Great Western Coffee Shop

I thought this had been mentioned elsewhere, but cannot find it.  UK Railtours, in conjunction with GWR is running The Tarka Explorer from London Paddington to Barnstaple on Sunday, 17th April.

I will hazard a guess that it will be GWR's 'Green One' and it is as good as sold out. Timings are as follows...........

1Z17 0837 London Paddington to Barnstaple (http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/V93962/2016/04/17/advanced)
5Z17 1229 Barnstaple to Exeter New Yard (http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/V94025/2016/04/17/advanced)
5Z18 1506 Exeter New Yard to Barnstaple (http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/V94027/2016/04/17/advanced)
1Z18 1625 Barnstaple to London Paddington (http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/V93963/2016/04/17/advanced)

For single line pathing reasons, the empty stock has to return to Exeter whilst the tour visits Woody Bay, so anybody wishing to photograph an HST on the Tarka Line, you will have four opportunities during this tour.

[mods, if this already has a separate thread, please just merge this in, edited to show the confirmed timings please]

Struggled to find it via Google. Because the name is actually The Tarka Tourer.  ;)

http://www.ukrailtours.com/product/the-tarka-tourer-125-special/

Is there much to see or do in Barnstaple on a Sunday afternoon?

Most pax are participating in the included coach trip to Woody Bay and the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway, so, "Yes"

Thanks Phil, unfortunately the Woody Bay excursion is fully booked. I'm travelling on the HST so looking forward to a good day out.

I would have been on it if it went the proper way!

It's surprising that there is no mention of this on the Tarka Rail website, as it would have been a bit of good publicity for the line, even if locals didn't have the opportunity to use it.  Having said that, the website hasn't been updated since June last year, which is starting to reflect somewhat poorly on the association.

Well I hope the return trip keeps to time as I will be on a train that is scheduled to overtake it at Newbury ::) :P

Apologies Rob, I hadn't realised you had asked the question as you were actually travelling. The answer is still 'Yes'. If you are up for it, I would recommend a walk along the Tarka Trail from Barnstaple station.

Apparently not - just a common or garden FGW blue one  :-[

.........interesting that we're often told that there are no spare sets for more capacity/services as they are all either in use or in for regular maintenance, and that regular services are being cancelled due to staff shortages........... this (along with staff jollies) however appears to be exception?

Sunday's I believe are the exception for stock availability. I haven't seen any HSTs cancelled due to lack of staff, all seem to be dmu units that cancel.

That being the case, I look forward to extra regular HST services being run from the Westcountry to London on Sundays, as someone who uses these regularly from Plymouth they are hugely and often dangerously overcrowded, and will definitely be so today as the school holidays come to an end - the response I always see when the request is made to GWR for more of these services is along the lines of all stock is being fully utilised..............maybe I should offer large amounts of cash to charter a set and it will magically materialise......all aboard the Plymouth - Taplow express!!!  :D

Am I the only one to feel this is a very mean spirited comment. Can GWR do nothing right in your eyes? I think most of us with an interest in railways would welcome their cooperation in making a set (and presumably crew) available. They have also run charity specials, leased a set to the Cotswold Line Promotion Group now and again, and, yes, very occasionally given some of their staff a day out, which I would encourage in terms of trying to make employees proud and happy to be part of the business. Not to mention initiatives such as the Weymouth Wizard and encouraging its use last summer.

I'm not aware of any events today that are putting pressure on the network that might warrant an additional service, so I for one am delighted that GWR have made a set available for this special.

.....and telling customers that there are no spare sets is a very disingenuous comment.This isn't a charity special, it's a commercial charter. As for "pressure on the network". I'd invite you to travel on any HST between Penzance and Paddington after midday today,it may prove enlightening.

Have they actually said that in respect of today?   Which is all that matters as availability will vary from day to day. They did run some additional services on Maundy Thursday, which implies that they can juggle maintenance around to release as many sets as possible when they have to.  Given that many local authorities school holidays finished a week ago, I'm not so sure there will be as much as a peak today as you are suggesting, but like you, I am purely speculating in that regard.

And I know that today's special is a commercial service, which I why I said "they have also run charity specials" to make it clear that I knew today's wasn't.   

It's more the availability of paths that is the problem on a Sunday - and crew in the height of summer and other holiday periods - than availability of HST trains.  A 30-minute interval service to/from Cornwall, South Wales, Bristol and Oxford would be very nice to have on a Sunday, but are impossible to path due to engineering work.  Today, the main lines are blocked between Dolphin Junction (east of Slough) all the way to Paddington.  Usually the main or relief lines are also shut between Didcot and Reading as well on a Sunday, but not today.

