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News: the Great Western Coffee Shop ... keeping you up to date with travel around the South West
 
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76  Journey by Journey / London to the West / Re: New trains for the South West - announcement. on: August 28, 2015, 19:08:33
I'm assuming the AT300s are going to be salt water resistant? Shocked
77  Journey by Journey / London to South Wales / Re: Electric to Swansea - this decade, or next? on: August 28, 2015, 18:53:23
When the wires do reach Swansea, are there any plans to have standby locos along the Paddington to Swansea route? In a similar fashion to West Coast 57s East Coast 67s and Anglia 47s, or am I just fantasizing? Shocked
78  Journey by Journey / London to the West / Re: New trains for the South West - announcement. on: August 22, 2015, 22:02:44
Thus, when it was intended to retain IC125s for the Plymouth/Penzance route, there was some hope that the FirstGW/GWR (Great Western Railway) would continue to provide the Pembroke Coast Express. The AT300 order means no IC125s will now be retained by the GW (Great Western) franchise, meaning FirstGW/GWR will have no rolling stock capable of operating the service.

Whilst Pembroke Dock may well sadly join the list of resorts such as Great Yarmouth that no longer have a through summer service to London. I can still see FirstGW/GWR retaining at least a handful of HSTs (High Speed Train) to help out the bimodes on London to West Country services, particularly in the summer months, in a similar fashion to the way HSTs are employed with Cross Country.
In particular, London services through Cornwall can get pretty full of people, luggage and surfboards etc, especially in the summer months and having some HSTs would arguably be a sensible addition.

In terms of the improved timings that the bimodes can bring, I wonder if we'll see any of the timings that we had in the early 1990's when some services were booked to do Paddington to Penzance in around 4 hours 40 minutes.

 Shocked
79  Journey by Journey / London to the West / Delays Sat 8th August on: August 08, 2015, 21:51:32
Did the 11.00 PZ - PD Throughout today. A few minutes delay at Liskeard whilst police boarded to look for someone and then a further 25 minutes delay at Plymouth whilst the following 11.30 Newquay - Pad arrived and then departed in front and then the 13.25 cross country service departed in front. I guess FGW (First Great Western) decided that making one train late was a better option than making 3 trains slightly late.
Arrival in Paddington was 22 minutes late, interestingly not one of the PA (Public Address) announcements on board made any reference at all to the train being late. I guess FGW decided that:
A.) Passengers who knew how late the train was, knew it was late.
B.) Passengers who didn't realise how late the train was, probably didn't need to know.
Handily the 11.00 PZ - Pad had quite a bit of space on it towards Reading & London because it was now behind the 11.30 Newquay - Pad.  Shocked
80  All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: A look forward in the South West? on: July 18, 2015, 22:35:27
To be honest, I can^t see bi-modes being used on Services to the Southwest for the foreseeable future, not until more of the route is electrified.
In short I can see HSTs (High Speed Train) being retained for Southwest Services ^ and, in this context, by Southwest services I mean Pad ^ Westbury/Frome/Taunton/Exeter/Paignton/Plymouth/Newquay/Penzance services. (For the current summer timetable this would require about 20 HST sets)

Plus with the current political backtracking I doubt that there will barely be enough bi-modes to work Pad ^ Worc/Great Malvern/Hereford/Cheltenham/Weston^super-Mare/Carmarthen/Pembroke Dock Services.

Another problem is that bi-modes, if they^re limited to 100mph, they cannot reach the 110mph line speed on the Newbury ^ Westbury route and the Uphill Junction ^ Taunton route, therefore I cannot see them being introduced until a time when more of the route is electrified.

In any case, with some exceptions, total fleet replacement is not as good an idea as partial fleet replacement. Partial fleet replacement means that you have plenty of spares for the remaining fleet. Therefore I don^t think that leaving HSTs on West Country services is such a bad thing (plus all the other advantages an HST has).

I remember the last years of loco-hauled on the Exeter ^ Waterloo line where everything was seemingly deliberately run down, partly to make the new units look better. Good locos were withdrawn and sold and locos in poorer condition were left to carry on with not enough maintenance. Also more modern Air con stock was deliberately kept off the line, despite being available, (with the exception of first class vehicles mind you, it was ok to upgrade first class vehicles to air con stock!). I also seem to remember the micro-buffets disappearing from this route around the same time.

One final note about buffets is that they^re useful normally and a god-send when a train is delayed. If you get stuck on a train somewhere, knowing that you can walk down to the buffet for refreshments makes a lot of difference.  Shocked
81  All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: Problems with the Night Riviera sleeper - December 2014 onwards on: April 18, 2015, 00:03:42
I don't know if it is usual practice but yesterday they had a driver each end which saved time at the turn rounds.
Thats done quite often (mostly in the summer months) as due to the crowds on the platform and getting off the train at St.Ives it would be impossible for the driver to reach the other end in the short turnaround time Wink

Is the limit up to 4 carriages max due the length of lelant and carbis bay platforms cus I've only ever seen 4 carriages

