scheduled to enter service from 2024/25 or 2026?