Comparison of trains in Birmingham 

Beno, I just want to say thank you sooooo much! For making my childhood the best it could be with your videos. Keep it up, your the best! You’re the reason I love lifts! Thanks!

Safety break the trains

Brilliant video, nice (and unexpected) to see you up in the WM. Bonus points for starting with the best train we have!

-I find it funny and pretty strange that the 323 would have it's GTOs replaced with IGBTs that sound exactly the same, because IGBTs are seen as the more "power consumption-friendly" option compared to the GTOs, but leaving the same exact sound of the GTOs that they're replacing feels very weird, AFAIK i've never heard of any other such case anywhere. -Pendolinos may be boring (well, it's Alstom we're talking about) but that hasn't been always the case. If you look up at older Pendolinos (when they were made by FIAT Ferroviaria, basically Italians) like the ETR 450s and 460s, they looked much better and had much more character, and that was before it became a phenomena across Europe. And the tilting thing is made to take corners at very high speeds, by tilting the carriage while the bogies remain on track, so the track doesn't get damaged by the train-wheel dents and that the train itself wouldn't derail. On Hitachi trains it isn't a thing because from what I've seen in the UK the speed isn't high enough to implement tilting in the first place because there aren't that many high-speed sections, unlike in the rest of Europe. But Pendolinos have it included anyway because they gotta keep true to the nature of the train name.

Nice video a collection of trains/transit modes.

The 323 is the absolute best. But hearing the resistor braking on the Voyager is not bad either.

Class 323 such an amazing sound, I miss hearing them.

Honestly, I didn’t know that about the 323, I thought they just always had the same GTOs - It’s nice that they kept the unique sound! If you didn’t know, they’re due to be replaced in Birmingham with yet more aventras soon, and said 323s are coming to join our ones in the north to get rid of our old ex Thameslink 319s. I do agree with you on the T69s, They were lovely, 6 of them still exist and are stored at long marston, apparently 2 are due to go to a museum at some point? I’m not quite sure. As for the turbostars, I quite like them - Fun fact that you likley didn’t know, the 168/3 subclass are actually the old Transpennine Express Class 170s modified with a new coupler, so it’s pretty cool! As for sprinters, I really like the 153s, and think they sound great, where as the TFW 158s do actually sound quite boring, but, the ScotRail and Northern 158s sound pretty good actually, as they have different engines. The pendolinos are decent enough from a passenger point of view, same with the refurbished Avanti voyagers, but the CrossCountry ones are beyond awful. I hate them. Honestly, the Parry People Mover doesn’t need to go fast when it’s on a branch line with a 20mph speed limit, they’re quite unique really, so rather interesting, as for your comment on locohauled sets, that is very much not the case, they’re some of the most comfortable trains you could take between Birmingham and London, and for a absolute steal of a price normally too, plus, 68s sound great - It’s a shame they removed the drop light windows that you could open, because 68s sound great from right behind them.

Aaah class 323 and the old trams❤️ when I was young I saw the 323 and the trams had ‘Centro’ written on them, I thought the tram was a baby 323!

15:46 it's called a "Gangway Corridor"

Great video. ☺️

You should come to Glasgow and do this quickly before the old Subway trains are gone

Good to see some videos about birmingham cus thats where i live

I have a former classmate who lives in Birmingham now, really envy the trains he gets to see daily, stark improvement over the boring MTR trains we have here XD.

10:48, The T69 type trams (the ones in this video) were newer than both the Alsado Breda T68 and T68a type trams. I dont know if the T69 and T68a had the same type of pulsing but i presume it did.

Roddy Wallford: Wow, nice train! Part of the Centro, but now looks so different, isn't? Cool video thought! 😎👍

Nice video, love your channel. Are you planning to create footage of the new Elizabeth Line in London, and the trains? The stations in particular are stunning to look at, and there is a lot to explore!

Great video

I love the class 323. I have a choice between that and the class 350 from Lichfield Trent Valley Station to get into Birmingham. The class 350 is o the lower line with the pendilinos and the class 323 is on the upper line. Pretty boring station apart from that unfortunately.

24:06 casually just opening the guards panel lmao

gotta love a class 172 with a 'regular' gearbox, they sound ace tbf

Those 323s sound very similar to the M100 trains in Helsinki, Finland. Like the 323s, the M100s have very primitive VF drives that only have pattern pulsing. Unfortunantly, the M100s will be decomissioned when the system gets automated, as they are "not eligable for automation".

My favorite of these is the Class 323. It has an amazing VVVF drive.

Always described the 350 as the house alarm

I do admit, loco hauled trains can be a bit meh, but I like the looks and sounds of the class 68 and the DVTs. The 68s have an interesting acceleration, while the DVTs have multi-tone horns. Multiple units are better for a lot of things, but railways *did* get their start with locos and coaches/wagons.

Nice video, on regards of when the 323s had the VF drives changed, the reason which the system sinulates the older verison was due to safety case

They’d keep the VF drive pulsing the same for driver familiarity I presume. Drivers learn the speed of the train and how it correlated to noise just by pure exposure to it. Good for knowing if you have wheelslip or not.

The pendolinos are my true fav! I love their motor and also, "their smell of wee" but I respect your opinion.

The class 323's are brilliant trains. Also how can you not like the Pendolino's? They are brilliant. Also loco hauled trains are propper trains.

28:00 ohhhh! How disappointing. It used to play such awesome corporate style music in the trains :D

25:06 I'm a bit confused here since the first train would of been a loco hauling some carriages, so technically that is a proper train. I do like the aspects of Multiple Units being able to sit the motor coach however. And the very good sounds that come from 90's EMU's Annoyingly due to some stupid twats getting their head decapitated you can't open the door windows on the Mark 3 anymore to listen to the HST. But even then the MTU were quite boring to me. The Valenta Paxman sounded amazing though. Glad to hear 125 Group are bringing it back in a real HST.

323 sounds robotic when they stop

West Midlands railway have the best trains

The West Midlands Railway Class 323 does have such incredible and brilliant traction motors which sounds so amazing to hear. But unfortunately they are to be replaced by the Class 730 later this year or next year on the Cross-City Line.

3:12 slow train

Pause at 25:44 There is an original MK3 slam door.

You missed the class 43 hst, do they still do those at Birmingham?

what do you mean the class 158 is boring and not very exciting are you crazy????

Nice trains

Trains are good

The modelling of the newer 323 drive is to allow it to interact with the other legacy systems without complete system retesting - tl:dr grandfathering \m/

why did you put yourself through the hell that is Birmingham lol

Honesty i cant fathom why some modern trains are so quiet with regards to VF drive. No ones gonna have a seizure if they hear motor /gearbox whines, they can actually be quite nice for acceleration ambience. This is an example of where british specifications go overboard. Im glad trains like the class 331s are loud and CAF didmt give a shit about making them quiet..thank you CAF. we needed a modern train with some sort of interesting sound's. Aventras are dogshit when it comes to VF /motor/gearbox sounds honestly.

CAF Urbos 3 in Birmingham?????

Trains Station 🚉

24:40 this sprinter sounds like it's electric or is it just me

hey austin this is guys

How would you make the 390s more interesting?