Night Riviera - merged posts, ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[TaplowGreen]

Ouch.........nice lie-in for some I guess.


23:45 London Paddington to Penzance due 07:53

This train has been delayed from London Paddington and is now 205 minutes late.
This is due to a train fault.

[Adelante_CCT]

Only an hour late in the end

[TaplowGreen]

Yes I saw that it had made up time, missed out most of the smaller Cornish stations too which helped - any idea what the problem was?

[JayMac]

There was a defect with one of the sleeper berth carriages. The set had to return empty to Old Oak to shunt out the defective carriage.

Less of a lie-in for passengers, more like very late to bed.

[Kernow Otter]

Yes I saw that it had made up time, missed out most of the smaller Cornish stations too which helped - any idea what the problem was?

Helped who exactly?  Presumably not those who rely on the sleeper stopping at the smaller Cornish Stations to get to work.

[TaplowGreen]

Yes I saw that it had made up time, missed out most of the smaller Cornish stations too which helped - any idea what the problem was?

Helped who exactly?  Presumably not those who rely on the sleeper stopping at the smaller Cornish Stations to get to work.

Sorry I mean it "helped" the sleeper make up time........I should have used inverted commas first time around! 

[JayMac]

Up Sleeper loco failed between Bodmin Parkway and Liskeard last night. 57604 Pendennis Castle was the errant loco.

Back to back HST^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) power cars were sent from Laira to rescue the set. Arrived Liskeard 160 late.

Passengers woken and detrained at Plymouth and transferred to a HST for onward travel to London. Stops at Totnes, Newton Abbot and Taunton were omitted. Arrived Paddington 50 late.

As a consequence of substituting the Up Sleeper with a HST set the 0712 Taunton - London Paddington via stations to Bristol TM^▸ (Train Manager, or Ticket Machine, or Temple Meads (Bristol), depending on context) was cancelled.

[bobm]

As a result the 07:12 from Taunton to London Paddington was cancelled as the HST^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) set had been used for the sleeper.

[LiskeardRich]

Read on Facebook that an electrical fire was the cause.

57605 is also due to return to OOC^▸ (Old Oak Common (depot)) from Derby this week following its refit.

[LiskeardRich]

The up sleeper failed again last night, loss of lighting in the carriages. Currently in platform 7 at Plymouth as at 0615 this morning. Believe passengers got a HST^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) again.

[Adelante_CCT]

Which once again appears to have affected the 07:12 from Taunton

[TaplowGreen]

The up sleeper failed again last night, loss of lighting in the carriages. Currently in platform 7 at Plymouth as at 0615 this morning. Believe passengers got a HST^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) again.

............that'll be a few more customers choosing to drive/fly from Newquay in future then?

[broadgage]

This is a very poor performance indeed.
Any reasonable person would accept that things go wrong, but it really should not be happening this often.

Is the great re-branding just cosmetic WRT^▸ ('with regard to' ) the sleeper ? or will it include things like engines that can make it all the way regularly.

With the SETs^▸ (Super Express Train (now IET)) soon to replace some of the HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) on daytime services, perhaps it might be worth considering use of HST power cars on the sleeper instead of conventional locomotives.
This is a non trivial alteration on account of the different electrical systems, but it might be worth re wiring sleeper stock so as to utilise 3 phase auxiliary power as produced by HSTs
Having a standard power car at each end would avoid the time taken in detaching and coupling an engine as at present, and would permit of easy reversals en-route when engineering work requires this.

[IndustryInsider]

A costly and short-term solution I'd have thought?  Better to lease/buy some Class 68s, which seem to be settling in quite well on Chiltern?

[broadgage]

A costly and short-term solution I'd have thought?  Better to lease/buy some Class 68s, which seem to be settling in quite well on Chiltern?

Possibly, my suggestion is by no means the only option and yours might be a better choice, doing nothing is not a realistic option.
HST^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) power cars should be affordable when fewer are required for day services, but new 68s might be better still.