Great Western Coffee Shop

I was aiming to get the 16:51 Bristol Parkway to Taunton train earlier. It was cancelled between Cheltenham and Bristol Temple Meads so I jumped on the 16:58 Virgin Voyager to get to Temple Meads. Whilst on the voyager they announced that it would be stopping at Yatton in order to relieve the congestion caused by the First service being short formed. When I arrived at BTM they had a human announcer explaining over the tannoy that the train we were supposed to be catching was currently sat in Saint Phillips Marsh being worked on and would be with us shortly. He also announced that a HST would be stopping at Oldfield Park to relieve overcrowding on the Cardiff to Pompey service. My train appeared about 8 minutes late and the crowd on the platform somehow squeezed on. The guard then got on the PA system and started putting the world to rights!!! Apparently there were another three carriages which they could have prepped and joined on although it would have delayed the train by 10 more minutes. He then stated it wasn't his or any of the train staff's fault as they weren't happy about the overcrowding either.

Do you think this is all orchestrated by the change at the top or simply a one off? I wasn't to upset about the short formation as they were honest about it as opposed to blagging the apology with a recorded message.

Incidentally I think I may have seen a 142 parked on platform 15!!!

You probably did, they are just waiting for their moment to perform!

142.... bring em on.........wonderful bits of kit much better than a maggot {153} any day

Now I understood that a 153 was a "dogbox" which is your handle ... but you don't seem keen on them?

A Dogbox is most definitely a 153 - according to http://ukrailwayfaq.wikispaces.com/Rolling+Stock+Nicknames (http://ukrailwayfaq.wikispaces.com/Rolling+Stock+Nicknames#tocRolling%20Stock%20Nicknames2), anyway ;)

Also; Tin rockets, Scuds................. any other names?

heaps of crap prehaps

Heaps of crap?

Hopefully once they are refurbed they will be much better than they are now. Putting old 158 seats into the 153s was not a good move as they werent suited to 153s. Wessex should have refurbed them a few years ago and FGW should have done them sooner after taking over the franchise whilst they had plenty to hand. Of all the stock inherited from Wessex the 153s were in the worst condition IMHO.

Ooops, didn't notice your post above mine there 'dog box'

Bricks

thats probably the reason no one has taken up the off lease 153s at Eastleigh

Yes I seem to remember seeing somewhere that the four that went off lease were four in the worst condition but I also recall the feeling that it was better to have them back in the state that they were in rather than have short formed trains or in the case of Transwilts just two trains a day.

Don't tell me that they are still down at Eastleigh????? I thought they were heading over to East Anglia to work with ONE. If they are still off lease then FGW should jolly well rehire them to boost capacity.

Are any 158s still down there? I remember earlier in the year seeing a long rake of 158s passing my office window in Central, Wessex and W&B liveries heading north for Northern Trains so assume that they were all that were stored at Eastleigh.

Saw a lovely 153 come in on friday, instead of a 158 all the ways from portsmouth...

oh those lucky passengers!

There are currently no Class 158 units in store at Eastleigh , but there are 4 Class 153 units , these are as follows :

153302
153308
153355
153374

According to Andrew Griffiths , FGW's Regional Manager for the Severn/Solent area , these will be heading for the East Midlands Franchise.

FGW were going to release a further Class 153 unit (the one that currently works Southampton - Westbury shuttle services which will be partially covered by SWT from December) in December 2007 , but , according to Andrew , this unit will now be retained.

Firstly , it will act as cover while "west fleet" refurbishment takes place , and later on it will form extra Falmouth line services (subject to approval) , once the Penryn loop has been completed.

Those "bricks" are off to Northern

The HST's stopping at Keynsham/Oldfield PArk seem to be incresing quite a lot

Apparently , the Class 153 units are due to be moved next weekend , and will work Lincolnshire , Robin Hood line and Notts / Derby - Crewe services.

Thats just a rumour though , so dont hold me to it....

Yes I remember hearing quite a while back that is where they will be heading to that part of the world and was surprised it hadn't happened by now. I guess it was waiting for the new franchise to start this weekend.

I'm informed they moved from Bournemouth depot where they have been for about a fortnight to be readied for use in the Midlands and are moving to Nottingham today / over the weekend. They were en route earlier this afternoon between Southampton and Westbury.