Great Western Coffee Shop

Hello all, can't believe I haven't registered on here before!  Regular GWR passenger so feel I can add...

I have a blog https://themaninthequietcoach.com/ (https://themaninthequietcoach.com/) which some may find amusing, frequent rambles and grumbles about GWR.

Just glad I didn't decide to go to London today!

Happy travelling

Welcome - delighted you've joined ... indeed you can add as do other passengers.  After all we're a forum for passengers (though delighted to have industry professionals and wannabe passengers posting too).

Was reading your A73 blog post ... I've sometimes found that to be the last seat in the train available and a quiet corner to collapse into - though personally I take a gamble on priority seats with the extra legroom for much of the time.   A73 and middle-of-three in 3+2 seating trains indeed seem to be the last-taken naughty seat!

Thank you Grahame

Seats A01-08 are certainly my preference on an HST being one of some considerable height!  A73 is next best unless the Guard is busy having a raucous conversation with a friend...

Welcome to the forum; had a few chuckles reading your blog!

Sat in a GWR tombstone seat recently. Reminded me how really claustrophobic/sick they can make me (I tend to take the aisle seat and try and look down the length of the carriage).

Didn't have the same experience on a XC HST (similar seating?), but then I was just gawping at the sea around Dawlish.

No, the XC HST's have nice seating..... quite a pleasure to travel in..

Welcome to the forum.  What do you make of the new IET seating and general layout?

This is written from set 800008 on the 0712 TAU-PAD so a live review if you like...  in summary, I think they are very impressive units; great performance on electric and better than I expected on diesel. Certainly a massive improvement on a Voyager.

The layout is bright and airy, makes a GW HST feel horribly cramped by comparison (but then, that is because they are horribly cramped), with an impressive amount of leg-room. That's the upsides.

The (massive) downside is the incredibly uncomfortable seating; I normally travel BRI-PAD and have found that the back-ache normally kicks in by Bath. I find the seat a strange shape (reminds me of the Astra GTe I owned in 1990) and the lack of padding makes it feel like I'm sitting on an ironing board. I now arrive at Paddington in quite some discomfort.

Sadly, I feel this is an opportunity missed....

I came across this via Twitter
https://themaninthequietcoach.com/2018/01/10/the-really-special-seat/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

An amusing account of you own journey I presume

Only amusing if you don't get allocated that seat!  I have yet to try the IET and will be very miffed if I ended up in one of those. Nice bit of sarcasm though.   ;D

The original layouts show five pairs of standard class seats that are similarly unenlightened - has anyone yet come across those?

Just to recap where those windows went, using this picture of SandTEngineer's - one of few that shows the middle of the train.

The ends of the 26 m carriages are tapered off to thread them through curved platforms, and - to limit the stepping distance - the doors have to move in from the ends as well. The pocket for the doors to slide into thus goes towards the centre, where the side wall is flat, with no windows there or on the other, slanted, side. Now none of those design choices is absolutely dictated, but as a designer you wouldn't do things the difficult way unless someone gave you a strong reason to.

The ends are occupied only by storage and toilets (plus a baby change room - important if you suffer from wrong baby syndrome). But while some of the passenger cabin ends by the doors are also storage, half of them end up with seats.

Thank you - thankfully not but decided to have a nose around FC and was rather horrified to find that seat.....