1996TS Door Pillars?

[phoenixcronin]

Earlier today I got on a 96TS and glanced at the doors and something looked weird, and eventually I figured out that the door pillars on this particular car (96481) were different to what I was used to seeing. They had a "lip" on the edge next to the door, had a lock/keyhole in the upper section and the door close buttons seemed reversed, with the button at the bottom and the little grille at the top. For some reason I was unable to post some pictures so here are the links:

The weird one: www.flickr.com/photos/136409887@N08/23306015085/in/photolist-Btbn2d-B4maCj-Ay482Z-Bvtqji

The normal one: www.flickr.com/photos/136409887@N08/22678866983/in/photolist-Btbn2d-B4maCj-Ay482Z-Bvtqji/

All of the pillars on 96481 were like this, but both the adjacent trailer and UNDM were normal.

Any idea what this is?

[rincew1nd]

I'm no stock expert, but isn't one car in the 96ts a "special" trailer - built after the rest of the train.

[phoenixcronin]

Yes but that would be the 966xx or 967xx car, and neither of the cars in the pictures were special trailers.

[Deleted]

I've seen the upside down door open buttons as well, extra trailers were ordered to make all trains 7 cars long as well as 4 (I think) complete trains, the best way to tell the difference between the original cars and the new ones is the old ones have red DMI the new ones have yellow.

[Deleted]

Arn't there some full trains built in 2005 too? They carried the original moquette pattern for longer. I think they might retain the purple armrests but i'm not sure about that

[Deleted]

Yes, I did say that in my reply above.

[phoenixcronin]

All true but I don't think these door pillars have anything to do with either the Special Trailers or the new 2005 builds as I found them on an old (not 2005) UNDM, and only on a single car.

[Chris M]

If you look closely, the lock/key hole is not additional but moved to eye level from just above ankle level. The door close button seems to be at the same hight so that would suggest the mechanism has not changed. I can't help regarding the why though.

[t697]

The first 6 (if I recall correctly) trains had the 'weird' type door pillar trims. Then after a bit of value engineering the rest have the other type. The de-icing trains were delivered about every 4th train which is why 96079/80 and 96081/82 will have the weird pillars. The others will be 96001/96002 to 96007/96008 I think. The 7th car in these 'weird' trains will have the standard type.

Of course generally each of these 3 or 4 car units will be coupled to some other unit than the original 'train' one. I think the OP's observation of the adjacent UNDM and trailer must both be in the other unit coupled to 81's that day.