When Crossrail opens and electrification are complete then there will be more scope to provide additional trains.  I appreciating that the constant 'jam tomorrow' statements are frustrating, and to trot out a 'stock availability' statement, when that's not strictly true is silly, but it really is difficult to run a more frequent service when long sections of the route are running to a two-track timetable.

As far as I can remember, the only 'staff jollies' in many years were for the GWR launch late last year.  It certainly isn't the regular occurrence that TG's post might suggest.

Plenty of posters visible on Tarka Line stations and locals out in force with cameras. Sadly, the posters give the impression that it would be 'the Green One' and some of the photters at Yeoford and Copplestone expressed their displeasure when your bog standard FGW blue one turned up.

** Edited to add copy of local poster **

They turned the air blue, apparently.  ;)

Thanks for posting that, err, poster, PhilWakely.

It does seem rather disingenuous of GWR to have suggested that the HST would be "an Intercity 125 as shown above" in that poster.  :o

To be fair, the 'author' of the poster is the Tarka Rail Association and not GWR

Fair point.  :-[ :P ::)

No worries Phil, I should have made it clear I was going to be on board. Thanks for your suggestion - I had a very pleasant walk along the Tarka Trail to Fremington Quay!  :)

Well thanks a bunch.  The 'special' left a track circuit failure on behind it at Kintbury and my train behind it (and that was supposed to overtake it at Newbury) was delayed by 12 minutes as a consequence ::) :-[

A video record of said HST on the Branch Line, and at Barnstaple is up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkpA4jiEdm8 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkpA4jiEdm8)

As far as I can find online, there is a 30mph limit for "loco hauled trains" on the Branch, but it looks like it's going a bit faster than that in a few of those clips?

HST - 'Loco hauled' or (D)MU?   ::) ;)

(http://i725.photobucket.com/albums/ww255/PhilWakely/Untitled4_zpsncutnckq.jpg)

AIUI, DMU on speed restriction signs does include HSTs, (shown as Class 253/254 in the rule book) as long as they have at least three coaches.

On the other hand HST includes loads of DMUs that are not actually HSTs, including such as Voyagers.

Paul

An alternative differential permissible speed board has 'SP' denoting 'Sprinter'. There are many variant differential speed boards though.

The Sectional Appendix has the following to say about differential permissible speed boards:


Which rather suggests, as paul7755 said, that GWR HSTs of the usual normal 2+8 length, as was the case with the Tarka Tourer, are permitted to travel at the MU speeds indicated on the Tarka Line.

Some very good filming there - well worth watching!  ;) :D ;D

Normally a reader rather than a contributor, I felt it necessary to comment on certain points raised on this subject. The mini posters put up a stations on the Tarka line were not meant to be a definitive statement as to which set would be used on the tour, although we were hopeful that it would be the green set, considering GWR's involvement, simply a way to advise people of the timings.

Unfortunately, with all the preparations that were necessary prior to the tour the TRA missed updating the website but did endeavour to fully publicise the event locally via press releases and radio interviews. We are pleased that so many people turned out for such a unique event, and we found it a really successful day. Hopefully to be repeated at some future date.

One could certainly see why some did think the Green 'Un was scheduled, the wording did suggest it?

The names given to the differential linespeeds aren't actually particularly meaningful. According to one of the sectional appendix documents I've downloaded from the Network Rail website; as well as IC125s with at least 3 coaches being permitted to run at MU linespeeds, class 185s and 390s aren't allowed to run at MU speeds and Sprinters aren't the only units allowed to run at SP (Sprinter) linespeeds, classes 165, 166, 168, 170, 171 and 172 are also permitted.

As you say, some trains which are not HSTs are permitted to use HST differentials, namely: 158s, 159s, 168s, 170s, 171s, 172s and 175s. Although most pepole on here seem to use 'HST' to mean trains formed of mark 3 coaches with a class 43 at each end, Voyagers (and class 180s) are technically HSTs the definition (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-speed_rail#Definitions) being that "Rolling stock must have a minimum[clarification needed] speed of at least 200 km/h (124 mph) to be considered high speed". That's why I try to remember to refer to 'trains formed of two class 43s sandwiching mark 3 coaches' as IC125s (INTERCITY 125s), as that unambiguiously refers to that type of train. The IC225s (INTERCITY 225s) on the east coast main line are capable of at least 125mph (the locos at least are still 140mph capable according to their data panels, I keep forgetting to check the coaches) are also HSTs, as are the class 373s on HighSpeed 1 of course.

Hi SandTEngineer, I was on the Tarka Tourer and we were wondering where you got to at Newbury and left before you! Out of interest I was wondering what is a track circuit failure, and how is it rectified?