Great Western Coffee Shop

From Rail (http://www.railmagazine.com/news/network/chiltern-plans-longer-trains)

But where would the additional Mk3 coaches come from? FGW has said in the past that it has obtained all the available Mk3 coaches.

Perhaps that was referring more to Mk 3 HST coaches.  Mk3 HST and Mk3 local hauled coaches are not electrically compatible.   

Chiltern might already have access to other Mk3 coaches that are yet to be refurbished for service?

Paul

The Pretendolino rake was withdrawn a few days ago so that releases a handful of serviceable Mk 3s.

Chiltern own at least a dozen Mk3s....sitting at the MOd depot in Kineton.

In a pretty poor state, but yes, they already own them

If I remember correctly Chiltern owns about ten or a dozen loco hauled Mk 3 coaches which are still stored somewhere. (Kineton?) The plan was (is?) to convert them when required with retention toilets and power doors - there are enough to make one new train and extend the others to 6 coaches while still leaving some maintenance spares.

So, strictly, fGW is correct in that they have all the HST Mk 3s which are available at a reasonable price. I think the only spare HST Mk3 coaches are a few catering coaches but these would need some significant, i.e., expensive, work to convert them to seating coaches. Loco-hauled Mk 3s have auxiliary power supplied off the single phase ac/dc ETH supply, the HSTs use a 415v variable frequency three-phase supply off the auxiliary alternator in the power cars so any conversion from loco-hauled to HST is also non trivial.

Perhaps with the 170s they are pinching from TPE, Chiltern will no longer need the Banbury commuter slam-door rake of mrk3s? Those vehicles could then be given the Silver-Set treatment (power doors etc.) to lengthen the existing Silver-Sets.

I'm not sure I should believe this new reason for Chiltern switching to class 68s though. 67s unable to pull more coaches? Maybe I've misread that 67s are used as ECML Thunderbirds (if they can haul a 2+9 IC225 or IC125 set, they should be able to shift 8 mark 3s and a DVT). I thought when it was first announced Chiltern's reason for wanting 68s was improved fuel ecconomy compared to 67s. Maybe a 68 can out-accelerate a 67 though.

i understand from fairly reliable sources that the general concensus is that a 67 couldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding and are very sluggish accelerating.

Yes, but even more importantly they are very unreliable.  When you rely on just one power source for a train it causes huge problems when there's a failure - one of the main benefits modern units have over loco hauled trains.

Chiltern will no doubt be hoping for much better reliability from their 68s.

Strictly speaking, they're not pinching them. They completed a contract with TPE, and were leased from the end of that contract by Chiltern, prior to TPE being able to re-contract them past their then franchise end date...Chiltern did nowt wrong, the DfT didn't move quick enough to assist TPE in releasing them.