I can only find up to 4 carriages in pictures on Flickr, except this 2+11 in 1995. Some kind of charter I guess.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/25025911@N08/16311972734/in/photolist-8xikzn-qX6DVc-gpNSQG-atcTvm-8nH4Dv-pkzQus-75aH35-pVgnqC-atcTXy-onyd3F-756LcH-qExiKC-qEDe7B-qEDeKk-rL99mA-6Sqm9p-p68tx4-p681kG-4ou7gw-8ReefG-aiojVE-g8wT8W-75awqw-djDtkt-75ati5-756ydc-pnBunM-p68j2S-pnkgpF-adBz1X-qRr8cd-pkrxBi-fCauVU-75at6d-75aCch-75aBYh-9uaaxS-pnk3LK-pnAgmL-p689pg-p68sr9-p68sHt-p689bF-g8vThT-ehbXMH-fpbLe5-q1j13R-qEEWTt-8xzYFt-fzD9Qu/

For most of the eighties the St Ives tended to be a pair of 'Heritage units' in the summer which meant you could get either 2+2 or 2+3 or 3+3 carriage formations. (mind you platform lengths weren't such an issue in those days) Shocked
82  All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: Problems with the Night Riviera sleeper - December 2014 onwards on: April 17, 2015, 23:58:20
just look at some of the sleeper and motorail services that run in Continental Europe, some of which change gauge on route.

There are no gauge changing sleeper or motorail services in Europe.

Sleeper and motorail services in Europe have been drastically cut in the last few years.
Apologies, my knowledge of European services is a couple of years out of date.
83  All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: Problems with the Night Riviera sleeper - December 2014 onwards on: April 12, 2015, 19:10:26
According to the following link, Great Western Trains ran the Sleeper to and from Waterloo from May 1995 to September 1998.

http://www.avoe05.dsl.pipex.com/Sheepcote%20Lane%20curve.htm

Things were very different 20 years ago.

I believe that the idea of sending the sleeper into Waterloo was partly to connect with Waterloo Eurostar services. About this time there was also a proposed Plymouth to Paris sleeper, remember that?
Arguably there is an untapped market for sleeper and motorail services from London to destinations across Europe and even Asia, just look at some of the sleeper and motorail services that run in Continental Europe, some of which change gauge on route. But I'm going off topic a bit here!  Shocked   
84  All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Paddington Turnarounds on: March 23, 2015, 02:56:31
Anyone any idea what the average turnaround time for an HST (High Speed Train) is at Paddington these days? Are there any particularly tight turnarounds?

85  All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: Problems with the Night Riviera sleeper - December 2014 onwards on: March 23, 2015, 02:53:33
Loco failed now a hst when it arrives

Oh dear!
Did do you have to wait for an incoming HST (High Speed Train) to arrive to form the replacement or did they use one off Longrock? Longrock should have three HSTs on a Sunday prior to the sleepers departure time, with a further two arriving later.  Shocked

Km
86  Journey by Journey / Plymouth and Cornwall / Re: Platform Extensions on: March 22, 2015, 19:38:01
We've already got a thread on this topic.    For link see:-

    www.greatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?=150

This link doesn't appear to work? Shocked
87  Journey by Journey / Plymouth and Cornwall / Re: Engineering work on the Falmouth branch 24th/25th January on: March 16, 2015, 10:37:54


Better that, than the alternative rather awful incident: see http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=14272.0  Shocked

I believe that the loco involved in this tragic incident was a class 22
88  Journey by Journey / Plymouth and Cornwall / Re: Platform Extensions on: March 15, 2015, 22:56:58
I would tend to agree regarding Redruth and Camborne, I would suggest that Hayle has some room at the east end of the up and down platforms. Sometimes even a small extension can make a bit of a difference, even if it doesn't get rid of the problem altogether. Shocked
89  Journey by Journey / Plymouth and Cornwall / Re: Engineering work on the Falmouth branch 24th/25th January on: March 15, 2015, 22:49:48
Trains now approach Falmouth Town from the Docks considerably faster.

Better that, than the alternative rather awful incident: see http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=14272.0  Shocked

The gradient at Falmouth Town is the reason why, when Falmouth Docks station was closed for a few years in the early 1970's, units used to run ecs from Falmouth Town to Falmouth Docks and back, as drivers weren't allowed to change ends on the gradient at Falmouth Town so did so at Falmouth Docks.
90  All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: Problems with the Night Riviera sleeper - December 2014 onwards on: March 15, 2015, 22:37:48
Looks like 1C86 1506 Pad to Pnz has hit both of the failed trains on its journey today. Doh!  Roll Eyes

And 1C87 (the 16:06 Pad to Pnz) is now running ahead of it.  Might have been better to wait at Westbury than go round via Bristol, but hindsight is a marvellous thing!

Reminds me of when I was on the 16.06 Pad to PZ in August 2013, it failed at Castle Cary and required fitter attention. Most passengers did a pair of units (2 x 150 I think) on the Weymouth back to Westbury for a following Pad service which was being diverted via Bristol. A few of us stayed on the stricken HST (High Speed Train), eventually a fitter arrived by road from Bristol fixed the problem and we were in Taunton an hour before everyone else Shocked
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